Captive views of the sky

Christine went to an L.A. gallery to see paintings of desert vistas. Since she lives in the desert, "I tried to imagine what these paintings might say to a viewer in Silverlake":

Exotic, I guess, I don't know. The skies were tremendous, but I see living skies like that every day, and when I see them on the wall like that, frozen and fixed, they feel like a death mask. ... It was like viewing where I live and what I love through the scope of an automatic rifle.