Biceps, triceps, and even Abdi

This is a painting of a plastic trash bag, but look at it. You cannot tell me that it is not amazing. This is seriously probably the most inspiring thing i've seen lately.

I didn't watch "Work of Art," because i don't really do TV, nor do i do "reality" shows, or whatever you want to call those shows where people compete & get voted off. But i was already acquainted with Abdi Farah's name. He's an alumn of my high school (ye olde Carver, or as they like to call it now, GeorgeWashingtonCarverCenterforArtsandTechnology), & he was already good back then. He was the primary student that the teachers would bring up when they talked about people who had graduated whose work was amazing. I guess they were trying to get us to be inspired, to want to push ourselves to be as amazing, but more often than not, for someone like me, it kind of makes me want to say, "Oh what the hell i give up; i'm no good at this shit anyways."

I really wasn't surprised when i heard that Abdi had won. I dunno, i just kind of expected it to happen. His solo show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art opened this past Friday, & Mrs. McDaniel Shovlin (she remarried & i will never get used to the new surname) went up there with Mr. Cypressi, so the photo of the painting is from her Facebook. To be honest, at first i didn't really care much about any of this-- i mean, Abdi is a genuinely nice guy (it's not just an act; the few times i've spoken to him he;s been so crazy nice & he doesn't even know me; he has no reason to be nice to me or anything), & he deserves to be recognized for his crazy amazing work, but i was just kind of feeling disconnected from it, i guess. (My mood, lately, perhaps.) But now, i don't know, it's like... yeah, i guess i would like to see his show. I mean, seriously, i know Abdi's work is amazing. I've seen it before (see last year's Alumni Show hanging & the "oh shit you have a huge freaking gun in that we can't hang it"-"can i name it the hope gun?"-"grab a sharpie & draw a heart on it?"). But that freaking trash bag-- i can't even. I mean. Look at it. For once, seeing something like this makes me want to make something, as opposed to feeling like saying "why should i even bother?"

Once in class-- i was a senior stuck with juniors in Painting III, because i hadn't taken it when i was a junior-- we were to go out & paint landscapes. The annoying transfer from BSA said something about how boring the grounds were or something. Mrs. Shovlin (then still McDaniel) looked at him. "That's the job of an artist," she said. "To take the ordinary and make it extraordinary."

I guess this is what she meant.