PreservationWilliam Sonntag was acclaimed in the 1850s as a painter of the dramatic landscape. In his painting “Garden of the Gods,” Sonntag portrays a family in the time of the westward expansion. The very subtle painting, expressed by its loose brushwork, captures the shifting atmospheric contrasts of light and dark. Apparent in the painting is a family struggling to survive in nature. In the bottom left corner of the painting is a weather beaten shack, the home of the struggling family. This painting brings out the “live of the land” mentality, but it also incorporates the idea of expansion. When you think about life today, do we really need to expand? Does all this technology really make our lives better? Certainly, Ted Kazinski (aka “The Unabomber”) doesn’t think so. The well known advocate for a revolution against the Industrial system, the Unabomber believes the technological era will be a disaster to the human race. William Sonntag’s “Garden of the Gods” symbolizes expansion, as opposed to the Unabomber’s belief of preserving ones current way of life .The Unabomber’s ideal society would be that of life in the nineteenth century. It would be characteristic of life without TV’s to brainwash us with, no scientists and engineers to try to simplify our lives, and no cars to pollute our mother earth with. It all comes together in what we see in the “Garden of the Gods,” hunting for food to feed your loving family, living in a shack made by ones own god given hands, and entertaining each other by storytelling in front of a campfire. Depicted in this painting is a luminous reflection of the sun on what seems to be rock formation in the background. This symbolizes gods intervention into human life, and the spiritual livelihood that is inherent in all of us. It is the heavens that helps us to overcome our everyday obstacles. Conq...
