Amongst Them Is Young Girl Reading by Palmer Hayden
Palmer Hayden’s painting, Among Them is Young Girl Reading, portrays that although one may be doing something that is deemed wrong, doesn’t mean that it is. The painting displays a “young girl’ who is reading in an unlikely environment; thus, she is doing something she SHOULDN’T be doing but is unaware or doesn’t care about that. This is shown through the muted colored room, in comparison to her colorful and casual clothing...they don’t seem to match. It’s as if she’s in an adult’s room; I mean, look at that vanity mirror (doesn’t seem to look “childish”). The table in which lays a book and some sort of magazine or picture book she’s holding, has no chairs. Thus, those books were most likely there for displaying purposes; not to be read. The bandana she wears around her head indicates that she was in the midst of doing her chores, perhaps fixing up her mother’s room, but took a break to read instead. Even the title of this painting indicates that she is doing something...secretly. She should be in the process of doing something else instead of reading. However, with the gleeful smile that Hayden painted on her face seems to be an indication that perhaps that act isn’t bad after all.
My painting is named "Trying Tiaras", not just because I fancy alliteration but I think it fits what I'm trying to portray. Visually, I did try to have a similar painting style as Palmer Hayden (although I can't say that I succeeded in that). However, I did have the general "placement" so there is some resemblance. Now, as you can obviously see, there is a young boy standing in front of a vanity mirror which is located in what seems to a female's room. Not only does he seem a bit out of place for standing there, but he's also wearing a tiara. The reason being is because I personally think that it's much more lenient to express yourself, regarding "gender norms". Like, it's not unusal for a human being to do or wear something that isn't within the realm of their gender stereotypes. Regardless of all this, there are still some people out there who would frown at the thought of their son (or some other boy) wearing a tiara. They might even go on a spiel on how "wrong" it is. But, there really isn't anything wrong for someone, regardless of their gender, to wear a tiara. Long story short, if I didn't make myself clear (or if you're just quickly skimming this, thus, missing the point), what I'm trying to show is that any act, as pure as it may be, might be deemed wretched by someone else; but that shouldn't stop you from doing so if it makes you happy.
(Yes, I decided to be cliche by trying to include a somewhat uplifting concluding sentence)