A picture...

.. is worth a thousand words.

... But there is no way I'm going to be that cheeky.



This blogspot image uploader is aggravating to the extreme. Either it squishes my image, or inserts a link that does not thumbnail. Yvonne is not pleased.

Here is a link to the full 800px width one.

Seating Arrangements

The chairs are all the same, but in a sense, they are not. Afterall, I picked the same style chairs, but their colors differ.

I painted the chairs-- they were found objects; unwanted, unnoticed, treasure only for a dumpster diving artist hunting for ready-mades to incorporate into his or her piece. When I found the chairs, the old paint was chipping off, the wood was exposed, bared, and splitting; all in all, they were unwanted pieces of out-grown furniture. I fixed them up and painted them. Just for some added, random chance in the piece, the colors I picked were the first three cans of paint I found in my garage. And, it just so happened that they were black, white and yellow.

The paint I used was simple house paint that anyone could pick up from a local hardware store. But, as is the nature of house paint, it was not as glossy as I would have liked, so I lacquered the chairs with a thick coat of gloss topcoat for that extra little "oomph." I glossed these chairs to make them look more appealing, more fresh and clean, and most of all, hopefully more welcoming to a sitter.

The chairs lacked the little felt pads that would have eliminated squeaking when the legs scraped across the floor. I left them that way. I felt exhilarated by the audible sensation that the chairs created when I shifted them around.

The seats of the chairs were flat, there were no grooves carved into the seat to secure a resting person's buttocks and keep them from sliding on the slick, painted wood. There were no arms on the chairs when I found them, and I intended to keep them that way. They felt like utilitarian, dining room chairs, and again, I wished to preserve the overall appearance of the chair, with the exception of cleaning them up.

I placed the white chair deliberately under a spotlight. I wanted to present the piece of furniture as an art piece--like a sculpture in a museum. There was a white light on it, because I did not want to taint the purity of white, the true lack of color that white is.

The yellow chair was vibrant, sunny and bright. I wanted to emphasize the lively color by placing it outside in the sun, where the bright, natural light made it really "pop", like fresh flowers in a pot.

With one chair in the main exhibition room, and a second outside, I wanted to place the third chair somewhere that people frequented; perhaps in a smaller, darker room with no access to natural light...  And, I thought: the bathroom is perfect! In my mind, the lack of natural, white light was a perfect compliment to the black of the chair. In the end, the chairs were situated in places where they would be seen, places where they could interact with the audience and perhaps serve a purpose as a piece of furniture to sit on.

I am for an art that interacts and leaves the audience reminiscing about their experience. If I had another opportunity to do a similar piece, I would...

Dictatorship, schmictatorship.

If I ruled the world...

Well, let us assume for a moment, that I were someone powerful, benevolent and good...

If I ruled the world, I would make it so that the middle-class, the lower-class, the derelict (ADD COMMA) and all the rest no longer suffered. There would be no discrimination, just mutual respect between sexes, between those of differing sexual preferences and identities, between races. Homosexual couples would receive the same rights as heterosexual ones. Everyone is equal.

If I ruled the world, I would promote an equal (ADD DASH) opportunity education system, so that everyone would receive the chance and right to learn. I would push studies in 'green'. I would try to clean up the air, the earth, the seas, to rid the world of environmental problems, and to rectify all that we have done with pollution and over-harvesting. Money would be put into research for disease control and anywhere else where it is needed most, and I would endeavor to rid the world of starvation, disease and poverty.

But, considering the world, all its people, and its global powers, I would have to be one evil (ADD COMMA) bad-ass motherfucker to have taken over it. (YOU CAN SAY 'THE WORLD' AGAIN, INSTEAD OF 'IT'.) Where my perfect little utopia above sounds like Communism done right; (USE A COMMA HERE INSTEAD OF A SEMI-COLON) I'd much rather have a dictatorship where I make things right. Forcefully.

If I ruled the world, I would own the biggest, baddest, most powerful and state-of-the-art military and chemical organization; chock full of the most absurd, unbelievable weapons, bio-weapons and technology. I would patrol my streets with tanks if it took that much to keep the people in line.

Despite my initial cruel and frightening takeover, I assure you that my intentions are noble. To unite the earth under one government, would turn it into a super-utopia. To be rid of all discrimination, to pass policies that would allow money to trickle down evenly. To bring about world peace through violent union.

I would give such instruction to my military:
Keep peace, do not run over pedestrians in streets when patrolling. Stop at stop lights when the lights turn red, follow traffic laws of the city. You set an example for the rest of the world. If you respect the people, they respect you. However, if any one of those upstarts that tries to protest so much as touches your vehicle, take it as an aggressive act and respond appropriately. EVERYTHING IS A SHOW OF BRUTE-FREAKING-SUPREME-FORCE.

