Annoyances.

Alright, so I don't think it's common courtesy to blog twice in one day on the same blog... so I waited until after midnight, my time (in Italy.)

I am absolutely surrounded by art here, and I love it, but there's just something about the art world. Everyone just HAS to make a point about something. It's ok, but it just gets really annoying sometimes.

I've been reading this art website. It doesn't always have interesting things on it, so I don't always read it, but one article about a nude getting arrested caught my attention. I read the article, but was more interested in what people had to say about the article than the actual article itself. This is always a bad idea. I am almost one hundred percent positive that a great majority of people are either genuinely stupid or simply do not think about what they are writing the second they get onto the internet. The previous sentence is evidence of this. Don't call people stupid on the internet. Don't accuse certain types of people of being a certain way. Everyone has different opinions and it is insulting to assume that another party is less intelligent simply because they have a different belief system. When they use poor grammar and spelling, perhaps, (and I am only saying perhaps, since I know many an extremely intelligent soul (including myself at times (note all the ellipses and parenthesis))who, bless their hearts, have very poor spelling and grammar... especially on the internet) there may be some reason to be slightly more inclined to question the intellect of the writer.

What has me riled is this one gentleman who seems very upset that the nude in art is not taken as a sexual object. In his opinion, nude modeling is, for the most part, nothing but sexuality. This gentleman wrote an entire blog about this. Not an entry in a blog, an entire blog. He wrote, in my opinion, very outlandish, and seemingly not very well thought out blunt statements and then would spend the next blog either qualifying or refining his previous blog to make it sound like his points were justified while making even more outlandish statements.

Pardon me. I had not assumed that people didn't realize this. Naturally, there is always some sexuality involved in the rendering of a nude model, which is why, naturally, there is a lot of controversy surrounding it. There is certainly a certain stigma which goes with nude modeling which borders on the line of a double standard. It is definitely an interesting question for the Christian community. At my college, though we are by no uncertain terms a Christian college, we are, as art majors, required to take a figure drawing class in which there will be nude models. What do we do with this? I am perfectly fine drawing a nude figure. I haven't had to do so yet, but I am quite sure it won't be an issue. I look at nudity all the time, rendered in various ways at art museums and in films.

I have been naked before many people before. Granted, never before strangers and, to my knowledge as an adult, never before a male who was not in the medical profession. I have no problem sitting around in the buff. I consider it rather pleasant at times. I cover up when with a group of people usually, because there seems to be a lot of tension when there's a naked person in the room. I think I could tolerate my birthday suit in front of a group of art students, after all, there would be no one judging me, since drawing naked people is kind of a requirement in a figure drawing class. However, would I be comfortable, not as a person, but as a Christian doing nude modeling myself? This is really something to think about.

One of the professors on my program is doing an art project on the Saints. He is requesting nude models. I am, and it even sounds odd writing it here in a blog where I know at least a few people I am in acquaintance or am actually good friends with will be reading it, at this point half-heartedly considering doing it. I have seen some of the photographs he took of previous models in the program and they are rendered as least erotically as they can for being nude models. The book will only be done (since it will be handmade) in thirty copies for mostly private collections. This is still a little unnerving for the Christian mind, even one so questioning as myself.

Saints... nude? Yes. Well, it makes sense in the context he renders them in... but still... would I, as a Christian, be perfectly comfortable doing it? It isn't for pornographic purposes, and the human body, regardless of what the annoying blogger said, is made in God's image and was created beautiful. However, as I previously stated, nude modeling always includes a sexual nature to it, especially when the face will be easily recognizable. It will be an interesting question to ponder as I take figure drawing this semester. Probably more on this topic in the future.

A Poem in the Works

Ok, if you've ever written a poem, you will know that it works a lot like a sculpture. You start with a concept, an idea, form it and then slowly chip away at the excess or add onto it, making it into a masterpiece. I've had this concept for a very, very long time. I finally, today, was able to locate the right words to go with my concept. It isn't a finished poem. Perhaps someday, this concept will blossom further. Right now, you get a wonderful rough draft. Maybe someday, you, YOU my friend, will witness the finished masterpiece.

I found it.

The impossible moment between Two AM
and Three AM, where nothing is the same
as it once was, because no one is the same
person they were in daylight. Their minds
are bare and whatever thoughts that dared
not make their presence known during
the day are rushing through their sleeping
minds.
Here it is. Here in the twilight, with the
ringing bells and the yolk of melting sun
and the fall wind and switching strands of
hair. Here with the guitar and the dying
day. We are reborn in our torn togetherness.
We can die to ourselves. We can forget
tomorrow for tomorrow doesn't even exist.
Because we know that it wasn't meant to last.

Something that came from my facebook

I am re-posting this here, because I want to. This is directly (one particular metaphor, nestled in the middle there) and indirectly related to current events in my life. No one has recently down-played my art majorness, simply because I am currently on an art program. However, coming from a school with lots of non-art majors, this is how I felt at the time. Just a disclaimer.

Ponderings of Averageness: The Art Major Speaks

I AM SMART.

(watch as this is riddled with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes)

I am not a science major. I am not majoring in political-science. I will not major in history. I do not have the passion nor the patience to major in English. I am not majoring in psychology. I have not the skill for communications. My brains were not made to enjoy mathematics. In theory, I could have majored in anyone of these for they are all fabulous majors and they are all offered at my college.

I am majoring in art. Why am I majoring in art at a liberal arts college when it would probably be better to major in something else because the art department here is not so to speak "up to par" with art schools around the nation? First, because I have sufficient skill. That is not to say I am the best artist in existence or even at this school. It is merely to say that I have enough skill in order not to fail dismally in my art classes. Second, I enjoy it, which is a lot more than most people can say about their majors. True. I am not majoring in something 'difficult' but that doesn't mean people have the right to demean me by assuming I have a lower intelligence level than they do. I am opinionated. I can be hard-headed. I can be blunt. I can be stupid. But damn it, so can everyone else.

Never become self-righteous in your major. Not everyone may have the interest in your major and so much the better. If the entire world was interested in your major it would be a boring world. Never assume that someone in another major is less intelligent than you. Never assume that those in another major have less work or that their work isn't just as stressful or difficult for it is difficult in its own right.

Yes, we all have our days. Sometimes our workload is more than others. We feel justified in complaining about how hard our workload is for usually, we are indeed stressed out of our minds, but be careful, because before you know it, your identity might be defined by your workload.

"Oh... yes. I can't really talk to that person, they're probably studying for whatever..."

And suddenly, this person becomes a pile of homework and studying. 'But I'm in COLLEGE! We're SUPPOSED to be studying,' you exclaim, justifying your lack of attentiveness in the pain and struggles of others.

How often I've found myself pre-occupied by whatever the hell I'm supposed to be doing or whatever is on my mind and I pay no attention to the wounds of my peers. They bleed for attention. They bleed for love. They bleed for loss. They bleed alone. They bleed, lost in crowds. After a while, the only thing left is the bloodstains. And we wonder, where did all this blood come from? Did we notice the blood? It's on our shirts. We were standing that close. We were eating with them. We even talked to them. They've limped away to lick their wounds. You might have cared, but not enough to bandage them.

But I'm off topic. The point is, I AM SMART and I don't like being talked to as if I was stupid. I COULD have majored in whatever you are majoring in and don't think for one second I couldn't. I'm not trying to be conceited and I'm sorry if it sounds that way, but it is true. I got into the same college as you and could have applied for the same classes. I like YOU doing your major because it was what YOU were made to do. I CANNOT work the same way you do. I DON'T work the same way you do. I REFUSE to work the same way you do because I am just as much an individual as you are.