The Three Billy Goats Gruff 

Editor: So this oil painting is "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" by Scott Gustafson. It looks like something out of a children’s storybook. I’m really drawn to the materiality of the oil paint; it gives a tangible quality to this fantastical scene. What jumps out at you about this work? Curator: The first thing that strikes me is the deliberate crafting of the bridge itself. It is presented to us, painstakingly built with lumber, arranged and layered, but clearly aged and imperfectly. It becomes a crucial point in the analysis of material interaction. Consider this bridge as a site of labor – someone, or something, built this. It becomes much more interesting when you begin to imagine a story not about fairytale creatures, but rather of resources and work, of the relationship between creature and landscape. Editor: So, you're focusing on the making of the bridge rather than the narrative happening on it? What does that bridge construction tell us about this world? Curator: Exactly! The crude assembly of the bridge contrasts with the smooth, almost manufactured look of the troll and goats. The painter's labor is also on display, mimicking an imagined labor of bridge-building within the image. Gustafson is using painting here to evoke these themes of production and artifice. What looks natural at first quickly falls apart upon further examination. Are we really that different than the goats that traverse this bridge, eager to cross over with little regard as to its making? Editor: That's such a different way of viewing a seemingly simple illustration. I hadn't considered the commentary on consumption inherent in the goat's journey, and our viewing of the image. Curator: Precisely. It urges us to question what we take for granted, what we simply *use* without regard for its origins and production. A potent reminder within art and life!