(Textured Horse)
Anonymous
Found 07/2010, Goodwill (183 near Anderson Mill)

For many viewers, (Horse) is a challenge. Its eyes are dark and empty, and its strange decorations and color seem to trick the beast out into an artificial and carnival thing, a Mardi Gras mask of a steed. The bits of color and thick ribbons of paint create a lively artificiality, as if the beast’s mane was studded and jeweled, and the horse created out of papier-mâché. 

There is a sense of paradox in a creature so obviously living and vital being cast in dark colors and become artificial. The painting becomes a falsehood, an exercise in seemings and facades, appropriate given the mask-like subject, a kind of party-horse made for a festival rather than a grass-grazing, sturdy animal. The artist creates a mask that is obviously a mask, yet seems alive, posing like a real creature, perhaps a symbol of the self-conscious artist at work.