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Hernandez Jocelyn

English 101

Ms Batty

1 March 2017

The Girl With A Message

A girl captured in a moment. Pale face and a look that makes her seem lost but the longer

you look you might begin to feel hope. Her head is wrapped with some sort of headscarf that is a

creamy beige color but has vibrant blue detailing. If you look closer her ear contains an earring,

an earring dynamic enough to replace her name forever. An image can be very impactful

sometimes for its pure beauty and sometimes for what it represents. In order to be able to deeply

analyze an image and capture its message we must take into account various aspects of the

image. The Girl with the Hoop Earring is a mural on Van Nuys Boulevard in the city of Arleta

painted by Levi Ponce that nearly mimics the original painting of the 17th century by Johannes

Vermeer The Girl with the Pearl Earring. The only notable difference is the earring between

the two paintings yet this difference has so much to say. Ponce employs visual rhetoric in his

mural by using a popular, widely known image and only changing the pearl earring to a hoop

earring therefore making it culturally relevant, making this eastern style of art universal.

Many may recognize the original famous painting The Girl with the Pearl Earring also

known as the Mona Lisa of the North or Dutch. This painting was part of an art period called the

Baroque. It was an instant masterpiece because the lighting was carefully crafted and the girl was

said to be a tronie. It brought a lot of attention to the painting the mystery of the girl, Who was

she? was something almost everyone wanted to know. It is also important to take into account

the visual rhetoric of the original painting because it is so similar to the mural for the exception
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of the earing. In the original painting the girls face is very delicate, all of her features are subtle

and her complexion is light, it is very clear that the girl is of Dutch heritage. The look on her face

is also very innocent something that the society at the time expect and idolize women to be. She

does slightly look like she was caught off guard and thats what gives the vibe of innocence and

how raw it was captured. However this can also represent that maybe she is unhappy with what

the society she's living in. She has the perfect turban on the material looks heavy and expensive

and her earring looks classy and just ties the look together. However her expression is mysterious

and makes you question everything about her.

The change of pearl to hoop earring in the mural was a change that was very notable.

However there are also other subtle changes that make the mural different and more relevant to

its surrounding community. For example the facial expression on the mural is not as delicate as

the original painting. In the mural her face looks like its enduring more pain like she has been

hurt. She is also placed far left in the painting allowing more space for the black background

making that the focal point. By there being a majority of black background it makes the mood of

the overall painting a lot more mysterious, it looks like it's just hiding secrets. The earring is a

simple gold hoop that just looks so out of place, but besides these changes much of the painting

is pretty much the same. Ponce could have just painted the exact same painting but by making

these changes it makes it culturally relevant to its location. The area that the mural is located is

an area of predominantly latino culture, by changing the earring and making it look so out of

place and giving the girl a look of pain can symbolize the clash of cultures of America and

Latino immigrants. Changing the earring can make it easier to relate to such a european painting.

Analyzing the visual rhetoric of this painting made me wonder why Ponce did not change

more to make this painting even more appealing to the latino culture. He could have changed the
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pigmentation of her skin or swapped the turban for something in style. It would have made more

sense, however by choosing not to do that he made the original painting more accessible. Not

many people in the East San Fernando area have the opportunity to see the actual painting to fly

out to the fancy art gallery it's located in and see it. Art is a universal concept that can work for

any culture. Perhaps the goal of the artist was to taken famous european art and make it universal

by placing it on a wall. On the other hand that one change can be seen as how immigrants when

moving to america try really hard to adapt to the culture and sometimes it can be looked down

upon to keep your Hispanic roots. Perhaps by only having the earring and no other change can

symbolize how immigrants try to adapt to American culture but can't help but have the one

hoop earring also known as some of the hispanic traditions.

Overall, this mural is one that has a lot to say about Latino culture and can be analyzed

by using visual rhetoric. Everything about the mural has an impact on the message, from the

placing of the girl, to the color use, the use of a popular image, and of course the changes. This

mural made the original painting culturally relevant and universally accessible. If something so

little as to a hoop earring can speak words and messages to me whats to say what it has to say to

an entire community.

Work Cited

"Girl with a Pearl Earring." Artble. N.p., 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.
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Appendix