Changing the Stars

If the stars can change in seasons and latitudes, then can they change in the observer? Do heavenly bodies appear as seeds and buckets of water to the sinewy farmer standing on his famine-stricken earth or as silvery coins to the bemoaning beggar. This also brings the question: can anybody perceptually alter these entities? Can people besides the poor and desperate make these transformations? If a sun-blistered farmer and a simple vagrant can do it, why couldn't a king?  Can things like stars that are so untouchable, consistent and seemingly eternal be completely mutable? I asked the one question because I don't know how to think like a king and I asked the other because I don't know how so many people are completely unable to manage or change their own lives for a better result but can effortlessly swing around the long-dying gas-giants and spin top-turning quasars of blue and green into the places they want them to be. 

The stars are personal but universal, like finger prints. Permanent, but alterable, like the human soul. When the ancients looked at the stars they saw gods and dragons and heroes, today we still see some of the same myths and stories that the ancients ascribed to the stars, but we give them names like  Dec 7° 24.426' instead of names like Betelgeuse. You can use the declination coordinates to find that star somewhat easily or you can just look for the hand of Orion, either way you'll be led to the same red giant. But you don't have to see the hand of a Zeus-ordained hunter or an alpha-numeric code, it can be whatever you see upon first sight.

The Cellar

In the cellar, the scales weigh corruptly,

The lives cease directly.

In the cellar, life can end abruptly,

for it's pardoned incorrectly.

The cellar sits beneath Winster cottage.

Its temporary flowers, like all deceptions, 

Trick the eye away from the carnage 

And casts anew false perceptions.

The old Winster home is always present,

Sitting on the green, grassy hill.

If the plaster walls were transparent,

The sights would be most shrill.

The house stands alone on the crest,

Consuming some and threatening the rest. 

Final Project-- Astro Slide Show

Astro Slide Show by Cameron Bradford

 I was Inspired to do this picture from a song called “The Stars are Projectors” by the American band Modest Mouse. I used pictures of myself as a child mainly and I covered over them with a blanket of stars. The idea that the song expresses is that the stars are what project our lives on to this planet. The thought of such a thing amuses me because it’s just another way to ascribe an imaginative meaning to the marvelously versatile celestial grid. If the stars really are projectors, I just hope I have another reel waiting for me.

Made By A Man exhibit, Typed By Man-child

The 'Made by a Man' exhibit offers an interesting display of not only unusual artwork, but an exhausted attempt to show how society's arbitrary gender association is wrong. I found the art displayed to be very intricate, creative and impressive no matter who did it. I think the whole business about the artist being a man is insignificant. I feel like the only reason he did give the exhibit such a theme is to either justify himself or try to add a societal meaning to his work, but I think he should just let his work speak for itself and not try to attach a clumsy, hackneyed political message.
The piece I was most amused by was the purple number that was holding up a board. I thing the piece represents collective strength and the importance of solidarity or working together. This analysis may sound like a Saturday morning juice box commercial, but the concept of teamwork is actually always relevant. I am always a little embittered by the concept of teamwork because I am self-centered and like personal victories, I also played some sports in high school and never had a touch for athleticism which made me a rather disposable part of the team (I also hated my coach.) While the importance of teamwork may already be lost on me, it's not too late for these purple, re purposed ribbons. The work features several dips of the improvised fabric looping down and holding up a polished two by four. I think the fact that all these individual ribbons are working together to hold up something heavy represents teamwork.

Do you need someone around the house to find obvious symbolism in things? Call me, Cameron. I'll find any blatant symbolism or your money back.