Thursday, January 26, 2012

Are you there God? It's me, your Boo...


Ok. Regardless of religous affiliation (or lack thereof), I think that we can all agree on one thing: this bust of Jesus is positively stunning. Like all Middle Eastern men of his day, he has piercing blue eyes and pearlescent skin, and for a mere $100 (wtf?), you can have this gem bless your home. There are no dimensions provided in the ad, but I really hope that it turns out to be at least 2 feet tall....kind of like a Tiki Jesus.

If we wanted to be serious about this (which we should try to do, since we're supposed to be learning something every once in a while...), I think we could spin this as a very successful example of vernacular art / outsider-art / self-taught art...all of which are extremely important components of American social/art history. Go ahead...look those big words up.

Side note: I think this is fairly creepy (and probably really f-ing heavy...?) and I would never put this anywhere near my home. Also, I have no idea what color Jesus's eyes were or were not...and I'm sure the "deceased artist" was a perfectly lovely person...

1 comment:

  1. Ellen: you are so not kidding about this head. I might add it stunningly illustrates the old saying that head is best. I might. Is this a family friendly blog? Anyway--it reminds me of an art project we had in high school. We made busts with each other as models. I made one of Jamie Gaither that was so true to life (except Jamie did not use shoe polish for makeup), someone recognized in my flower bed years later.
    In a certain sense, all American art has "self-taught" as a core value; we as a culture admire the independent self-made spirit, and that extends to the inexplicable as well. Nice find!
    ta
    Aunt Susan

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