Review: Elkins

Firstly this paper was incredibly difficult to read, I couldn't tell if that was because of my ADD, the quality of the scan, or because Elkins thought it would be funny to put every three lines into focus and then out of focus. Regardless it should not have taken me over an hour to read this paper, but it did, and I digress.

I think this essay had a lot of interesting dialogue and I was interested in viewing the images that were discussed, because I believed that they would aid the reading. I searched for the first few images without luck, but The Sexuality of Christ had a lot more results than I would have anticipated prior to reading Elkins. This image in particular is discussed as Elkins reviews pornography:

In this image Jesus is being visited by a young boy, possibly an angel, who carries a cross. He is also visited by a large female angel. This scene is possibly depicting the 8th day after Jesus's birth, the day that he was named and circumcised. The young boy is touching Jesus and all the attention of figures in this scene is focused on that. The female angel, Mary and Joseph are turned toward and looking at the young boy and his grasp on Jesus's foot. None of the movements are very active though, the angel seems to be dropping a hand that was previously raised in protest, and Joseph's gaze seems to be turning toward Jesus. Mary also has a softened look of interest. I believe that this picture is depicting a moment when Jesus's mortality and "human-ness" were evident.

Additionally, in this image the infant Jesus uses his own hand to cover his penis. This was done for two reasons: because the sight of a penis would distract from the painting as well as put it at risk for being destroyed and because seeing Christ's penis would have been a way of defiling him or making him "too human". This is clear because Elkins cites Steinberg as saying that "He was not a half god who had sent his image to earth, while remaining in heaven, but God himself, who could achieve perfect fusion of human and devine forms" (Elkins 118). In this quote Elkins is drawing on Steinberg, who wants to claim that Jesus was so godly that his sexuality was innately tied to his godliness. I disagree with this section.

I believe that in showing Jesus in such a human way, like the image above, it makes him seem more like a prophet or normal human, than as a radiant god. Images like this make Jesus seem much more godly:

In the first image Jesus is being touched, examined, and looked at by everyone in the scene. In the second painting Joseph and Mary are not touching Jesus, but rather Jesus is trying to touch them. Joseph is praying while Mary appears to be restraining herself from reaching out to Jesus. These actions are similar to the actions when meeting a great Lord, as Jesus is supposed to have been. In this painting Jesus is seen as much more Godly and therefore Joseph and Mary are considered much more unworthy of touching him.

Walter Mason Response artwork

My response project to Walter Mason's land art is in my own interpretation of land art. Instead of using only natural materials, I took an environmentalist perspective, and used recycled materials (the wax casings of Babybel cheeses). I placed the wax maple leaf in nature in various areas with various backgrounds to see how the leaf looked in a natural area. I really liked this series of pictures because it is similar to Mason's pieces, but I was able to incorporate a lot of my own style. I would have liked to photograph it with other, real red maple leaves, but with the snow I was unable to find any on the ground.

          

IVT Progress!

The progress I've made so far has been pretty slim. I'm just figuring out how to work with wax and sculpt, because both are very new to me.

I'm really liking the impact of my finger prints on the soft wax, and considering incorporating this into my completed project.

Dressing up as Myself: Halloween 2014

I have always loved Halloween. Dressing up and acting like something so much different than yourself has always been the most exciting thing for me. When I was young Halloween felt like I could do anything or be anything. However despite a million and one possibilities I dressed up as a witch every year for like 6 years...probably because my fam had this awesome cape that I loved to flap around in.

However, this year I didn't dress up. And I also didn't go to my college's biggest party of the semester. And it's my senior year. A lot of people seemed to think that I was a little insane for that, but I had an amazing weekend.

This Halloween was my first holiday being 21 (October 28 birthday baby!). And aside from a few spiked Apple Ciders, I didn't drink. I didn't party. I didn't go to a bar. I spent this Halloween with my amazing boyfriend and my family. I baked pumpkin pies with Kevin, and lost a little of my controlling grip when I let him measure out all the spices. (For the record this was a terrible idea as he didn't add any ginger and instead added double cinnamon - don't worry I fixed it). We stayed up until 2am waiting for them to cool so we could taste the first piece, and of course we watch tons of Modern Family.

We finished out the weekend trying out a new climbing gym that was kind of bleh, eating some narly scallops (it was horrid), watching the Patriot until 2am (or was it 1am...Daylight Savings!!) and just hanging out with my family. To be honest we didn't do anything, and it was perfect. I spent my time being exactly who I want to be: myself. This might be the first time in my life that I'm not trying to be someone else or even wanting to be someone else. It's pretty liberating. So I had a wonderfully unconventional Halloween, happily dating the love of my life and having an amazing weekend with him.

He's the bomb dot com.

xx
Molly

Lovely Lovely Autumn!

I have always loved the fall. Whether it's harvesting all the corn that grew in my backyard as I grew up, the longer nights with clearer skies (I always feel like there are more stars in the Fall), or just the general crisp feeling all around Fall has always done great things for my mood, my general outlook, and my happiness.

There's just something about this weather that keeps me happy. Maybe the crisp weather keeps me super alert and pepped up, but it's not as aggressive as winter so I don't have to worry about turning into a cuddle ball that never ventures outside. However, on the subject of cuddling, it is the best time of the year for it. There's no need to worry about overheating your partner as you smother them with affection! And studies show that you sleep better in colder temperatures.

As a kid Autumn was always about Halloween (which happens to be my favorite holiday) because I loved the chance to be something more than I was. For one night I was anything but a little girl, which is inspiring when you're 9 and have big dreams for yourself. This year I didn't dress up as anything and you can read why by clicking here.

To conclude: Where can I live where it's Autumn time, all the time?

Molly

Well it's Monday so...

First lemme just start this Monday off right... with a #mancrush:

He's quite dapper today. He ended up shaving it all off (sad I know), but the mid-shave mustache picture is too amazing to not post.

This Monday started at 1:45 this morning when I was saying goodnight to Kevin and about to hang up the phone. Realizing that this morning would be the first time I had gone to my 9:20 class in a while (sometimes I oversleep...) I checked up on what the syllabus was dictating for today and YAY an exam that I was in no way prepared for. Forgive my french and cue Michael Scott:

So I end up staying up til 3 (with my amazing Kev who stayed on the phone with me and was my constant happy cheerleader)! Waking up at 7 to continue studying was hardly fun, but I dragged myself from my slumber and rolled out the door to the library to continue studying. I show up to class, exhausted, with tons of different factoids running through my head getting all jumbled up and low and behold: it's a take home exam.

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

This is the greatest news ever. I won't fail and I won't have a massive panic attack about failing! The greatest thing about this was that Kevin, who was pretty tired y'all, stayed up until the crack of dawn (or later) just to talk to me and keep me from going insane as I studied.

You the best Kevi

Molly

Looks a little different huh?

Oh yes there is one more author on this blog now!

The boyfriend is joining me and we co-authoring the blog from here on out! We'll both still have individual posts that you can grab by looking at posts by just me or just Kev but all our posts will run on one amazing feed! We're both pretty excited to see how this lovely thing goes - super high hopes!

I pulled a couple of Kev's posts from his old blog and threw them on here (so despite them saying they were posted by me, they were 100% written by Kev). Hopefully we'll both be much much MUCH more responsible with our posts from now on (I know I tend to disappear for weeks!). 

Stay tuned !!

Molly (and Kev!)