The painting I have chosen for Project 2 can be seen above. It is one of the more famous paintings by Edward Hopper called "New York Movie".
After researching this particular painting and learning about others in our Studio class it became clear to me that the people in Hopper's art live in an outer world of little comfort, but still clearly have their own inner lives and issues. The woman in this painting is simply gazing into nothingness, absorbed in her own thoughts.
Hopper uses composition and a layered disposition of reality to make the movie viewers and the woman seem to be in totally different worlds.
After researching this painting I discovered that the woman is in fact an usherette for the theatre, which tells us that she cannot leave even if she wanted to. This is reinforced by the fact that she is leaning up against the wall trying to take the weight off her feet. Almost as if she has been there for an extended period of time, but still has a while to go.
This particular painting, and the majority of Hopper's other works, draw the viewer into the head-space of the protagonist, and make us wonder exactly what they are thinking. In New York Movie the sound seems almost unwilling to her ears, like she has seen that movie over and over and is trying to escape.
