This post retaliates for the microwaved Amtrak cheeseburger I purchased between New York and D.C. on Christmas Eve. Leading to tall man on toilet, 2 a.m., 10 hours later — doubled over. Pleading for Santa to appear with new stomach, wrapped in iron. Seems my naughtiness caught up with me.
DON’T EAT AMTRAK MICRO MEAT being a lesson I might have learned by now. Since I have not: I blame you, them, everyone. Some things shouldn’t be. AR-15s, mincemeat pies, Gaza, nuclear bombs, corn, Amtrak burgers. We can do better.
That’s right, I HATE CORN. What you gonna do about it?
Anyway.
I received a wonderful book called “The Art of Maurice Sendak” for the increasingly stretched holidays (will they never end?). Favorite sketch: “A face is so you can make faces” in which some smeary-eyed kids scrunch faces at each other, followed by “a face is something to have on the front of your head.”
I used my illustrator (named Snake) to replicate, promulgate, impersonate — having also noted the presence of an AI-driven face recognizer shadowing Penn Station in NYC. Sendak murals that never were, in other words … collected. Each titled “faces are for making faces.” Various locations around the universe.
Thank you to Saint Sendak for contributing from beyond. Mazel tov and buy his work! RIP to plastic-wrapped food as well as holidays that last like 28 weeks, also. I prefer normal days. God bless that fake fucken cheese, every slice …
FACES ARE FOR MAKING FACES in
Reminder: The base prompt for these was “faces are for making faces” style Sendak. Much tinkering followed. The illustrator tends to react to artful turns of phrase. The more clever the request, the weirder the outcome.
Staying with Sendak’s faces, we add a book title — “I am homeless if this is not my home” (Lorrie Moore) — to see what happens.
AND here we have the originals …
Xoxo.
— Colin Sullivan
Kicker: Ideas that spring from other ideas are often the best ideas. It’s the same for trees; clone California Redwoods sprout from giant stumps. This is where copying, imitation and parody pay off: from one world springs another.
This time, the prospect of a Lord of the Rings seen through Sendak’s prism appeared, poof! Sendak atop his own Mount Doom. His alter-ego Moishe having travelled many leagues to destroy Sendak’s genius by hurling it into mountain fire. Sendak meets Tolkien meets facial recognition paranoia, on acid.
Oh the faces we go.
Fair enough.
HNY!
Ha. Yeah I like that one. There were so many quality “interior, US Capitol” possibilities I just went with one of em. Future post ahead!
The U.S. Capitol interior one is the best- it almost looks like "The Muppet Show" staging a number from "Hamilton"!