1st of Cover Analysis

   It's no surprise that as a people, New Yorkers is often times held in both high regards and deep resentment compared to other areas in our nation. Some love us because of our close association to the financial security to our nation's future, our many contributions to the sciences that have come out of our brightest minds, and our cultural accomplishment towards the arts, theator, and the beauty of our monuments. On the downside, we have a reputation for bigotry against states with a different view, the overcrowding of our cities, and the reputation for letting money come first over family and friends. For me, this state is best defined by David Hockneys' painting of "Shoes" as a progresssive state looking forward to the future with a connection to our history.
  
   David Hockney is a well known and repected artist in painting, so much so that he as won several prestigious awards by the art community and has sold paintings for hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it was deemed a heresy by some of the more classical members of the art community that his cover work for the "New Yorker" was created using Apples Inc. "Brushes" App; they could not fathom that such a highly respectable and prestigious artist would lower himself to relying on technology instead of a brush and paper. My answer to them is this: were cavemen first critizied for drawing on walls by their peers? What about the first human to convey poetry onto paper instead of passing it on through oral communication?

   It is human nature to be afraid of the unknown and strange, it's how our ancestors learned to fear the predators that their cavestep and avoid the creepy-crawlies hiding in the dark. But what Hockney has done is simply live up the the New York way of life, adapt to the new and blend with the old. Hockney kept his simple style of everyday objects to represent meaning to complex issues, but used the next new technological leap to expand upon his creativity. For me, it's a representation that New Yorkers are able to keep the old, but use the new to better ourselves.

   At first, I had serious doubts about what topics and ideas I could express about my cover. It looked so simple and unimportant, but as I dug deeper into this paintings backstory and the politics surrounding it, I grew to form my own unique opinion about this representation of the New York lifestyle. Maybe that's the point Hockney was originally trying to express? That we're not a state filled with the stereotypes of crocked cops, loudmouth businessmen, and corrupt politicians; but that all this negativity is on the surface. You just need to dig alittle deeper to discover it's true value.