weird commercials

OK, I'm up late and I'm trying to find a commercial on youtube that I kept seeing in Amersterdam when I was there in 2004, and I finally found something very, very close to it. This stupid little song has been stuck in my head for 5 years! It's a ring tone commercial with a dancing purple hippo wearing a thong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRRyv2_mfEM&feature=related

And while perusing the links I also stumbled upon these gems:

Truly creepy 80's Kinder Egg commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOFRIWx5F9c

Old (50's?) McDonald's commercial featuring a bizarre Ronald McDonald:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krXP_TUZqsk&feature=related

And, just for Jamie, a Bruce Lee IKEA commercial from Japan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHFDHsZvBrs&feature=related

ENJOY!

Happy Inauguration Day!

Wave Goodbye

I've been dragging my feet on posting this, and now that the new year is dawning and the old waning, it seems the opportune moment, considering the theme...

When the CAFfeine artists (http://www.caffienesouth.com/) teamed up with the band Wasted Wine and we were charged with creating visual manifestations of their songs, I have to admit I was a little worried about which tune they would choose for me. That worry disipated completely when they sent me the lyrics to "Wave Goodbye":

Wave Goodbye
when your brothers won't love you at all

and your sisters are strange as your skin

and your father is dying but pretends not to know

and your lips are thirsty and thin
when you stare at the old southern cross

when you speak not the tongue of your kin

you can take off your black face and stand on your own

it's alright if you won't let me in.
wave goodbye to your sorrow my friend

sleep will come once your body is fed

so keep following me to your end

I’ve a place for you laid out ahead

keep running and watching your feet

keep painting your hands and mouth red
if you want me please tell me be more discreet

help me pull my tongue unto the bed

-lyrics and music by Robert Gowan & Adam Murphy (http://www.wastedwine.com/)

I began working on a life-sized beaded "skin", using clear glass beads and red thread, and my tried and true peyote stitch technique. I laid down on some paper and had my husband trace an outline of my body, so the piece is the same height and width as my actual body. I see the piece as a shed skin, a shadow of my former self, a reminder that we all have the power within us to shake off the psychological and emotional burdens of our lives and begin fresh, start anew when we are ready to do so.

I had never taken on such an ambitious project and worked pretty much non-stop for 4 months to complete it on time for the Dec. 5th unveiling. As I looked at it, finished and in place, I kept thinking of one specific part of the song "when you speak not the tongue of your kin, you can take off your black face and stand on your own, it's alright if you won't let me in. Wave goodbye to your sorrow my friend..." I felt, after that gruelling 4 months, as though I had almost literally shed my own skin, and it was an invigerating feeling, if not a little bittersweet...like the song. It was one of the most emotional experiences I've had creating and displaying my work, and that's saying a lot coming from me.

The finished piece contains over 50,000 beads, and was laid out on a matress and sprinkled with loose beads and hundreds of small bits of thread that I had cut from the "body" as I had gone along--skin cells and tiny capillaries from my shed skin, if you will.

The finished work:

The info card reads: Saying "goodbye" is often frightening and unsettling, but it can also symbolize a new beginning, a leaving behind of the old and an embracing of the new. This piece was constructed (over several months) to be the same height and width as my own body, and I have come to think of it as my own shed skin, a symbol of my own fresh start.

The "installation":

The process and small pieces of the whole:

New piece--"Penelope"

ABC Show

This is Ashley's piece in the ABC show at HUB-BUB's Showroom. Each artist interpreted a letter of the alphabet, and although I wasn't much inspired by the theme myself, I have to say it's a really interesting and fun show. Ashley claims that the ancient Egyptian symbol for "monkey" was a symbol that later became the basis for "Q" in our modern alphabet...therefore "Q" = MONKEY POWER!!!!

Check out Ash's blog for lots of other rockin' stuff...http://thrdgll.blogspot.com/

Art Mart 2008

Ash and I enjoyed 7 hours of fresh air and sunshine (lots and lots of direct sunshine--we're red today!) yesterday afternoon at HUB-BUB's Art Mart on Main Street Spartanburg. This year the Art Mart was part of the first annual Taste of Spartanburg festival, and lots and lots of people came out for the event to eat great food, to eat ice cream, to drink wine and beer, and to browse through some cool local art and enjoy some live music and dancing.

It was great seeing friends from SCPL and SCC and CAFfeine, too!

www.hub-bub.com/

More art from 080808

More great art from the show (in no particular order). From the top: Darlene Fuhst's "Infuriate" (the handle of each knife contains thoughtless or mean quotes that Darlene has been told or overheard about herself) and "Exterminate" (inspired by the roach Darlene found in her cereal one morning), Alexia Timberlake's "Bifurcate" and "Palpate" (two of 16 pieces hung together, each being plexiglass, wax, and several other constituents) , Deb Pagano's "Concentrate" (multimedia piece commentating on the overuse of prescription drugs in children)and "Salivate" (a multimedia piece commentating on the child pageantry circuit), AnnDouglas Pinckney-McCloud's "Commemorate" (a photo of a model of the General Lee), JJ Ohlinger's "Impersonate"(his vision of how George fixes himself up with Laura's eyeshadow and sings "Happy Birthday Mr. President" to himself after a long hard day of governing) , Michael Brodeur's 4 pieces "Urinate," "Salivate," "Menstruate," and "Ejaculate" (created from the bodily fluids they correspond with as well as other pigments), and Robert Urban's "Capitulate" (a commentary on the endangered status of the 4th Amendment).