Exhibition Guide

Visual Description

“As American as Apple Pie” is a vertical oil painting on canvas measuring 123 inches by 101 inches and showing two adult figures standing side-by-side in a neighborhood setting and facing toward the viewer. Both figures’ skin tones are rendered in grayscale. The figure standing at the center of the canvas is a woman with a voluminous updo hairstyle wearing circular gold sunglasses with rose-tinted lenses and large, gold, bamboo hoop earrings. She wears a brightly toned pink T-shirt, emblazoned with the word “Barbie” written in white cursive, that is tucked into a cotton candy-pink pleated skirt that falls just below her knees. Her shoes are open-toed stilettoed mules that match the color of her T-shirt, and she holds a bright pink flamingo-shaped cup with a protruding bendy-straw at waist level. Her head leans slightly to the left and her face portrays a relaxed, open expression. 

A male figure, slightly taller than the woman, stands on her right, toward the left side of the painting. He has a line-up and a finely groomed beard. He wears a dark blue denim jacket with a popped collar over a white T-shirt. Gold buttons run down the front of the jacket, which is left open, and the sleeves are rolled up just once, revealing a peek of light blue lining on his right sleeve. His untucked T-shirt hangs over his beige pants. The ankles of his pants are cuffed over a white pair of Converse-like sneakers. He leans lightly against the side of a vintage sportscar with a brown body and beige convertible rooftop—both figures pose in front of the car’s rear wheel. The car’s silver back bumper nearly reaches the right side of the painting, and its body is cropped from view at the handle of the driver’s door by the painting’s left border. The car’s backseat window is tinted a light blue, echoing the shade of the man’s jacket lining. The figures and the car are on a smooth paved road the color of cool charcoal that takes up the bottom third of the painting. 

Behind and to the right of the figures is a single-family home, a short row of hedges, and a green lawn. Dark green, manicured hedges extend from a cluster rightward toward a larger bush. The house is a pale pastel yellow with a brown-shingled roof and five windows framed with white shutters and light gray curtains drawn from the inside. A white picket fence extends from the house and is cropped by the painting’s left border. Above the fence, three overhead power lines extend from behind the house to beyond the painting’s left border. The sky is a light blue color with hints of white, hazy clouds.