Lea tries to learn indesign

Lea and a poster

This poster. 

Its a good one.

It inspires me to make good posters. 

..I think its better than all the DMF posters.

all of them.

also, my boyfriend happens to be in this band. 

I guess I should go listen to em'.

Lea on Feminism

I have a serious problem with most feminist art. Someone one day needs to detail in a several page essay why the vagina is a symbol of feminine power as well as an outspoken demand for equality; then, maybe, I'll get it. But when I see a piece like Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, fully equipped with 39 plates topped with vagina shaped food, I honestly dont see the difference here if a man, trying to assert the power of his gender, decorated a table in penis shaped food.

And as we all know from one of the most common graffiti subjects across the nation, the penis does not make us feel a huge amount of respect for our fellow man. Okay okay okay okay- somethings coming to me. I can see how the vagina is a symbol of our gender- it is after all our most prominent physical difference from men. So i can understand perhaps how it demands a kind of recognition of our sex. But it ends there. To say that the vagina symbolizes our female power and equality seems to me to belittle our good qualities.

Quite the opposite of most feminists I find images of beauty empowering. Not placing demands on me about how I should look, just reminding the world and its viewers that women are beautiful. (and nearly 100% of the time more pleasant to look at than naked than men.) Heck i'm more proud of female beauty than my vagina any day!

(pictured here are two Turkish Bath scenes; the one on the bottom is a traditional image, the top a piece by a feminist artist picturing men.)

So, in my opinion, what would be a better way to fight for women's rights in artwork? Graphically speaking, how about simply picturing women as powerful figures? It worked for Stalin and Bonepart. Instead of "your gaze hits the side of my face", how about, " It was nothin'" as a caption for a poster with a gal in front of, say, a beautiful piece of artwork, a garden she cultivated, or children shes raised! Or, o, heres a good one: a big muscly arm with the saying "your power breeds violence" and then a beautiful reclining naked woman amogst the bazillions of art made of beautiful reclining women with the saying "our power breeds art"

.blah.

Lea the female

I for one enjoy these more than a gal should.  They're two images of five from a collection called "Eye Candy For Strangers" that I found on Deviantart. What they make me think of however is the feminist movement we've been going over in my art history and politics class. Why do women have such a problem with being appreciated as erotic? if you so have the beauty to be so, power to you; enjoy it. 

The female form is beautiful, seriously, there is no getting around it. So when I hear Greer mimiking a feminist whilst looking at some of the Closet Venus paintings, saying with a sneer on his face, "these depict women as an object of erotic fantasy!" etc etc. Well, the object part is no good, granted- so how about "these depict women as people of erotic fantasy"? 

oh, well, thank you young man!

Women are beautiful and I dont think they should get too riled when its depicted sensually for all to enjoy :)

Lea and the old folks home

I was a-diggin for dino-sors when i find a fossil! made this years ago with an old pal. it was coincidence that we were both dressed in black pants and white shirts. very weird. 

Lea and her movie poster assignment

thats right, I'm coming with my wooly friends to a theatre near you. Despite the title, in the movie I dont kill them; I befriend them. It should be called "Lea the Mammoth Friend".

but seriously.

 

for this assignment I used a photo I took up on Table Rock; inserted the mammoths, snowy mountain, and half a picture of myself. Then I painted the rest of me in, and added grass and fancy pants filters.  I wanted the final thing to look more like a painting than a photograph; like those old timey novels. But failed more than succeeded.

above all it is the font that pleases me. Perhas because it is the single element that escaped my disfiguring artists hand

Lea and some bored prostitutes

I came upon this piece on deviantart. You gotta love the color pallet; those liquid earth tones and late night lamps that somehow always remind you of a place in Paris called Montmarte. But honestly, the work is not quite...  THERE. all the way. most of the way, but not all the way.

 The face of the red head on the left isnt quite human enough for me to identify with her (which I desperately want to do because, in a piece like this, half the joy is feeling sorry for the subject matter). It's not that her face isnt realistic enough - no no, many a shapeless abstract from in art history has come across as human. This one just doesnt.  Also the face of the woman on the right is somehow slightly affected by the anime/manga movement thats rampant among artists online. (myself included) This also takes from the work. 

Other than that I'm very happy with it and its digital brushstrokes. Skin pallets are gooey as they should be; the background pleases me- etc etc

oh hey, i need to do something for mothers day

Lea makes a run-on

I am totally terrified that those of us who are gorgeous in youth face the same level of ugly in old age as all humans do. What is beauty anyway!? That shining paragon of dark eyed wonder that gives a person so much power- appreciate! envy! adore! - and then the strange force that comes like a thief in the night and turns audrey and Bea and Meyrl and Julie and countless glimmering dancing girls from the Ziegfield follys into grammas who can can say "i remember" all they want but get no respect from the new generation of young beauties.

i cant take it. I just cant take it!

Lea talks breifly about Napoleon

Behold Napoleon Crossing the Alps. On the left, a not so well known version painted by Paul Delroche. On the right, a momentously well known version by Jacques-Louis David.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?!

well, I'll tell you. It is my understanding that Napoleon, whilst crossing the Alps in 1800 (with the intent to invade Genoa Italy and reclaim the territory for France), rode on a mule, in nice weather, wrapped in some raggy blankets. The point of all this, of course, is that the painting itsself is a powerful and effective piece of propaganda. Napoleon didnt even sit for the portrait. He said something like "pish posh! Mars, the god of war, never sat for a portrait! And yet artists do not hesitate to paint his great image! It is the character that counts! Not the likenss!" So, David had his handsome 14 year old son pose for the painting, and Napoleon appears a youthful, spry, impassioned young male.

Artists are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, you know.

Lea does Photomontage

mai montage. its called lea. model lea on the right, normal lea on the left. Featured in the middle in no specific order is Zorba the Greek, Audrey Hepburn, Marial Hemmingway, a lion, Sonic the Hedgehog, Arc from Terranigma, Ranma, Bubble and Bobble, Heather, my ex-husband, dressed as Link, my kitten Wiki Wiki, an arctic fox, my parents, the tour d'Eiffel, a bowl of veggies, some bushmen, a t-rex, a flag on top of Buster Brown in Waimea made up of bras, my anarchist high school teachers, and my childhood pals.

Lea finally does "Alphabet Soup", "S" being the lamest one