Damaged—CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

From Ames Library Art Collection (Illinois Wesleyan University) in CARLI Digital Collections

When it comes to art I enjoy a lot of stuff going on at once. So I like this oil and wax painting.

The black-and-white figure of a woman -- meditating? in anguish? -- dominates the center of the canvas, floating in front of a layered background of colorful and stylistically varied angels. There’s a little tableaux at the right where two figures interact, one of them oblivious to the fact that she’s dripping blood or red paint. The drips stream like tears down one of the faces anchoring the artwork at the bottom, receding into the background, eyes closed -- in sleep? sorrow?

For me, the text “COFFEE .50; HOMEMADE ROLLS” running off the edge at the upper right makes it perfect. The metadata says the painting is roughly 5 ft x 6 ft.

I would love to see this painting in real life.

I suppose I will need to take a trip to the Illinois Wesleyan University library. This piece by Edward Hemingway was a gift from a professor and his wife. The digital collection includes 60 images of works of art hanging in the library, including student works purchased by the library annually since 1996.

Written by Mary Rose, Metadata Librarian at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

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