Ugh, I'm brilliant.
Last night a large group of us were walking back to my friend's house, and my friend Chris and I were running and jumping in puddles. Well in a move of sheer intelligence and grace, I was trying to splash down in a puddle with each footfall by running and jumping as hard as possible. For some reason it did not occur to me that the reason puddles exist is because of uneven ground beneath them. I splashed down with my right ankle into a jagged pot hole posing as an innocent puddle, and I believe I have sprained my ankle. Go me. The worst part is that my car is still at Sam's house, and I can't so much walk anywhere to get an ankle brace. I'm not even going to get into how I have to work in the morning, and do a huge shoot for my senior. This sucks so crazy bad.

I may find this more abhorrent because I'm a vegetarian, and strongly believe in Animal Rights, but seriously... come on. The below images are C-Prints by artist Nathalia Edenmont from the Former Soviet Union. She kills and dismembers mice, rabbits, house cats, and chickens for the sake of her art. I can enjoy the formal beauty of her images but simply can't get over the fact that it's the shock value that she depends on to make here photographs noteworthy. Organizations like PETA have broken into the only gallery which will showcase her work, and destroyed exhibits.




Another artist that I have been reading about recently is Damien Hirst. He is being canonized as the UK's most famous living artist. He has been in the media lately because of his work "For the Love of God" in which he bedazzled a human skull with over 1,100 karats in diamonds set in platinum. It is in negotiations to be sold for $100,000,000, making it the highest selling piece of art in history. (I don't think he saw Blood Diamond). Anyway, the work of Hirst is often controversial. Second to his bling skull he is most famous for taking livestock, fish, and sharks and suspending them in formaldehyde, and plastic. His work reminds me of Bodyworlds which we've discussed a lot in past classes. But Bodyworlds isn't touted as and art exhibit, it is seen as scientific. What is so artistic about someone who takes a chainsaw to a calf and sticks it in a tank to compliment it's bisected mother? The strangest part is that there is far less controversy over Hirst's art than Edenmond. I believe this is because Hirst is not the killer of his subjects. It also goes to show you that the smaller and cuter the animal being disemboweled the greater the outrage.





I am left to wonder if Edenmont had turned a calf's head into a hand puppet, would she have been left alone? Or had she plasticized her pet cat instead of putting it's head on a floral pedestal would the public have cared?

Go forth and stick your dog in a tank of formaldehyde! It is art after all.

After changing my senior thesis idea about three times I've settled on this. I am creating a family by photographing, and subsequentialy photoshopping subjects to a point where they look related. The final images will be printed as four color lithographs using the Pronto Plate technique. This is the first image from the series. I'm naming her Dorthea Lovejoy, and she will have a twin named Clarissa Lovejoy. This is actually my best friend Claire. I've enlarged her head and eyes to make her look oddly childlike. I'm a huge fan or Loretta Lux and she's becoming a huge influence on this project.