I painted a lot of nude humanoid figures in high school and no one ever stopped me. No one said a damn thing. They just let me paint naked minotaurs and skeletons stepping out of discarded flesh and full-frontal merfolk and a portrait of a very muscular Jean Luc Picard with large bare breasts in school and submit them for passing grades.
No one stopped me. They just saw me making weird shit and let it go on.
Another Captain Picard Day ruined!
When I had to present my art to the class I bullshitted my way through exploration of gender and vulnerability and what we perceive as sensual… I guess I was very convincing even though I was following my whims without any real intent.
The coquettish Minotaurs were fun but this was my favorite painting SPECIFICALLY because I made it in one evening the day before it was due, using a canvas someone else had started to use and thrown out. No matter how much gesso I used, you could still see the ghostly image of a cartoonish roast turkey superimposed over Picard’s naked torso. Even if I had intended to create an intelligent art piece confronting objectification and gender presentation it would still have been incredibly funny due to the subtle presence of goddamn ghost turkey that I could not get rid of.
I don’t know what happened to Turkey Ghost Nipples Bodybuilder Picard but it really… represented something. It was very Dadaist.
