The Escape By Salvador Barnes Analysis

When a person thinks of an office job that requires a suit and tie, the words stable, sensible, or practical often come to mind. Adjectives like exciting, vibrant, and creative are rarely thought of in correlation with such a profession. Furthermore, stability is often a factor that society associates with a “good” job. In Sage Barnes’ art series of “Self Portraits,” he highlights the gap between society’s expectations and the pursuit of happiness. “The Escape,” one of Barnes’s master-pieces, demonstrates a theme of contrast throughout every aspect and detail.
Barnes’ street art styled piece uses a grey background with varying light and dark tones. In the center of the image is an average sized man wearing typical business attire: black dress pants, a white, long sleeve, button-up topped with a black tie. The man’s arms are resting at his side with his hands angled out. Where his head would be, Barnes placed an explosion of bright colors: pink, orange, yellow, blue, and green.
Barnes grew up with a learning disability, absolutely hating school, and went to college in hopes of things being different (Woodley). Barnes quickly realized this was not the case. He continued to struggle and eventually made the decision to drop out and take his life in a new direction to which he had long aspired. Luckily for him, he comes from a very supportive and artistic family who encouraged him to follow his dreams, no matter how unconventional. Barnes is very authentic and open about being a college dropout because he wants people to know there is more than one path to success and different ways to measure it. In this particular piece, he is putting an emphasis on how damaging certain expectations or “social norms” can be. Barnes created the concept for this piece, which he fittingly entitled “The Escape,” about a year after dropping out college