Analysis Of Russ Kramer's Far From Home Of A Small Sail Boat

Russ Kramer’s painting Far From Home of a small sailboat all alone on the open water can be seen in many different ways, some better than others. In Dorothy Allison’s essay she talks about people hiding their “secret selves” when they look at paintings and how each person has a certain “version of reality” that makes their “secret selves” (595). I agree with Dorothy Allison that everyone sees things differently based on their own personal “version of reality” that is determined by their past experiences.

When you look at this painting your eye is first drawn to the whitecaps throughout the foreground. The whitecaps and waves then lead your eyes to the sailboat beating its way through them. They sky seems to show a sunrise with glowing yellows and oranges that reflect in the waves. The two people on the boat look like they are hunkered down as they steer the boat through the waves. The they are out in the ocean all on their own with nothing else in sight, no land, no other ships, nothing.

I see a peaceful, slightly uncomfortable, but enjoyable sail in beautiful clear water. Dorothy Allison implies that everyone sees something different in a painting and that “if we were to reveal what we see in each painting, sculpture, installation, or little book, we would run the risk of exposing our secret selves” (595). My “secret self” is one that lived on a boat in the crystal clear water of the Caribbean and sailed on the open ocean and stared at the waves when there was no one else around. Because of that I see this painting as a peaceful experience instead of one in rough sickening