Sadly didn’t get to everything I’d hoped to do this weekend, again. Combination of not feeling great and being busy with other required things. Still have to write a paper for my class and create more tablet drawings, as well as sort and print the many images that have accumulated as a result of this fabulous course. Am so grateful for this class as it has not only helped me with recertification, but has brought me closer to where I want to be artistically. That is the “thing” to use to combat the three hours of wasted life in my car! My teaching brain is kicking in...I found myself wandering to the Staples “Back to School” ads and thinking about how I will be labeling art supplies at 2am this morning. Really. !!
I listened to Francis Dunnery’s most recent radio show yesterday while cooking dog and bird food. He cracks me up. Recently turned vegetarian, he now demands that anyone who eats meat has to kill their own food. In his rambling, funny monologue he says “Go shoot a squirrel,” and that someone should feel free to eat meat if they have the guts to kill it themselves. I have to agree and live in a state of conflict with this issue. I cry over a dead mouse, but constantly cook chicken for the dogs, and do eat meat from time to time. So inconsistent. Another tangent Francis went off on made me laugh out loud -- he wants to start a movement called “Fat Lives Matter.” He refers to himself as a “fat bastard” as part of his reflection of growing older.
The FLM movement would be quite a hit these days. Personally, as someone who has lived with excessive weight since being a teenager, I get the struggle and challenge of being heavy in a physique-obsessed culture. There is a sense of shame associated with not being “average” and fit, even if that shame makes no sense. Even when I was much thinner I felt a sense of shame and not fitting in because of my body size and shape. These days obesity is so common that many choose to embrace it and even celebrate it. It is kind of like fat is the new gay, now that being gay is so commonly culturally acceptable. Everywhere I go I find myself noticing how big so many people are now. Is it genetics? Poor diet and habits? Illness? Does it matter? I do think it is great that bigger people are feeling less shameful over their bodies and let it all hang out, to a certain degree. And that many overweight people are proud of who they are, making the most of it and being bold in their fashion choices. Still, though, sometimes it is scary to step back and look at how heavy so many people now are. Being overweight does not mean someone is lazy, stupid, or slow -- but it is still stigmatized in our culture. And in my mind. I have to constantly remind myself to accept the body I have, as others do. Maybe in my next life I’ll get a chance at being a skinny-minnie that doesn’t have to combat thoughts of being “less than” all the time because of metabolism, health, and genetics. SIgh. Until then, as far as FLM goes, “been there, done that, have the t-shirt!” Once again there is dissonance between the cognitive and the emotional. Quite a rift.
For an art link today, the only choice that comes to mind is the visually delicious Annabel Rainbow, who unashamedly presents heaviness in all its glory and truth, in art quilt form. The unabashedly naked figures have such a presence in her work -- not demeaning, not apologizing, but not really congratulating, either. They just “are.” Classy work. Cheers!