The painting selected for this analysis is called “Light Chaser” painted by Stu Leonard. It shows a snowboarder riding on a slope in, presumably, the early morning. The painting presents an overall theme of escapism, the idea of seeking a distraction from reality, a lot of times through the use of fantasy or daydreaming. Often times there can be troubles that come with escapism, getting too lost in a fantasy that it distracts you from what’s really going on in front of you. The painting presents this theme through its composition. Elements in “Light Chaser” all highlight this theme of escapism. By looking at the color, line, and perspective of this painting, the symbolism of escapism is shown, which reveals how the author pushes the viewer to interpret the feelings and context of his fantasy. 

Line is one important element in this painting’s theme. Lines run throughout this piece, but they seem to be concentrated in certain areas. Lines in the sky are pointed to an opening in the painting, a place where there is no color except white, almost like a hole in the painting. The lines seem as if they’re tugged by a gravitational pull toward the hole. Even the trees follow this notion of a gravitational pull, the tops of them pointed at the gap. The hole symbolizes the gate between reality and fantasy. The pull back to reality has an effect on his daydream, maybe an outside force is calling him back to the real world. Another example is a majority of the lines in the image point down the snowboarding trail in which the boarder is on. All of these lines point to the opening. This represents the path back to reality, at the end of every daydream there is the return to reality. If one strays too far off the path, they end up getting lost in their fantasy, which can have negative effects. The path is also made up of many colors, which represent different emotions that are felt while traveling along this path. 

Color plays an important role in how the author wants the viewer to perceive the image. One of the predominant colors in this picture, probably the most prevalent color, is blue. Blue represents feelings of calmness, clarity and peace. The use of blue represents the feelings that come with daydreaming about snowboarding. It’s a calming place, a place to escape to when the world seems too harsh to handle. Another influential color that is in this piece is yellow. Yellow represents happiness, which represents another feeling that comes along with this daydream. The use of yellow shows that snowboarding makes him happy, but this color could have some other meaning behind it. Yellow also represents caution, which could serve as a forewarning to the dangers that come with getting too involved in a fantasy. Getting too intimate with one’s utopia can cause one to have a negative outlook on reality, because reality will never be as good as the images in his daydream. The last color that that makes an impact on this piece is white. Like the last color, white comes with a dual meaning. White comes with a feeling of emptiness, and the “hole” in the painting discussed earlier is completely white. The hole, like mentioned earlier, is supposed to represent the door out of his fantasy, back to reality. This represents the emotions that comes with returning back to the real world. The fantasy has filled him up with all these good emotions and the return to reality seems so much more dry than his fantasy. But white has good connotations that come with it as well. The white in the painting also represents a renewal, visiting this place in his head rekindles a love and desire to go snowboarding once again. Colors in this painting help the viewer comprehend the theme of escapism.

Another element that plays an important role in the theme of this painting is perspective. The angle in which the viewer is able to see the painting has an impact on how they can comprehend the painting. This particular piece falls into the categories of two different perspectives: a bug’s eye view and a long shot. The bug’s eyes view is an angle that is pictured from a low place and looks upward at something, making the pictured object seem larger and more imposing. This signifies that there is a much larger reason to why the author escapes to snowboarding rather than something else. It also makes the viewer feel small, as if they are unimportant to this person’s fantasy. This image also is considered a long shot, a shot that shows the character’s body in entirety. This means the viewer is distanced from the snowboarder, and feels almost a disconnectivity from him. This further emphasizes the feeling of insignificance in the boarder’s fantasy. The snowboarder is so lost in his escape that nothing else is important, besides the nagging back to the real world.

The theme of escapism is laced throughout this piece through many elements. All of these symbolize escapism by showing the authors fantasy using these elements in specific ways. Line demonstrates how in the midst of every daydream there is the pull back to reality. The color in this painting shows us the different emotions the escapist feels while he travels down the path of his fantasy. And finally, the perspective of this image shows how disconnected from reality the snowboarder is from the real world when he is lost in his daydream.

 