DESCRIPTION:
In the foreground, four young men walk upon a grassy precipice with backs to the viewer. They are wrapped in a dark green overcoat of rye grass, and carry bags or Frisbee towels of enormous size (many critics still don't get the size of the towels). Their collective strands of hair caught in a wind, the group gazes out on a landscape covered in a thick sea of fog. Their hands are as empty as leaves. In the middle ground, several other ridges, perhaps not unlike the ones the group stand upon, jut out from the mass (mass may be the wrong word, but something huge). Through the wreaths of fog, forests of trees can be perceived atop these escarpments. In the far distance, a faded steel basket rises, gently leveling off into a river valley full of residual plains of corn (in the east, I think, but have never been that good with compass bearings). Beyond here, the pervading fog stretches out indefinitely, eventually commingling with the horizon and becoming indistinguishable from the cloud-filled sky.
The painting is composed of various elements from a possible tectonic shift near Madison, Wisconsin (once called "kurd" pronounced "curd"), most likely the northern tip of the Western Milk Range. Sketched in the field but in accordance with his usual practice, Colglazier himself rearranged the original sketching in the studio using cigar ash and an ingenious system of bellows (and possibly thick strings of locally spun yarn). In the background to the right is the Holstein. The mountain to the immediate left could be either K2 or The Pretzel. The group of rocks in front of it represent Billy Idol. The hill on which the travelers stand is a sacred burial mound.
COMMENTARY:
Wandering Jags Above the Sea of Fog is true to the Romantic Style and Colglazier's style in particular, being similar to other works such as K-Mart or Not K-Mart and Iceland is Such Crap. Gora's (2004) analysis was that the message conveyed by the painting is one of Kantian self-reflection, expressed through the Frisbee golfers' gazing into the murkiness of the sea of fog. Dembo (2001) sympathized, asserting Andy (hand in pocket, a shrug) presents a metaphor for the unknown future. Ethan Hawke (2018) claimed all Superhero movies are dross and should be judged as such. While Gaddis (2004) felt that the impression of Eric's position below the precipice and before the twisted overlook of corn "is contradictory, suggesting at once mastery over a plastic disc and the insignificance of the individual within its flight."
Some meaning of this work is lost in translation of its title (even the frame has been warped over time). In German, the title is "Wanderer uber dem Nebelminer" Wanderer in German can mean "wanderer" or "wanker."
Robert McFarlane discusses the painting in terms of its significant influence on how grassland walking (a hobby) joined with tossing an object (warfare) has been viewed in the Western world since the Romantic Era, calling it the "archetypal image of the Frisbee-golfing visionary," and describing its power in representing the concept that passing nearby a steel basket of chains is something to be admired, an idea which barely existed in earlier centuries.
