Firedance

"Firedance" was done by Mark Tobey in 1957 and it is considered to be abstract. This piece of work was done by sumi ink and pale gray wash on Japanese paper.

Within the work, black forms seem to be jumping, almost as an expression. According the text, the black against the white background is for a dramatic effect. Although it is impossible to say exactly what type of emotions are being shown within this piece of work, it is obvious that whatever feelings Tobey was trying to convey, he was really expressive about it.

The reason why I chose this piece of work is because we are doing it in class as our last project and without even reading the words "jumping figures" - I immediately picked up on the fact that the author was expressing something with excitement.