From the side, it's almost invisible! 😉
Day 285: Fleshless
I’m still juggling work on a few pieces at once in the studio that aren’t quite finished, so it’s another mini painting for today’s piece. Rob & I were watching The Apprentice last night (can you believe Trump wants to run for president??) and this crazy mean bitch on there starts trash-talking, saying that another woman is “the weakest member of the team and the biggest”. Her target was not a heavy woman at all, but the rest of the women on the team are total sunken-eye-hole-waifs in danger of snapping in two from a hefty sneeze.
"Don't worry, Denise. I got these ADHD pills from my brother. Now Billy will ask you to the dance for sure!"
As a large lady myself, it got me thinking of weight issues. And then I picked up this 1973 pattern from Simplicity which refers to sizes 10 & up as “Chubbies”. How charming. 
“Okay, so that’s 2 yards?”
“Make it 2 and a half. I need the extra yardage for my little Chubbie here.”
“Mom!!”
“Well honey, maybe if you helped out with the housework, you’d be normal-sized and mommy wouldn’t have to spend the extra dollar on fabric to cover your big behind every time.”
At least that’s how I imagine a standard casual mother-daughter fabric-store conversation would have ensued in a time when the patterns were labeled “Chubbies”. I also imagine fabric was $2/yard. *shrug*
Today's and yesterday's together
This mixed media mash-up includes snippets from vintage books (children’s storybook, dictionary, thesaurus) and sewing patterns. The illustration is kind of off-beat; I think the girl in green is supposed to be checking her nails, but it looks like she’s peering into a cup or something; that next to the rhyme “8 and 8 are 16 pills the doctor’s mixing” fits together nicely as a reference to our bombardment with weight-loss pill commercials. The yellow yarn is tied like a waist-cincher. And if you look closely, you can see that the part from the dictionary with “fleshless” coincidentally has “flawless” right next to it. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
"Fleshless", mixed media on 5x7" canvas
Marianne Bland's Art Blog 
Love it, Marianne! Dibs?
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Hello Beth! I *was* going to take it in to the city with me today to put it in the gallery, but I’ll bring something else instead. You got it, sister!
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oh, “chubbies,” that is heartwarming! wow! That would really have made me feel like a million bucks! You’re hilarious! So much great art over here, as usual. I’ve been a negligent blog-reader lately, and it will probably continue—but just wanted to say hellooooo!
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Hi lady! Yes, that’s why I subscribe to yours to be sure I won’t miss it. I’m not great at making the blog-rounds myself. 🙂 Thanks for swinging by, hope you’re doing well!
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