Gambling

My artwork was about the gambling McMurphy had done and what it meant for the people there. In the artwork, there are a few different items that I felt had some sort of representation or a direct meaning in what would happen in their own life.

The first thing that I tried to do was make sure it looked like you were the one sitting at the table as if you were a person in the ward who was falling to McMurphy’s pressure and losing your money. We see this in the quote “My name’s McMurphy and I’m a gambling fool…I lace my money down “. This shows just how much his identity revolved around gambling and conning people out of their own money.

One of the other key parts of the book that I tried to fit in was the items on the table and how much they meant to all of the people inside the ward. The cigarettes themselves were based on how McMurphy after getting all of their own money would go into them gambling their cigarettes then after winning them all he would get their “IOUs’ ‘. There is also the whole pack on the table to the right then fewer and fewer cigarettes as you go farther to the left showing just how much the group at the table was being taken advantage of from having full packs to nothing at the end. The cards themselves are in pairs just as a traditional hand of blackjack would be if you did not gain another card. There are also no purposeful face cards to show how much he “cheated them out of their money. They were all friendly with him as they paid their bets” The coinage on the table is very spare and is also a way to portray just how much he is taking advantage of his scenario and how that is leading him into contention with the big nurse.

The lighting that I used was supposed to show that McMurphy was helping people out of the fog. You can see that on the dice and how there is one portion of the dice that is shining through and the rest is just as damp as the surrounding areas. This also shows how much of an issue that can become. This is why the right source is showing on the dice a symbol used for gambling and luck opposed to something more normal like a bulb or an ordinary object.

In conclusion, the reason that I made my art was to show just how diverse of a cast McMurphy’s act of gambling can be on the people of the ward. It shows that even if he is doing something that some people can see as a more positive thing like bringing people out of the “fog” it still leaves huge unanswered questions and issues with the morality of what he is doing and how he will accomplish it. The means may not be the way to the end with McMurphy and Chief.