Phillips is a Genius

On page 29 in Tom Phillips’ A Humument, Phillips’ use of color change and word choice causes the audience to understand that no matter what road is taken allowing oneself to accept the unexpected is a great aid in comprehending ones true meaning of life.

In this piece of art work Phillips includes a long road in the middle of the painting. This road symbolizes the road taken to reach the ultimate goal that one sets for oneself. In this painting the main person is a poet. It is understood that this person is a poet because along the road the word poet is placed beside the trail. The road begins with the words “chancy, not malicious” these words describe Phillips main character. Meaning that at the beginning of his road he was not a hateful person but dangerous. These words are carefully chosen in order to convey to the audience what this character is like. Not being “malicious” must be a great quality in the character since Phillips had to include it in his painting. In the same section where the character is first described as being “chancy, not malicious” the color blue is in the background. The color blue is known to be a color of wisdom and stability. The color blue is also associated with knowledge; this allows the audience to understand that the character being described is a very smart, stable person.

The next part of this piece of artwork includes this long road and the color purple. This road continues through the page, the word “poet” is isolated on the side of the road. The color purple in this section reveals this character’s confusion and sadness. The color purple represents the feeling of frustration so it is understood that this character is frustrated. Phillips’ inclusion of the color purple is meant to convey these feelings that the main character has. Also, in this particular section of this piece of artwork the word poet is seen on the side of the road. The word poet being placed on the outside of the road displays the idea that being a poet was not on the original road of this main character. So Phillips includes the word poet outside the road to convey the confusion the main character has with what should be on the road that he is taking. Along with the color purple the word “poet” adds to the character’s confusion.

The colors begin to change greatly moving down the piece of art work. The next color shown is a dark green color. Along with the color green the word poet shows up again but with a question mark after it. This shows a great point that Phillips is trying to convey. The color green represents ambition and the word poet is placed in a position where green is included it shows that this character has a drive for poetry. The road continues through this painting and at this point it is the main character’s stage of understanding his love for writing poetry. Although there is a question mark after the word poet it shows how the character is thinking about poetry. It is placed between the purple and purple meaning knowledge it helps convey the knowledge the character has for poetry. The background color than shifts to the color pink, the color pink has many significant meanings. The color pink can bring weaknesses among people. In this case Phillips’ character is weak to the idea of poetry. The brightness in the color pink shows how much this character is weak to the thought of poetry. Along with the color pink Phillips adds the word “chance” onto the road that his character is on. This significant word “chance” provides the audience with the thought that this character took a chance with poetry and conquered his weakness.

Phillips then allows the road to continue through different colors. The road than goes back to the color blue, which is the color of seriousness; now the character is serious about poetry. There is a question mark after the word poet in this section, but there are also the words “our poet” follow the word poet. Phillips now declares the fact that this main character is a distinguished poet. The road continues and changes colors from blue, to grey back to purple. The color blue represents the seriousness of the main character has in poetry. Phillips adds the color grey to convey the growing of the character and the ageing process. At the end of this piece the words “with results that astonished”. This is the end of the road for the character. The colors that Phillips uses are all meaningful and take part in the understanding of the different stages one must go through to complete a goal that one has set. This is symbolized by the road that Phillips includes.

Throughout this journey Phillips’ main character undergoes many different stages. The main character begins as a non-malicious person he then moves on through this journey of confusion, difficulty and acceptance. On page 29 in Tom Phillips’ A Humument , Phillips’ color choice along with word choice conveys the fact that a road that is taken by a certain person can be completely changed by one alteration. The final destination of a character relays on the characters open mind and willing to accept differences.