Analyzing Paintings

Painting: 'Landscape of Butterflies' by Salvador Dali


Observations
- wall of some sort is blocking out blue skies
- butterflies' shadows are distorted a bit
- butterflies are glowing
- small mountains in background
- butterflies are flying to get deeper in protection (?) of the wall

Inferences
- since they are flying more into wall, the wall may be protecting the butterflies
- the mountains and sky are some sort of reality, and maybe the shadows being distorted are showing how that reality is breaking
- the clouds in the sky represent a troubling thing
- the butterflies are (or think they are) in a better place than they were, with the wall protecting them
- mountains may represent past emotions or events

Interpretations
I think Dali is trying to say here is that when something upsets us, we believe that if we escape, everything will be ok again. The distorted shadows represent who the butterflies truly are, and we always try to leave behind who we are if we think we aren't good enough or are too afraid to take the next steps in our life. We as people tend to give in to critique and build an internal wall to try and stop it from hitting us, sometimes only working in the opposite way. We think disconnecting ourselves from the world will save us (hence the glowing of the butterflies), but really it hurts us even more.