Huffing or Photographing?

Sunday night, my friends and I decided to do a nude photo shoot. It was pretty spontaneous but being the art and photography freaks that we were, we went with it. Jeff spray painted words onto my back and Courtney's back, and we showed it off. Ben photographed digitally to enhance his portfolio, and Jeff was the monkey (the one who does all the dirty work the photographer can't). After we finished the shoot, Courtney took a shower to get rid of the paint and I was sitting in my room wrapped in a towel, waiting to get in the shower. I got a knock on my door, opened it, and saw 3 police officers. I was so shocked and had no idea what I did wrong. But apparently my roommates and other people in the building had smelled the paint and thought we were in my room huffing it. They didn't knock on the door, didn't call, didn't say a word to me or tell me how they were feeling. Instead, they had called the police. Luckily, the police thought this was just funny and didn't press any charges. They all just laughed and checked our I.D.s.
I apologized to my roommates, but didn't get a very positive response. I guess I really screwed up on this one.

L.H.O.O.Q.

"It appears not to be a stretch to say that this is "Duchamp's most famous ready-made" (Ramirez 46). Many people, including those outside of academia, recognize this now infamous image as inextricably attached to Marcel Duchamp.

This cheap reproduction of the famous ideal of beauty that is Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa has been adorned with a comical moustache and goatee, thus deserving its alternate title Joconde aux Moustaches. L.H.O.O.Q. is two-dimensional, like only several other Readymades including Apolinere Enameled, Pharmacy, and French Military Paper.

The title is essentially a phonetic game. As Duchamp himself noted in a 1966 interview, "I really like this kind of game, because I find that you can do a lot of them. By simply reading the letters in French, even in any language, some astonishing things happen" (Cabanne 63). When read quickly in French, the title L.H.O.O.Q. sounds like a sentence translating to "She has a hot bum/ass." This is the most commonly sited meaning of the phrase, but many other ideas also surround this intriguing group of letters. Duchamp gave a "loose" translation of L.H.O.O.Q. as "there is fire down below" in a late interview (Schwarz 203). Steefel points out that, when spoken in English, L.H.O.O.Q. sounds like "LOOK" (50). Thus the piece could have a further function as a commentary on the relationship between artist and viewer, which Duchamp was admittedly very interested in. Kuspit supports a much more overtly sexual interpretation, explaining, "It is a multilayered pun: the letters become words which become a devaluing male comment on the beautiful, dignified woman - she's just another slut. She's smiling because she's thinking of being fucked - more probably, of masturbating, that is, fucking herself" ("Laugh" 111).

The viewer should be wary of reading too far into something that is really only grounded in speculation. Could the artist have not intended such a reading? We may never know for sure, but Philip Larson argues an interesting point (although without citing a source for this fact, his assertion seems just as ungrounded as the speculations he argues against): "Not found in most writings about Duchamp is the faintly amusing fact that Duchamp intended us to read the inscription as a series of enunciated French letters, like O.U.R.A.Q.T. in English. The Duchamp blurb comes out as something more unforgivable than 'She has a hot ass'" (213).

Finally, Duchamp's choice of the Mona Lisa may not have been as arbitrary as often assumed. There may be a more personal reason why Duchamp focused on this particular example of ideal aesthetic beauty. Duchamp's friend Guillaume Apollinaire was falsely detained in connection with the theft of the Mona Lisa and some small sculptures from the Louvre several years prior to Duchamp's creation of this Readymade. This may be Duchamp's way of indirectly referencing his friend Apollinaire."

http://arthist.binghamton.edu/duchamp/LHOOQ.html

SPRING!!!!

Spring is finally here!!! It's so warm outside!! No more jackets, snow boots, or ear muffs. Time to pull out the sandals, dresses, and bikinis!!

=]

<3 spring

We could all die at any moment.
Somebody could drive by, shoot us.
A plane could crash into our house.
Our subways could collide.
We could choke on our food.
We could get hit by a drunk driver.
Blown up by a suicide-bomber.
It's an eerie feeling.
Moral of the story:
Live every day like it's your last.
Have fun =]

you know who you are

stop reading my blog. and stay out of my life.

Maybe Memories....

I miss all these fun times:

ummmmhummmmmmm Love.... <3

Tonight I discovered that all of my cousins had blogs--which I am now anonymously following. It gives me this joy inside to know they are still crazy about their husbands and wives and absolutely love their children. My cousins write about the nicest, most genuine things. Love, friendship, happiness. <3 I hope I can love the way they do...

Anyways, now that I got that tangent out of my head, I want to tell you about my week. I GOT MY WISDOM TEETH OUT! Day 1: My cheeks are starting to swell... and it doesn't look like I'm in too much pain.... I'm still numb...
Day 2: Yeah... here comes the swelling, and the pain.


Day 3: Not so bad, but now I have a black eye...

Later that day: Here I am on the phone with beloved Mika... he is trying to comfort me:


I just wish I could go back to the way I looked exactly a year ago:

There's a big difference between this year and last....

I have become a Tiny Fey-Look-A-Like-Book-Worm-Photo-Lab-Mutant-Geek ;)

It's All Fairly Deserved, Trust That Is.

This school year has been one crazy one. Seems like one friend comes along, and another leaves. And this process just keeps happening, over and over. I've kicked rude people out of my life, and because of that, many people hate me. I've had many rumors started about me. Many prank phone calls and texts all saying nasty stuff. I've had people whom I thought were amazing friends betray me, cheat on me, scream at me, and completely kick me out of their life as well. I've replaced old friends with new friends, and they've replaced me too. I've met amazing people, learned from them, and I look up to them. I respect them. I respect mostly everybody, and everything. I even respect the people whom disrespect me and kicked me out of their lives. I don't care if I'm highly disrespected by them--that's their decision-- and to be frank, I'm sure I deserve it. I can't be the best person. But I can try to give you my best. I can give you my friendship, and love. I can care about you, and I would love to spend time with you. But most of all, I'm gonna have an extremely hard time trusting you.