Each issue from The New Yorker magazine features a different cover from various artists. The publishers chose illustrations that can portray New York City in its current time. Harry Bliss is a talented artist with many years of experience that creates many of this magazine’s covers. The April 30th, 2007 issue with the “Paint by Pixels” cover by Harry Bliss represents the tourist view of New York City and how they perceive things to be. The cover helps develop an interest in how a tourist would view something that they see for the first time, as opposed to the local city living person due to the interest the couple shows when they view the art piece in their camera. The cover shows us a piece of artwork as a bigger picture and then shows a couple who have taken a picture of this big picture and have decided to view it on their smaller camera. "Paint by Pixels" establishes the idea that not all that we see has the same meaning for everyone, it allows us to see that everything in life is truly unique and that we all have different view points. “Paint by Pixels” acts as a self-portrait of The New Yorker and its audience because each reader has their own ideas and view points, just like each New Yorker cover is not the same as the last. Each issue itself has its own representation of New York City, and of its audience, but just as each cover is unique, the audience's view is as unique as the covers themselves.
“Paint by Pixels” shows two people admiring an art piece in a gallery. The art piece is an abstract painting of splashed colors on a canvas. The colors are vibrant and do not have any specific pattern. The two characters have been drawn with their backs toward the reader, so it is impossible to see their faces and emotions, which leaves us to interpret how they are viewing this artwork. The man on “Paint by Pixels” has taken a photo of the artwork with his camera. Harry Bliss interestingly created the cover with the man and woman reviewing the photograph. This technique of showing the smaller picture in front of the bigger picture shows the general difference between the big picture and the little picture in life. This represents how our views in life are not always right and how we all have different ways of understanding things. With this technique, we see how tourists view things as whats simply in front of them and do not realize that there is a bigger deeper meaning in things than what we simply see right in front of our eyes. The smaller picture on the camera represents the touristic view of things in the city, while the bigger picture represents the common city living view of things in the city.
Things in life can be interpreted in many ways. From “Paint by Pixels,” we can see this in the mix of colors in the artwork. The many different colors in the artwork can represent the many different views that people have of the city. The bigger picture of the artwork can represent how the people of the city view New York City since there are many people who live in the city and have strong view points on how they interpret the city. The photograph on the camera can represent how a tourist views the city, since their interpretation won't be as strong when compared to a common city living person. The two people on the cover can be viewed as tourists since they have taken a picture of the artwork instead of viewing the bigger piece in front of them. “Paint by Pixels” also reveals a sort of humorous view of tourists, since they are deciding to view such a big piece of artwork on such a small tiny camera. This can be a representation of how a tourist is so fascinated with such small minimal things that a local would find so common and regular throughout their day.
The July 5th, 1999 issue features another piece from Harry Bliss. On this cover we see a celebration along the darkened New York City skyline. The fireworks from this illustration represent a time of happiness for New Yorkers, considering the issue was released a day after Independence Day. On the rooftops you can see people enjoying the show, and even a couple kissing which I believe is important when in relation to “Paint by Pixels.” Both covers’ show couples who are enjoying something that is there in front of them. However, the most important thing to note from this cover is the man sitting in his apartment. This man chose the alternate choice to watch the firework display on his television, rather than enjoying the show on his rooftop. This supports the idea of the tourist versus local view of events around the city. A tourist would be so fascinated by this whole July 4th experience around the city, but to a local this would be nothing as serious due to the fact that are there every year for that event. The people on the rooftops relate to the "Paint by Pixels" couple, in the way that they are viewing this display of art, the fireworks. However, the man sitting alone relates to the couple more due to the way that they are deciding to view what is in front of them. They both have decided to take this big picture and minimize it into something smaller than what it really is, which can lead to them not seeing the true meaning of what is front of their face.
The article I decided to use to tie the readers to the cover is the picture of the two fish on the bottom left corner of page 46. In this picture we see two fish; one big fish with hidden agenda written on it and a smaller fish with agenda written on it. We can also see how the bigger fish is trying to eat the smaller fish. To me, this represents how the bigger picture is always there, but hidden because we only notice the smaller picture in front of us. This ties into the cover with the couple looking at the smaller version of the artwork on the camera instead of looking at the bigger picture that is front of them. This relates to how we view things and our perception of things in the world. We all choose to see things how we want to in life and we all have different views. This is represented in how the covers decide to depict how people decide to look at what’s in front of them, there will always be a bigger picture in front with a "hidden agenda", but what we actually see and decide to believe becomes the "agenda” that we follow.
Harry Bliss’ New Yorker covers reveal a sense of togetherness, a diverse community among the people, and an idea of a picture much larger than we realize. Harry's art reveals a way to distinguish between the tourist view and the local view of the city. There are many different types of people in New York City, and through Harry’s covers we can see that he indicates this fact through the emotions and actions that his characters portray. Through his covers, Harry shows that there are two types of people who occupy the city, the local and the tourist, and that they both have their own viewpoints, but in the end these two types of people come together to make up the great city that is, New York City.
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