ranch:materials, light, color

[material]

[light]

[color]

The ranch home is the result of post-war depression and economic struggle that resulted during and after WWII in the beginning of the twentieth century. The war left families broke and many without a home at all. The country was putting all its funds into the war that it was neglecting what it was fighting for in the first place. The war called for ammunition and fast mass production of it, hence the immediate need for machinery. However, when the war finally ended the machinery was used to create architectural elements such as windows that would fit in homes everywhere. This new craze of simple and affordable design seemed to push the architect out, and the cookie-cutter home in. Just as the ranch predecessor the bungalow had done for the Victorian the ranch was doing for the “pre-made” home, pushing it out. The ranch was eliminating processed design and bringing in personalized work that fit the function of the family in the home. It was then that the client had control of what they lived in. My inspiration for the ranch home on 612 Rockford Road comes from this very notion of seeing your own vision through. My piece that I am working with is titled, Abstraction, Indian Summer, and was painted by Charles Green Shaw in 1952. When analyzing the piece to me it is a symphony of layers and color that come together to create an abstract image. It is a discovery through paint and form to a world unknown. It is that feeling of looking through brush and tree only to find a beautiful world that lies behind. To me, this painting captures that moment of pushing through those barriers, but not quite getting past them. I can seem glimpses and pieces of what is beyond it , but I can not make out the whole image. Bright pops of color look as if the natural light is pushing through and drawing the observer deeper and deeper into the unknown world. Just as I get to make out my own image in the painting, the families of the ranch home were able to make out their own image of what they wanted.