Response to Georges Rousse

It was interesting to me how he would use old abandon hospitals, slaughterhouses, and warehouses for his work, and he said he would depict what used to happen in those places, kind of like a reflection. I thought it was a unique way that he could make his “self-portraits” seem to float off the walls, although it seemed a little odd to me that he called them self-portraits at all, since all of them looked so different in their appearance and emotion. It baffled me as to how he was able to make his pillar paintings so realistic and three-dimensional. It is very impressive to me that he is such a strong artist in two different mediums of art, painting and photography. It seems like very tedious work to go back and forth from the area in the building to the viewfinder in his camera. At first I thought it was bizarre that he would cut into the walls, but it gives a very strong element of depth in his paintings. By using the same uniform color in his paintings, he is allowing the light to change the appearance naturally. The letters on the walls tell more of a story to his paintings, something that other effects like alterations in light would have trouble doing on their own. I liked when he used elements of his own life into his work, like when he used the lines of the mountains he walks in on the walls. I’m curious as to what happens to the buildings once he is done with them. It would be amazing if they could be preserved in the buildings for others to enjoy for years to come.