Portrait of the Artist as a Young Goth
Posted on November 30, 2005 Posted by John Scalzi 24 Comments
Not yet seven, yet she’s got the pose all right for the artist picture at her first gallery exhibition. As I’ve noted before, you can’t teach that. You have to be born with that. And then she’s off to her first Dresden Dolls concert! It really doesn’t get any better than that.
But wait, there’s more! Here’s a small film (Quicktime, ~5MB) of the artist explaining her latest creation, "The Rollercoaster Ride of Terrifying Evil" (2005, whiteboard and marker), which incorporates into its theme butterflies, rollercoasters and Einstein-Rosen bridges. Makes Francis Bacon look like a puke in a bucket, it does. Naturally, the artist is interested to read viewer interpretations of the work.
Brilliant! And while I admire the Lovecraftian themes in her work, I wonder what she has against butterflies.
Well, Jon, what do you have against stuffed animals? Hmmm?
Clearly in both cases the butterflies and/or stuffed animals are representative of all of us. Or something.
In my defense, I was suffering from post-traumatic stress caused by the Beanie Baby Craze of the late ’90s. It’s true. I have a note from my doctor. Well, a doctor. At least, that’s what he said he was.
Wow – a rollercoaster with a black hole at the end! Tres cool!
Guess the black means no one hears the screams so they keep coming? I like the tentacles myself!
My quicktime player won’t play the video. I get audio only. When I try to upgrade, it tells me my quicktime player is up to date…
::pout::
Same problem as Paul. Hmmm.
If I had any cosmic assurance that offspring of mine would turn out as cool as yours seems to be, I might consider having one someday.
I thought everyone knew that butterflies were the preferred nourishment of squiggly cyclopean bi-tentacled electric aliens.
What a cutie!
Like the alien, I have a wiggly body, too. But I’m embarrassed about it.
OK, so I went to Apple.com, and downloaded quicktime 7.0, along with which, I was forced to download iTunes, for which I absolutely no use, nor desire. Nice, Apple. Anyway, I must say the tentacles of zappiness were the best part, as far as I’m concerned.
Cherie Priest:
“If I had any cosmic assurance that offspring of mine would turn out as cool as yours seems to be, I might consider having one someday.”
It is indeed a roll of the dice. Good starting materials help.
Do bear in mind, of course, that just because I don’t larder the Whatever with stories of Athena being a raging butthead that she doesn’t, in fact, get that way from time to time. She’s very six (soon to be very seven). On average I think she’s a very good kid, but there are days I could just strangle her.
Who else’s kid would know what a black hole is at that age?
Athena truly lives up to her name.
“The Rollercoaster Ride of Terrifying Evil” is quite obviously a marker-on-whiteboard morality tale: Butterflies looking for a good time and cheap thrills soon realize there is a high price to pay.
Once sucked into the black hole, the many-eyed beast stares at them, as if seeing down into their very souls; no thought or deed is hidden any longer. As the final punishment for their recklessness, the butterflies are killed by slow tentacle electrocution.
She’s condensed thousands of years of human experience onto one slab of whiteboard! Where can we buy prints?
MY kid put cinnamon and sugar on our cat. Take THAT!
Well, cats do taste better that way.
I knew it! Scalzi eats fluffy little kittens. With cinnamon and sugar, no less.
I’d use tabasco, myself. Spice the little buggers up, I say.
My cat’s greatest accomplishment is nagging me to turn on the bathroom tap and give her cold fresh water 5x a day. I’ll just go mourn my barren womb right now, thank you very much.
So is that dark blue or black nail polish on Athena, John? If she’s gothy, it’s gotta be black, right?
I believe it’s both colors, on alternating fingers.
No, Scalzi eats ghlaghghee little kittens…
Always look for the Evil sign.
Oh, this is so damned adorable! I loved the zappiness that shocks, but there are so many good moments. The gal is a genius.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww! Sooooooooooo cute!!!- Pam