Art Project: Making and Destroying a COVID-19 Virus Model

Step 1. Use some orange clay left over from your bust of Trump (see previous post).  Add blue food coloring to make it gray.  Drink alcohol as needed, because this is going to get gross.

Step 2. Mix blue food coloring into clay, and add red if it turns too green.  Oh man!  It looks like horribly wrong baby poop!  But that's fitting, since it's left over from Trump, and we're making a model of another disgusting thing.  See what I meant about gross?

Step 3.  Mix clay until it is a uniform color, roll it into a ball, and then start poking holes all over it.

Step 4.  Once it's riddled with holes, sprinkle baby powder on it to create that mottled, cement like, surface look.

Step 5. Get some of those paper ad flyers that you were saving in case you ran out of toilet paper, and cut red triangles out of them.

Step 6. Fold the red paper triangles in half.

Step 7. Bend the wide ends of the paper triangles flat, so that that they look sort of like golf T's.

Step 8.  Poke the sharp ends into the holes of the grey orb.

Step 9.  Continue filling the holes until you have created a ballpark hideous image of the COVID-19 virus.

Step 10.  Now pretend that this is an actual COVID-19 virus--the granddaddy of them all. Ball your hand into a fist so tight and angry that the veins pop out, place it above that sucker like a hammer, and pound the crap out of it.

Step 11. Enjoy the result. Hope that your metaphorical actions actually affect this "novel" virus and have a ripple effect that renders it impotent.

Incidentally, this is now a model of an "attenuated" virus--one so damaged that it cannot function but which still contains the unique materials that if placed in a vaccine, could trigger an immune response in the body to fight off an intact virus.  

Let's all hope that the real world version of this is coming soon!  

Be safe and healthy.  Make the best of what you have. Live long and prosper!

Art Project: Making a Bust of Trump

1. Make a fist-sized lump of kitchen clay.  Set aside two white globs.  Add yellow and red food coloring. Drink alcohol as needed, because it's going to get gross.

2. Mix well to evenly distribute color.  See what I meant about gross?  Looks like a tumor.

3. Form orange clay into a blob. 

4. Pinch to form ridges, use a butter knife to make furrows, and add white clay as needed 

until you achieve a ballpark, repulsive likeness of Donald J. Trump.

"Bust of Trump" by Karen K. Remus (c) 2020

I could have gotten the likeness way more accurate and hideous, but at this point, it was close enough, and I didn't want to spend any more time on it (or throw up).

5.  If you feel like it, punch it hard repeatedly.  I felt like it.

666. Re-shape into the Circus Peanut of the Apocalypse.

"Circus Peanut of the Apocalypse" by Karen K. Remus (c) 2020

DO NOT EAT!

Depressed Drunken Santa

Drunken Depressed Derelict Santa Claus 

Even Santa Gets the Blues, Collage and paint on paper
by Karen K. Remus and Amie Smith Torok
(c) 2018

Even Santa Gets the Blues, Collage and paint on paper
by Karen K. Remus and Amie Smith Torok
(c) 2018

The holidays are a rough time for everyone, including Santa Claus.  For starters, his pole is melting. Take that any way you want. 

This artwork began as an homage to "Curly Jefferson," a dead character played by a mannequin in an episode of the hilarious comedy series, "The Mighty Boosh."  Today, my friend and I set out to re-create an image of Curly and attach it to the ceiling (where Curly Jefferson's corpse resides in the show) before her husband got home (what you do for fun when you don't have kids), but we ended up hanging him on a hook in the bathroom, which was easier.  Then we strung Christmas lights over him.

This evening, when I recieved the photos that my friend emailed me after our ultra-creative day, I realized that most people who saw these photos would think that it was a run-down Santa.  I don't think "Curly Jefferson" is a household name, even though it should be.

So let the interpretation of this image reside with the beholder.  If you think it looks like a Santa who's just not into it this year, then let it be!  If you know about Curly Jefferson, and want to see more, full-length photos, then let me know, and I'll post them.

Happy Holidays!