Kattie Iwanski - Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole was an American painter known for his landscape scenes that have environmental messages embedded in the details of the image (Avery, 2009). The painting that I would like to investigate is The Mountain Ford which was crafted two years before Cole’s death (Avery, 2009). This picture consists of a man on a white horse crossing a river while admiring the beautiful environmental view (Avery, 2009). The light above shining down upon the mountain contrasting the dark deaths lie below as the man pauses before entering the frightening unknown, alone (Avery, 2009). This image represents the greatest approach for exploring the glorious intensity of the natural world which entails being solitary, leaving no marks behind, and exploring the obscurity in order to find the glory(Avery, 2009). However, this ideal feeds into the complex of environmental hierarchy which categories certain animals, plants, and environments as more valuable than others due to their economic or human standards of worth. As an example, humans construct spiders and ants are pests while butterflies are beautiful. In return, these labels have disconnected us from embarrassing the lessons and models that our surroundings can provide us.




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