Finding Nemo

A couple days ago, I was in search of the perfect piece of public art to write about. My first thought was of the Student Union. Along with being a great place to do homework, hang out or buy a bagel, there are many pieces of art. I looked around on the bottom, mid, and top floor. It was the top floors until I found THE piece. Its name is “Untitled” by Clyde Jones

On the most basic level, it is a painting of four fish, but I like it a lot for several reasons. Firstly, this painting isn’t on canvas, but on plywood. I didn’t even realize this until I got close enough to the painting to see some brown patches where there was no paint. This was the wood showing through. Also, as I looked at the painting, I noticed more and more about it. My eyes progressed from left to right and saw the lighter colors grow gradually darker. At the same time the dark fish became lighter. This gave the painting a really interesting effect overall. I also like what the artist did with the fish’s eyes. He used round pieces of glass instead of simply painting the eyes on, which in my opinion makes the painting all the better. The artist used the texture of the paint to create the illusion of scales on the fish. Pieces of art seen in the Union and all over campus such as this one make me thankful to be on a campus that values artistic expression as much as UNC does.