And finally to consider, as the spoils of war, I would, as Supreme Dictator of Earth, indulge in petty and bigoted things. (THE USE OF 'TO CONSIDER' HERE IS CONFUSING. PERHAPS YOU CAN RE-WRITE THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THIS PARAGRAPH. ALSO, USE A COLON BEFORE THIS LIST THAT FOLLOWS, AND USE SEMI-COLONS THE SEPARATE THE ITEMS ON THE LIST THAT FOLLOWS, AND NO CAPITALIZATION FOR THE ITEMS ON THE LIST.) Like a harem of beautiful people. A zoo of the most exotic animals. A private jet. A private symphony to play my theme song-- why yes, I would go so far as to have a theme song composed for me. I would also like to have a heated-indoor-swimming-pool, and a garage full of luxury cars. As every super dictator is wont to do... at some point or another, because they are special.

It's probably a good thing I don't have megalomaniacal tendencies, nor do I aspire to rule the world.

Ubiquitous Undignified Ponies

Unexpected! Tonight's the night of the performance, young people arrested in their harnesses. Strapped to ceilings.

Usurp! I fight the authority of gravity. The wall is my illegal country where my feet touch down. I command that which normally lies flat to the earth.

Up! I climb and suspend myself, arrested in my harness. It stops my fall, keeps my skull from cracking on the solid concrete "earth" that humans have so arrogantly created to cover mother earth's soil and natural floors.

Up! It stops my descent into broken bones, broken skin, and broken pride.

Under! ... and over I weave between the dancers, leaping and crawling under guide ropes that swing from lofty heights.

Unrelenting! My feet write invisible words on the wall, with each step-- words are left in silent footprints. Not fit to be seen, they write an article for none. No beholder to behold.

Unbelievable! ... a chrome pony standing there, majestically.

Unbreakable! The ropes hold me up, and I trust them.

Unwilling! I subject the ropes to my weight, arrested in their place by my body. Arrested by the pulleys, by the harnesses, by gravity.

Undeserving! As we on top are journalists with our feet tap-tapping, pad-padding across the white walls. How we defy the laws of gravity with human constructs; rope, metal, ladders, airplanes, helicopters, rockets; we resist, we are illegal, we are illegitimate for the opportunity to dance against gravity.

Unbelievable! ... a chrome pony standing there. I am the chrome pony. I have become a show horse in essence.

Unbelievable! ... that I prance in harnesses like a pony.

Unremarkable! How I start to resemble a harnessed beast with no control over my own body. There are no whips to start me, really, do I have no control?

Unwilling! But willing? I pull against the harness, tug against the bonds and move, in straight lines, guided.

Unguided! It is what I want to do, but yet the harnesses make my will illegal, and ever the obeisant beast, I follow my guides. I follow my paths. I follow the very path that exists so-and-such meters from the ceiling without deviation.

Unbelievable! I am the pony, prancing beautifully, guided by crudely fashioned bridles, bridles that are unfit to my grace.

Undeserving! Of this symbolism, for I am the artist, freed of gravity and its demands. Yet subject to a human will of how far I float above the hard, concrete floor. I am subject to the risk of falling at the whim of what holds me up.

Ugly! This blank white country I illegally walk upon. A quilt of colors encompasses the form of my face. How deformed my face is as I droop towards the earth. Expression flat as a sculpture with no true features, no eyes, just mock ones painted, no nose, just a ridge.

Unable! To fight the gravity that I illegally walk against, to resist its enticing pull, the nurturing embrace that which still caress my feet without rupturing my sides-- as these ropes do, digging into my fatty flesh, my body wishes to kiss the ground but the harnesses do not let me.

Unfit! In my sideways world, is this figure of human caricature, of blocks painted to represent someone like me. Unfit to describe a person who resists the natural pull of gravity, the illegal nature of my dance upon the walls, the perverse pony-play that I was not made aware of until I leapt across another dancer's ropes-- like a leaping show pony, now I, harnessed and bridled, am guided along a straight boring path to a destination that exists not.

Unfit! Really? But so many parallels; between my lack of control to gravity without bonds, and lack of control to these harnesses without gravity, exist. The wall an illegal canvas, the harnesses that allow me to animalize.

Uncontrollable! Am I in control? This is but an "illegal" thought I have where I control my movements. Gravity holds me down and these ropes hold me up. I am not sure where I should be, up or down. Guided to stand flat, guided to walk one path. Control is uncontrollable to this show pony on the wall.