Shock of the You...

I knew a guy once who had a "cheek tear", this was way back in grade school, he'd gotten caught with a nail some kids has stuck into a baseball bat and were swinging around.  It must be strange to get stared at your whole life because of an injury or abnormality.

No limits on limits.

Nowadays, that guy would probably get lots of comments like "great makeup job!" especially around October.  I've recently seen the face tear thing even on women, and I'm sorry for being old-fashioned, but it bothers me a little.  Add to that the billions of gallons of fake blood every Halloween, I'm beginning to lose any understanding of what's happening.  Or maybe I can figure it out here. Should I try?

It's no mistake that we live in a World loaded with Suffering, pain is everywhere, and though sometimes it's nice and sunny there's always a duality at play.  With Art, the Shock of the New tends to make the Establishment react--so they'll reflexively dub any new movements "ugly".  The ARC folks claim all Modern Art in an ugly swindle.  What do you think?

 An ugly stain from the kitchen?

Today I leafed through the new issue of "Juxtapoz" while at the local grocery store, and I suppose I am the type of person that the younger breed of shock artists are after when they break out the blood, guts and negativity--notice I didn't say "ugly".  If rotting baby corpses on pitchforks get someone some attention, then you can be sure someone will do it.  It's probably already been done, probably in the Death Metal circles.

Check out the mag--it's all status-quo revolting.

I'm not arguing that Evil doesn't or shouldn't exist, or that Art shouldn't include Pain as a subject, but rather simply to state that negativity is easy.  If you roll in something dead and go to party, then you will get noticed.  But the other thing, the opposite, which might be called "upliftment", is certainly not easy, nor is it as corny as the nego-death crowd would like to have it.

Big-Eye puppy need face tear?

So people inevitably work out their inner conflicts, and if babies on meathooks help then so be it, but I for one can't see how.  It just seems to be cheap, fast gimmick to replace talent, imagination and hard work, and supply a quick fame-fix.  And trying to avoid criticism by saying it's all "just fake" is getting to be a tired excuse.  How about just fake Nazi Concentration camps?  People with anorexia could find work there. 

Shock is a poor replacement for Talent.