Over The Rainbow By Alfred Arreguin Analysis

The oil on canvas painting “Over the Rainbow” created by Alfredo Arreguin serves as a commentary on the visible and the hidden elements of one’s identity. Alfredo Arreguin’s painting “Over the Rainbow” greets you to your right as you enter the Mexican Museum of Art, located in San Francisco’s Fort Mason. The building of the museum is gargantuan, minimalistic and intimidating in its military presence. When you walk into the museum the room is suddenly very tiny and as you turn the corner of the small entry way your eye is immediately drawn to the fantastically colorful and aesthetically disorienting Arreguin painting. The painting is large: 48 H x 42 W x 1 D (in). There the subject, Peter Rodriguez, gazes in two adjacent forms at you while amidst a overwhelming background. At least it seems like a background until you realize the perspective places the color both in behind and in front of the subject. And then as you walk up even …show more content…
This painting is reminiscent of the fractal nature of the world. As a scientist, it reminds me of the beauty and complexity of physical matter. While a rock seems to be a complete entity, looking closer allows you to see individual grains. Looking at those grains under a microscope and you see that each grain is composed of certain minerals. Using an even more powerful technology allows you to see that each mineral is composed of certain elements. These elements, that originated 13 billion years ago in space, are composed of atoms which are composed of even smaller subatomic parts. It’s a matter of scale from macro to micro that for all we know continues ad infinitum. This is symbolic of how we see the world in the macro and neglect to see or realize the fundamental components. Perhaps all that we see is an illusion. While the natural world may seem unorganized, there are patterns built into the very manifestation of what we are able to