Christina's World

I love Andrew Wyeth's works. So much so that I was dreaming to buy one of his prints but my minister of finance stops me. He is one of the most celebrated American artists in the 20th century. His works were mostly contemporary realism, expressed in tempera and watercolor mediums. He has been referred as the people's painter because he painted mostly everyday's subjects around him, that kind of make an average Joe like me feels at ease.

One of the most famous piece is Chritina's world painted around 1948. I do not know what comes to your mind when you see this painting. Feminist would probably want to shoot him and me for promoting sexual objectification -- the curvy lady that you see. It's not what they think. They think we think women are weak and submissive, and an object of sexual pleasure. I do not wish to start a battle of sexes and I maintain that the world will be a wonderful world(less breakup or divorces) if a man behaves like a gentleman and a woman behaves like a lady, just like the old fashion way.

If you get to know the real story behind it, you probably will grab some tissues. Again, it's not what you think ............ you need it to wipe your tears.

Andrew Wyeth's world was shattered when his father met with an accident. His father was struck and killed at a railway crossing. My imagination could be too rich, I heard the rushing train, the scream and the smell of the blood. I felt my heart had just been pierced as I typed. The unspoken grief must be terrible. That was the turning point in his life at the age of 28. I felt it when I see the landscape was barren and his palettes was muted........the emptiness and tasteless world.

Something inspired him. He saw his neighbour Christina Olson sprawled on a dry field facing her house in a far distance. It broke my heart actually when I see her skinny hands. She suffered from an unknown disease, suspected to be polio, caused her unable to walk. Imagine that you were there, watching her crawling back to her house. It's a gigantic efforts. That was what inspired him. In his word, Christina "was limited physically but by no means spiritually." Wyeth further explained, "The challenge to me was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless."