Response

What initially drew me to this painting was sinister atmosphere that it was creating. Even before I understood the context and what the painting was trying to represent, I saw something unsettling in the piece. The individual white figures represent Klansmen, the red is fire, and the blue is smoke, but at the piece as a whole, it looks like something is creeping out of the darkness. And whatever it is there's just enough of it obscured that I can't fully make it out but know it will come upon me in a matter of seconds. That's why I chose this piece; it was one of the first of Lewis's paintings that I saw, but in the end none of his other works invoked such a strong emotional response in me.