Chagall- I and the Village

     I often have difficulties in understanding paintings more so than any other form of art. I can break down poetry, find the beauty in photographs, but interpreting such images as created by the artist in current and previous chapters of the book has been a challenge for me. Despite this aversion to this art form, my interest in a way was caught by Chagall's "I and the Village".
     Chagall seems to parallel reality with dream in this painting, creating images, though absurd and confusing, represent dark truths. I feel the line connecting the sight of man and creature, Chagall means to draw them as equals. That inside the creature is what the animal might offer man for man's survival. Another reason for this thinking is the image being held in the man's hand. I feel the plant was intended to be an olive branch. Despite Chagall's origins, he would probably know the histories of ancient Greece and know what it is the olive branch would represent. The olive branch is a symbol of peace, and therefore, I believe Chagall intends to portray the necessary balance between man and creature. This I feel also explains the circle that also connects man and animal.
     I have researched some other interpretations of Chagall's painting, but my view of the artwork's meaning is not so optimistic, and for that matter may not seem so sensible but it is how I view things. I found the man and upside down woman to mean much more than what we had discussed in class. The way I saw it the man represented Death, and the woman, seeming older and motherly, would represent Life and Fertility. They are placed in a way reminiscent of the yin and yang symbol many of us have seen before, being dark and light and placed head to toe. They are also placed beneath a village that is differentiated.
     Chagall also played with the meaning of religion. Rather than placing the church in the center of the community to represent a binding presence, the church is off to the side. Inside is contained a face painted dark as though in shadow. Though Chagall's green man bears a cross around his neck, a darker side to religion is portrayed. I do not mean to analyze Chagall's beliefs or values, but in the painting I cannot see, where in other interpretations have seen, that the church demonstrates a brought together community. I feel that Chagall suggests some alienation among the village which may explain the selected upside down houses.
  
     Below is an image of Chagall's "I and the Village":

     I can neither say that I much like the painting, "I and the Village", but I will not say that I found it particularly distasteful or horrible. I simply found it to be interesting and complex, more thought provoking for myself than other artworks we have seen thus far.