Page 119
On page 119 of Tom Phillips’ A Humument, Phillips suggests that sin, however deep or complex should be confessed vocally as soon as possible and words of the mouth, the notes of the human instrument have the ability of manipulating time. Phillips uses smooth, erratic lines to create melody, sound, and complexity. He paints with cool but different colors to fabricate depth, and to add to the sophistication of the image. He also reveals specific terms to create or just start the reader to his hidden idea within the picture.
At first glance, attention is drawn to the text in the picture because it lacks color. This text is where Phillips describes his point. Phillips uses the word “slowly” to create a sense of time. When he uses “slowly” to modify the action, it creates suspense along with thoughts of what is going to happen next. Then Philips manipulates the words “open his mouth” to mark the beginning of a time frame. This is so because when a person opens his or her mouth, it is generally the initiation of the vocal expression of some thought or idea. Then a white bold line finds its way down to the next set of highlighted words where Phillips uses the words sing to create melody. Then Phillips uses the word “last” to create a sense of quantity and ending. When anything is described as the last of, it means that there were things before this one which conjures up the thought of quantity and of course the meaning of last is being the only one remaining which conjures up the idea of an end. Next Phillips mentions the “book of surprises.” Phillips uses the word “book” to create a number or quantity because if there are enough to surprises to make a book out of it, there must be quite a number of them.
Phillips makes a second text box not connected to the first one to convey another idea. Phillips uses “One of these days” to create a time frame of around when the viewer is analyzing this picture. Around this phrase, the box of text has sharp edges opposed to rounded edges of the other text boxes and Phillips does this to draw attention of the viewer which highlights this phrase making it more obvious to the importance of this phrase. Then the text box tunnels its way down to another set of words which Phillips does to connect specific ideas. Phillips then uses the words “time on his lips” to describe how the human mouth can manipulate time. Confessions or surprises all happen at a point in time and can manipulate time in a person’s mind when though about or recalled. It can take a person back in time to recall, to the future to fantasize, or connect to other thoughts to ponder about.
Phillips uses a cool blue color to fill in the background. He does this to create the idea of water. As the viewer shifts his eyes lower and lower from the top of the picture, the water changes from a dull sky blue to more of a deep sea blue. This creates altitude and depth. With this Phillips is suggesting that as time goes on and a secret is hidden, it sinks where it will get deeper and become more difficult to resurface and confess. Phillips wants the viewer to realize that he or she should not withhold secrets too long and just bring to light what may be hidden.
Various thick lines of color flow freely through the Phillip’s piece in the back ground of the image. He colors them in various shades of brown from mahogany brown to dirt brown, light yellow green and light rose pink. He uses dull and blunt shades of these colors to make the colors noticeable but not too piercing to the eyes. These colors flow freely in the background in various streams that wiggle and swirl around. Phillips puts them in such a way to convey the idea of music and melody. Thoughts and such in the mind flow freely about and connect with many ideas and other thoughts in the mind. In this case, Phillips connects all the streams to the text boxes of words that chose. This is to show that many items get connected with such surprises people hide. Then when the streams of color on the bottom of the page are compared with the streams of color on the top of the page, the ones on the bottom are more erratic and swirl and wiggle to a heavier degree than the top. Phillips does this to show that as you hold in a secret too long, it will affect the other happenings in your life. These streams as a whole are space close together and with the wiggle, they cause the piece to look very complicated but at the same time, the smoothness of the wiggle of the steams creates a very melodic flow.
Phillips uses the combination of the diction, color, and random lines to describe how important it is to come out with secrets and not to withhold them. He uses the diction to express the idea, the colors and lines to create complexity and flow of time, and a fading background to show the effects of time without confessing.
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