Lakshmi Tatma

Lakshmi Tatma, or लक्ष्मी तात्मा, was born in Araria district, Bihar in 2005. This young girl however was born with 4 arms and 4 legs.  She was actually one of a pair of ischiopagus conjoined twins where one twin was headless due to its head atrophying and chest underdeveloping in the womb. The result looked like one child with four arms and four legs.
Her parents named after Lakshmi, a multi-limbed goddess of wealth.
When she was born, locals saw Lakshmi as a spiritual sign. She was thought to be a reincarnation of the goddess Lakshmi.
Eventually, Lakshmi had her extra limbs surgically removed.

What I find so interesting about this birth deformity is the fact that Lakshmi was thought to be a goddess by the Indian culture, not a freak of nature. It goes to show how culture can subconsciously effect our opinions.

How would Lakshmi's story differed if she was born in America? Holland? Mongolia?
Can culture and religion itself effect the opinion of someone?

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

I made this card back in March, but it missing! I found it yesterday when I was cleaning off my desk.
I find similarities with this piece and "Side by Side." At the time, I was still working with this idea of deformities and symmetrical beauty. In this piece, I tried to incorporate a third eye between the two girls. 

The third eye concept can be viewed differently. The shared eye can be seen as a deformity; however, it could also be seen as a blessing. It's up to the view to find a balance between the bizarre and normal. I also used the third eye idea for my other library card "Indian Handcrafts."
Well here it is,

I love how the skin texture turned out. It makes me want to work on a much larger scale then just a 3" x 5" scale. Stay tuned for more!

Indian Handcrafts

It's been awhile! These last few weeks have been nuts to say the least. Graduation, parties, shows, more parties, and now my summer has officially begun! NO SUMMER READING!
It's time to have ice cream for breakfast, bballin', lazin' in the sun, late night pool hoppin', and some good ole lemonade sippin'.

May 20th was my first six month anniversary (woah). And a certain someone got confused and thought it was May 21st. No harm done though! I received a beautiful letter holder! It will go to good use next year no doubt about it. In return, I made a library card for Sean Thompson(that certain someone). You might already know him, as the "to the wall" guitar player in PUJOL.
Here it is,

It's been a wonderful six months. Enough gooshie gooshie though, BRING ON THE SUMMER!

GO BABY GO

Pujol opens for Nobunny tonight at the Third Man Records! Get there at six, it's one $3!

Treasures

Back in the fall, I found a small book titled Eighteenth Century Painting: Compass History of Art by Wassily Photiades.

It was originally published in 1963, but the English translation volume was published in 1964. There are not that many color pictures of the paintings, so it's really hard to view the pieces. I actually saw a few that really caught my eye even without color.
I have always wanted to take an in dept art history class. Especially one on European art during the eighteenth century. Art culture just intrigues me!
The book has a about thirty of so pages of writing, but the rest of it is filled with paintings.

 What I find so fantastic and beautiful about these oil painting is the body image of women during this time. The flesh and skin is so thick and smooth. Their cheeks are always flush with a little pink. The use of folded cloth is amazing! You can see every single crease and fold.
I want to have the accuracy and discipline these artist had. Its so marvelous.

I'm feeling inspired

I like the idea of using animals as my subject matter for pieces. I like portraying the texture of fur and flesh. Here are a few inspiring photos and things.

I find out if any artwork of mine will be in the Frist on May 27th, AFTER I graduate. 

Alright!

It's been a long long weekend of nothing! The boys left for tour on Friday, but before they left they printed the t-shits. Here is one of them!

They look pretty sweet! They guys did a nice job if I do say so myself. This t-shirt is beige with a maroon. They also did a few t-shits with splattered dye. When they get back from tour, (hopefully) they will still have a few t-shirts. You should definitely get one! Only $5, what a steal!

PUJOL 
PUJOL
PUJOL
PUJOL


(Sorry, all of the pictures are backwards)

TURN YOUR SASS UP TO 666 BABY

Well it's time to get down & dirty and make some good ole t-shirts. The design above is for a local band called PUJOL (as you can see..). You should check them out if you haven't heard them already. They have a huge show coming up May 21st on Friday at Third Man Records. IT'S A MUST SEE SHOW!

Anyway, these PUJOL t-shirts should be avaliable pretty soon. I'll keep you posted!

It doesn't get more official then this,

I'm going to Art School!

SCORE!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!

A lot has changed in the last few weeks, and my life has just begun approximately 42 minutes ago.

I AM GOING TO THE SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO!
WHAT? Well, to make a long story short, I was approached by an additional $10,000 oppertunity to further my education as an undergraduate. So I thought about it. I'm still stuck with a great amount of loans, but it is much better then it was before.
I can not even express how I feel. I've spent so many days and nights crying about not going to SAIC; Now I'm crying because someone was kind enough to give me another shot!
The twist? I still have to call SAIC and ask if I can still attend.
Keep those fingers crossed, mine are about to fall off.

CHECK THIS GAL OUT: Julia Randall

I found a painting on ffffound by Julian Randall. You should check her stuff out. It's really strange but fantastic!

It's not even the weekend yet

DeeDee

The David Steine experience is complete!
I finished the print a few weeks ago, but I've only scanned on of the prints. I even decided to write a haiku for this print. 

Red Nikes so dope.
To shave or not. Time to rock,
and roll forever.

The moment of truth

It's almost time for me to make a deposite to the school I am attending next year. I've got less then a week to do so. And it's very frustrating!

The benefits of being an art student? You can have shitty grades and no brains as long as your have a strong portfolio.

On the down side, you are going to pay a shit-tone to send your little Van Goghs and Picassos to art school. Unless of course you've got connections.

But after talking about it and thinking it over,  Ive come to the realization that you take what you get and make something out of it. Life might have only handed me half of a lemon, so I might as well make half a glass of lemonade.
Yeah, it blows really badly to get left behind; but I really need to suck it up and make the most of it.
Watkins might be a hell hole, but at least I can keep my job.

I'd rather attend SAIC broke then attend Watkins with no sense of accoplishment. So much for trying hard this year when I have to settle for this.
I don't know why I gave up on my dreams of becoming a soccer player.