Congratulations on receiving an Art History Honorable Mention/ Fall 2025 and best wishes ongoing to:
Savanah Miller, a Junior at Savannah College of Art
“Majoring in Art History and minoring in Museum Studies has given me many opportunities to research and share the stories of those whom history has overlooked. As a first-generation, low-income college student, I work hard every day to make the most of my education. I am working towards a degree for everyone in my family who never got the opportunity to do so. I use my rural upbringing and my first-generation status as motivation every single day; it inspires what I research, what I write about, and brings a fresh perspective to any project I tackle. After graduating with my degree in Art History, I hope to continue my education and earn my Master’s Degree in American Studies. I am extremely interested in Rural, Women, and Indigenous American Artists, and I hope to share their stories as I pursue my intended career in a Museum Education position.”
Honorable Mention ESSAY: Compare and contrast the 2 paintings below:
Savanah’s Essay:
Upon first look, “Fancy Meeting You Here,” by Eileen Monaghan Whitaker and “Gallinaceous Gathering,” by Frederic Whitaker appear to be two very similar paintings; however, when diving further into the two compositions, it becomes clear that they are quite different. It should be noted that the two pieces have the same dimensions, which physically contributes to their visual similarity. They also both appear to be watercolor paintings, depicting chickens as their main subject. White hens and roosters fill most of each composition, and both paintings have a muted green background.
“Fancy Meeting You Here”, painted in 1988, depicts two white chickens. The hen on the right stands slightly in front of the rooster on the left, and she juts slightly into the foreground. The two chickens face each other, almost creating a white “W” across the composition. The background they exist in is a series of vertical washes in muted shades of yellow and green, and colorful orbs of all sizes surround them. Although they are yellow ochre, purple, blue, and green, their shapes are reminiscent of eggs- some with speckles, some without. Many of the colors in “Fancy Meeting You Here” are saturated and playful. From the egg shapes and speckled flicks of paint across the composition to the rich red of the chickens’ crowns, the work carries a lively and bubbly energy.
“Gallinaceous Gathering,” on the other hand, takes a much more naturalistic approach to depicting chickens. Painted in 1963, this composition has about a dozen chickens, most of whom are white. Several of them contain brown, and the hen furthest in the background of the painting is a dark grey. Although there is only one grey hen in the upper left quadrant of the painting, the dark color is balanced by the shadow cast from a hen’s tail as she leaves the picture plane diagonally opposite. While most of the chickens are gathered in the center of the composition, a few of them are scattered throughout the rest of the composition which creates depth. Compared to the background of “Fancy Meeting You Here”, this painting’s background is more true to life. Shades of green and brown comprise the grass and dirt the hens scratch and peck at.
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