Politics?

Two projects:

1) I have done a black and white acrylic painting of Mariel Hemingway as Tracy from Woody Allen's Manhattan. On the top of the painting I plan to do a transfer in red of the letter Dylan Farrow wrote to the press. This painting is my exploration of the controversy surrounding Woody Allen's personal life (in particular, the unresolved accusation of child molestation of his then-partner Mia Farrow's adopted daughter, Dylan). I am torn while I watch his films as to if I can still appreciate the artistic output regardless of his questionable character. I hope this piece will illustrate the ambivalent feelings of the informed viewer. I find Tracy's character to be a bit of a projection of Dylan, as she was young (though 17 and not 7) and often manipulated by Woody Allen's character. 

2) I am printing out images of famous politicians, mainly presidents, and going to doodle on the surface of the images. Ex: Giving Joe Biden a "Mom" tattoo, or making Hilary and Bill Clinton look like hippies (again). It's just a small little side product reminiscent of graffiti and (youth's) apathy and disgust derived from the hypocritical and often obscene nature of the government elite.

This one is also inspired by my interest in playing with mixed media and other art I have seen altering photographs. Such as adding tattoos onto iconic people.

From: http://designtaxi.com/news/364044/Photoshopped-Images-Of-Famous-People-Covered-In-Beautiful-Faux-Tattoos/

Revision

In the previous post, I talked of my lack of resolve for a particular piece. Below is an updated version of the painting. 

When I first imagined the piece, I wanted some sort of gold symbolism in the background, but the only icon I could think of was the female sign for gender, which I found redundant (as the painting was already of a naked female). So I was at a standstill. But while looking at my entire body of work, I, for some reason, liked the way the above piece looked with a self portrait I picture below. 

In the work immediately above, I started with the version on the left, but was unhappy, so I let it sit, similarly to the painting of the naked girl. It did not convey the sort of flighty depression I wanted, it just looked like some superficial, try-hard fantasy. Some aspects of the painting I still really liked, such as the clouds and the color palette as well as form of the face. So, I first painted over the body then hair more realistically, eliminating the failed lotus and pitiful semi-2D-style hair. I wanted to add another sort of graphic at this point, maybe in ink. I settled on Sharpie (because that was the only medium that would write over the oil paints) and used my old journals to come up with the broken text. This alteration did not bring the piece to perfection, I am still unsettled by the composition, but, overall, I am much happier and less embarrassed because it feels like a more genuine work. 

But back to the original painting discussion of this post, looking at these two paintings together, I decided to add a textual background. When Ms. Slaughter gave me the metallic markers, I planned to use a literary text that was somewhat sexual. As a joke, I told my friend Sonya that I would write a chapter from "50 Shades of Grey." Then I actually did it. I crossed out sort of sexual or emotional words as a hypothetical censorship. And am satisfied with the outcome.