Congo

Mystery Painting Description

by Bilal and Jonathan

Mystery Painting

recreated by our Walter Hays partners

Use a normal paper, no cutting. Make your paper look like a tall rectangle. First you draw a small box about one fourth of the way down and one third over from the left. Then make two steps down from the left side of the box. This should reach a little below the middle of the box. Now draw an "S" curve and a straight line. The line should reach the end of the page. This is on the left side. Then go back to the box and make a small "C" shape below the box. This should be on the right side. Now make a hump connected to that. After that make a smaller hump. Now make a straight line to the left. After that make a straight line going down. Make a shape that looks like a mesa. Now make another "S" curve that ends a little above the other "S" curve and to the left. At the end of this draw a short line towards the right. Then draw a gently curving line going down, up, down, and up to the edge. This line should be blue. It looks like a river.

Next make a line starting at the first step of the river on the left side. The line should be on the left side. The line should also be half the size of the river. There is also a line on the right side. The line is straight on the right side, but on the left side it has two humps. This line should be two times as wide as the river. The rectangle is green. Also, the rectangle should have the river in it except from the first step and up.

On the right side corner there is a spiral and it spirals ten times. It is surrounded by white. For the spiral use a pencil only.

Now make an "S" that has two sides. After that connect a really long "U" shape. The "U" should have two sides. Now make another "U" connected to the first one. It should be smaller than the other one. Next make a upside down "U" and on the left side of that make it fat. Now go down and make a hill going to the right side. After that, make a "U" and make the right side fat and curve it at the end. Paint this black. On the outside of this, paint it mustard-yellow. Finally, paint all the spots where it is blank gray-greenish.

The painting was made by William Baziotes in 1954. The painting is 70 x 60 inches. The name of the painting is "Congo." It is now in the Los Angeles County Museum.

Analysis

by Bilal and Jonathan

One thing we did right was describing the spiral. We also think we did a good job describing the different parts, except that we didn't do a good job describing where things go.

We should have said that the "U, S, U" was a continous line, and that the "mesa" was sideways and connected to the river. We should have said that the river was going down into the green square, and that the mustard yellow color just borders the "U, S, U." We should have said that the green part was shaped like a rectangle covering the bottom of the painting, and that the top of the painting is a blue-grayish color.

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This page maintained by Lucinda Surber. Last updated 4/19/97.