ass kicking

It's been a bit since my last posting.  I got my ass handed to me by a new painting prof this fall.  I was pretty pissed off and snarling at him for most of the semester, but toward the end I started to come around.  I realized that all the crying and frustration was really worth something.  I was pushed to produce work with meaning and a depth of thought I had no idea I was capable of.
The work changed me on a molecular level.  Well...that may be a bit extravagant but it got pretty damned real.  The semester is over and I still have not actually completed a piece, but somehow I still made it out of the class with an A- !!  That kind of killed my 4.0 but it's way better than I expected to get.  And it was worth it.

Above was the first painting I started and my biggest struggle.  It's after Da Vinci's Girl with the Ermine.  I'm trashing up the classic work of art.  The girl in my painting is a picture of my adorable little sister.  The raccoon in her arms is, among other things, a play on the racial slur "coon."  This piece (and all of the pieces) are somewhat self portraits.  

This piece (above) is my comic relief, if there is such a thing when dealing with such heavy topics.  It is a parody on Westboro Baptist Church and closed systems.

While the other two pieces are references to myself, this last piece is a true self portrait (that's me under the hood).  My parents were KKK members and my step father has a robe that his grandfather used in the 30s, apparently.  When I was growing up, I went right along with this line of thought.  I have a lot of guilt about it, though I was a child and didn't know any different.  I am wearing a "white trash" tshirt and my fingers and stuck in a Chinese finger trap, alluding to the ignorance of this cycle and the closed system (inability to escape).
I would say, enjoy! Though these are some heavy topics.  They are very powerful for me and have lent me a voice.  I hope they do something for you! Now to finish the dang things!