The Painting"A picture can paint a thousand words." I have found the one picture in my mind that paints a thousand words or more. It was a couple of weeks ago when I saw this photo in the writing center; the writing center is part of State College. The beautiful colors caught my attention. I was so mesmerized by the painting that I missed the group I was with. When I heard about the observation essay, where we have to write about a person or thing in the city that catches your attention. I knew right away that I wanted to write about the painting. I don't know why, but I felt that the painting described the way I felt at that moment. When I first looked at the image, it looked like there were only two colors, green and blue. When I got closer to the photo I noticed that many other colors were used. I liked the way the colors blended together, where you have to really look at the image to see the colors. The other colors, besides green and blue, were pink, white, orange, red and yellow. There were also different shades of green and blue. There was only one solid color in the photo; it was black. The painting depicted a river flowing from a lake, surrounded by very tall grass. On each side of the river there are people standing. The interesting thing is that they were all painted black. They looked like shadowy figures. They all had a different shape but you can see that they were all men. On the upper left bank of the river were five men. On the lower right bank of the river were four men. On all sides it seemed that men were trying to cross over to the other side. They looked tired and scared. It seemed like they were hiding, and crossing the river was the only way to reach that safe haven... middle of paper... what I understood from the painting is that men are getting a mirror image of themselves, that shows them what they fear. In turn, when I see the painting, it allows me to see my fears. I felt my fears had changed after two days of participating in the program. I enjoyed meeting new people and having new teachers. For me the painting is a way of showing you what everyone else sees. That the painter made the men look at each other so they could see each other running away. In turn I could see myself doing the same thing and because of that I was able to change. When other people look at the painting they probably see something else. This is why I choose to make the painting, it gives you the ability to also choose to interpret it however you see fit. Or it may simply be a beautiful painting to look at, but to me the painting represented so much more. It painted a thousand words for me.