This artwork titled “GI Joe & Ken” by Texas Tech University teacher Shannon Cannings is from 2012. An oil painting on canvas, this artwork painting depicts two famous American toy action figures, American hero G.I. Joe & Fashion icon Ken as its subject matter.
Upon my first viewing of the artwork, its high detail and vivid colors stood out to me. From the reflection of light on the eyebrow to the small creases on the chest of Ken, It’s clear that Cannings made detail an important focus in this oil on canvas painting. The way these two toy figures stand next to each other closely with shoulders aligned, chest pushed out and an upright stance could show some type of authority and confidence to the viewer. With these two being very popular figures in the toy industry, it could show their dominance to the viewer.
This artwork by Cannings includes important elements such as color, line, shape, space, texture, and value. Color and value are the two most important elements in this painting.
The colors that each figure wear in this painting (black and red) resonate with each figures personality. G.I Joe, known as an American hero is a battle-scarred soldier. Joe doesn’t do much smiling, his job is to strictly defend his country and serve the people in it. Joe is pictured here by Cannings in an all-black military jumpsuit, a color that coincides well with G.I Joes personality. The color black shows Joe’s intelligence, seriousness, and power, All of which are traits that define him and his career. In contrast, Ken is pictured next to Joe in a red shirt. Red is a color that describes Ken’s personality along with his traits. Ken, the boyfriend of the famous doll – Barbie is often known as poised, instinctive, thoughtful, faithful, caring and a fantastic. This correlates with the color red well as it known to be associated with love, aspiration, vitality, and willpower.
In addition to my previous statement, The Principle of contrast, along with the principle of variety is pictured here as the colors and facial expressions of these two differ. In conclusion, the contrast in color shows the different type of personalities each possess and the type of characters they are.
This artwork may have been created by Cannings to showcase how two different toy figures are similar, although different. The inventors of these figures had different ideas in mind when creating them. G.I. Joe was designed to be more of a manly toy figure. Joe was developed with broad shoulders and possessed battle scars all across his body. He was designed as a soldier in the army and was marketed to and for young boys because manufacturers thought they wouldn’t play with “dolls”. In contrast, Ken was developed as some would say a “pretty boy”, he was always pictured in bright and lively sweater vests’ alongside his girlfriend Barbie. Unlike G.I. Joe, he had very skinny arms and no facial hair. In this painting, Cannings places these two side by side, shoulder next to one another and placed at the same height. The way they are painted at the same height may suggest how they’re equal, although different in their respective ways.
Cannings larger meaning is to bring two characters that exist in separate worlds and show the unity but also the variety between them. The principles of unity could be seen as both of them possess similar degrees of popularity and iconic status, while their variety comes in form of their physical appearance, as they contrast in most areas such as GI Joe’s Brown to Ken’s blonde hair, and their body appearance as GI Joe possess a much stronger appearance.
The in-person viewing of this artwork showcased important elements such as color and texture. These elements would be significantly hindered and harder to identify if made into a reproduction. As mentioned earlier, color is important in this artwork as it conveys a meaning of the differences and the contrasting characteristics of G.I. Joe and Ken’s personalities.
The artworks displayed around this painting relate because they use the same medium (oil on canvas), and depict similar amounts of color, texture, unity, and variety among them. Though there is no relative connection because the subject matter is different from Canning’s artwork.
The artwork I chose was not site-specific, because it doesn’t have any importance particularly to any setting. This artwork would be able to be showcased in any setting, perhaps the best place being some type of toy action figure museum.
