I don’t know if I like the mural by Graydon Parrish in The New Britain Museum of American Art. The technique is beautiful and the intention is clear, a commemorative depiction of the 9/11 disaster however the painting itself to me seems like an anachronism…as if it is borrowing modern inventions into classical times. I don’t have the objection that most of the people had in the class to this creation; that it was too soon and too beautiful to create and display such a piece. I think that the only objection I have to it is that it’s too direct. I prefer art with more subtlety and not direct representation and in this way it fails for me. The technique is breathtaking but the fact that the painting is done in an academic style yet features 21st century inventions ruins it for me. When I think of a great painting born out of tragedy Picasso’s Guernica immediately comes to mind. We see chaos, pain, and suffering in Guernica in which The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy: September 11, 2001, I think just doesn’t deliver.

Maybe I have a different opinion on these works because I am an artist and I guess I’ve been trained to not only look at images at face value but be able to appreciate and evaluate them in terms of light, form, color, composition etc. therefore separating me from other viewers. Maybe for this reason the picture of the falling man does not appall me. It also does not make sense to me for it to be censored. I’ve seen many deeply disturbing photographs. Many photographers aspire to get the shot of a deeply disturbing subject for reasons of social change or even success. For whatever reason I feel that a great piece of art can not be censored. Art is ultimately freedom of expression and in terms of composition, line, form, light, this is an extraordinary photograph. In my opinion this amazing photograph is a testament to this man’s life and the horror of the event. However I can agree with Susan Sontag in her book On Photography "concerned photography has done at least as much to deaden conscience as to arouse it", at least in the case of this picture.