Inside Ellie's Head

Cookie Cookie Cookie

Elmo over the bed... Cookie monster on the other wall. That's how I roll

Apparently my little niece kisses her Elmo good night every night since I painted it last month. 

And the first thing she said when she saw her cookie monster floating up up up on her wall: 

"Where is his cookie?"

So I guess I'm going back to paint a cookie in his waiving hand. 

Mural Addition...

Today, I spent some time adding one of my 4-year-old niece's favorite characters to the mural I painted for her before she was born. The addition was to cover up a butterfly that has been scaring her. What better to cover up a butterfly than a giant hot air balloon with Elmo in it? 

I painted in the morning, then taught some dance lessons in the evening. A full day's work.

Here are some pictures:

In the Name of Art?

I consider myself an artist. My life is project base and my every day is saturated with exhibitions and expressions of my innermost desires, fears, likes, and passions. But this is not about me. This is about cruelty, neglect, and the demise of our humanity. What do these images represent to you? They make my throat fill up with rocks and my eyes with the ocean. How is this ART?

If you want to make a statement about dying animals, why not save one?
If you want to make a statement about people being indifferent, why not show them the joys of compassion?

Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, a Costa Rican "artist," who took this dog from the streets of Costa Rica and let it starve to death in an art gallery -- all the while instructing spectators to NOT feed the dog -- (in my opinion) has taken the wrong approach. He has also gone too far.

Imagine him on the streets. Starving. Cold. Ill. Lost, alone, with no where to go. Then one day he is found, taken to a warm clean room. With the smell of food coming from only a few feet away. But no food. No drink. No warmth. Only a short leash that he did not have before. No means to get to the food or water that he would otherwise be able to somehow find. Only more pain, hunger, loneliness, cruelty. And then the inevitable death. How is this ART?

What is next? Perhaps we could torture POWs at a performance art event to make a point about the cruelties of torture. Or have junkies shooting up in gallery corners to demonstrate the dangers of drug use in the US.

Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat this "installation" once again. He's been asked to let another animal starve to death in the presence and under the indifferent glares of gallery goers. Lets stop him. Visit this address and sign the petition. http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html