Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Coming soon: cat as strawberry

Inspired by the book Why Paint Cats, I have decided to invest my summer stipend in having little Gergiev transformed into a work of art. I intend to have her painted as a strawberry in order to highlight the artificiality of plant/animal and food/feeder distinctions that plague our culture daily. It shall also reveal, with stunning clarity, that my cat's love of strawberries and strawberry-flavored confections is but an attempt on her behalf to express her feelings of connection with all of nature. Her cravings for strawberry yogurt are driven by an instinctual urge to become one with the symbolic strawberry that represents the natural world. It is time that the people of the world come to terms with the ridiculuous binaries and categorization that they use on a daily basis for mere convenience of communication. Such laziness is destroying the unity that can only be achieved through rigorous and enlightened thought--the sacred gift that academics offer to an often ungrateful and increasingly pragmatic world. I feel most honored that I may participate, in my small way, in this important artistic movement that promises to change the very foundation of our world.