Untitled Possibly 2008 - 2013

This "Untitled" image by David Levinthal looks like it was made with photography. It shows the figure of a soldier, with an orange background, maybe created with light. I wonder about Levinthal making this work. When you're creating an image like this, are you trying to make the viewer feel a certain way? Is it a process of discovery and surprise? What's the right way to do this? The texture of the surface seems soft and blurred, like a half-remembered dream. The figure is dark. This allows the light and shadow to shape our experience. It suggests a mood of introspection or perhaps melancholy, and I find myself wondering about the weight of history and the stories we tell ourselves about war and heroism. Artists are always talking to each other across time. Every artwork builds on what came before, playing with and questioning the past. This image stays with me, it makes me think about how art can be a way of understanding our world, and the ways in which we see and remember.