This Picture's Been Haunting Me for Three Days Now

I've had this picture on my computer a few days now.

image from My Modern Met

I like things that make us question what we know, that turn things around from the way they're supposed to be so that we have to go, "Wow, it never occurred to me to do it that way."  Sometimes it doesn't work well.  Sometimes it's not particularly insightful.  And sometimes it's amazing.  Like the work that Alexa Meade does.

This is not a painting.  Well, it is a painting and it's not.  This is a real man painted to look like he's a painting - his face, his clothing, everything.  Instead of copying something real in a painting, this artist makes the real thing look like a painting.  If I understand this right, the other people are real, and this almost cartoon human is among them.

There are more pictures and discussion of this artist at My Modern Met.


The Alaska Redistricting Board is trying to imagine new ways to map the state's legislative districts.  Today they came up with a map that violated a premise they've had from day one - to leave the North Slope Borough in tact.  It's taken them 60+ of their ninety days to do this.  It's not the same as painting humans to look like paintings, but it is a step beyond the  boundaries they had set for themselves.

Humans grow when they go beyond their self imposed limits and do things they always thought they couldn't or shouldn't do.  Or never even thought of doing.  It doesn't always work.  Sometimes the consequences are bad.  But thinking past our limits has to be a good thing.