Down the Primrose Path to an Everlasting Bonfire

There's something about "evil" that sparks curiosity within humans. It's human nature to want things we don't have and this can push people to do things that are considered evil. Whether people are religious or not, most know about the story of Adam and Eve. God said they could eat from any tree in the entire Garden of Eden except one. Curiosity about this tree drove Eve to go against God's wishes and eat from it. This is a classic example of how the unknown can drive humans to do evil things. Eve was not satisfied with the trees in the entire garden as long as she continued to wonder about the one forbidden tree. Similarly, once the witches in Macbeth prophesy that Macbeth will be king, his wonder sparks and he cannot let time dictate his future, he has to do the forbidden task, just like Eve.

So much of the time we see all the benefits of people's evil doing, like fame, money, power, or in Macbeth's case, he sees being king. However, so rarely we think about the consequences of evil. It is so much easier to picture the benefits than it is to see the penalties. This is why we jump into activities without thinking about the consequences. We've probably all heard our parents say "You weren't thinking were you" when we get in trouble. It's probably because we weren't thinking! And when we want to achieve money or power or sometimes even just a good test grade, we can find ourselves doing evil things, without really thinking about it. Human nature is also wishing we had things that other people have. This is also a factor that drives people to do evil things. In modern day this is shown when people steal things, but for Macbeth, Duncan had the power Macbeth wanted and so it caused Macbeth to do his first evil act.

My father has always told me "Don't lie because each lie you tell has to be covered up by another lie, and then another lie, and then another lie." In this same way, each time Macbeth did an evil act, he had to do another one to cover the previous one up, and then another, and then another. This is one of the consequences of doing evil acts, there are always more lies and evil doings to come in an effort to cover up the truth. Another consequence comes from within: our conscience. Some might argue that Macbeth's conscience is one of his major downfalls, he constantly has an internal conflict with himself and beats himself up. It even goes so far as to him having hallucinations about the people he has killed. Even if others don't know what someone has done, the individual will always know, like a constant weight on their shoulders. Finally, with more and more lies to cover up the first evil act, comes more room to mess up and be caught. That is an obvious consequence and we see it everyday, people getting arrested and going to jail when they are caught doing a crime. Going to jail or being executed are examples of more obvious consequences. For every evil act comes a negative consequence, one that is not usually thought about while committing an evil act.

The benefits of an evil act can sometimes impair one from seeing the consequences that follow. That is why it is easy to commit an evil act, and once one is done, more follow to cover it up. This is shown especially through the story of Macbeth.

Name: Miradas I

Artist: Morris

When: 2012

Where: Mexico City, Mexico

This is a modern piece because it was created fairly recently. It has a different style to the of "regular" paintings.... instead of painting on a blank canvas, this piece is a photograph that is painted over with black paint. It is very large too, about 69"x117". The photograph is a group of men together in Mexico City except all we can see of the men is their eyes, the rest is painted over. This art takes on a new form of portraiture because underneath the paint you can see the men lined up to take the photo in sort of a cheesy christmas card way, and yet the paint changes it by making it so only the eyes are seen. It looks as though an effort to create this portrait was ruined by the paint to portray a message.

The women who presented this work to us in the museum told us that it is a picture of convicts in Mexico City. She asked us: "Do you think the paint covering everything but the eyes is supposed to make these convicts look scarier or more tame?" I immediately decided that this painting over the photograph made these men look tame. I could not tell that they were convicts by looking at this picture, I only knew this when I was told. The eyes being the only body part shown make these men look more personal. It's as if the paint covering the rest of their bodies is a cover to what they did or why they're in jail and their eyes shown are showing that despite their wicked ways they are still human and like the rest of us.

I was intrigued to see throughout the museum the different pieces and messages taken from them. It's hard to define just on message in this piece of art but one seemed to stand out to me, I think that the overall message of this piece could be that from an outside view, we don't know what's going on in the inside of others. There's always something going on with people, whether it's small or big, and yet so much of the time other people have no idea. The front we put up around others can be paralleled to the black paint over the men's bodies. In the same way these men seem more tame through only showing their eyes, we make ourselves seem more normal by only revealing parts of our lives to others. These men are not portrayed as convicts and yet they are. This shows me that the paint is covering up what's really going on and that is similar to ordinary lives. The covering of these men with black paint is the main technique the artist uses to portray this message of how we cover up what's really going on, to seem more normal.