Darth Vader: He [i]cares.[/i]

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It just... it just doesn't make any sense. Darth Vader was more of the "heartless political figure sending troops into the meatgrinder" than a war vet remembering friends and comrades. He didn't have any.

Hell, there's a good chance he Force-choked at least three of those dudes.

Plus, you know, it lifts everything from a painting about the goddamn Vietnam War Memorial. It's out of character, it's tasteless, and yet not in a way that's lulz-worthy. Epic fail.

Penguin wrote:

and yet not in a way that's lulz-worthy.

I don't know. I'm laughing at the little cleaner droid at his feet, myself.

Nihilist wrote:

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I can see the whole idea of using Vader as a symbol for regret, like at the end of RotJ. As in, the Vietnam War Memorial is so beautiful and moving, it'd even get the worst of baddies to regret their actions.

Just a thought- but after a bunch of graduate reviews yesterday I've been defending worse bullshit art just to be contrarian, and this piece is actually better than most everything I saw that day. Doesn't try to be hoity-toity, and I'm a fan of using pop symbolism in my own work.

So, I guess it's a bad thing when something shows up in this subforum and it's better than 99% of what the graduate students at my school are doing. I'm a bit disappointed in them.

Funnily enough, I tried thinking of Vader after his RotJ redemption. And I still couldn't justify this image. Maybe it's because I've seen the one it's aping, where an old man touching the wall and his buddies from Vietnam are where the Imperials are in the wall. So I can't divorce it from the idea that whoever's leaning against the wall feels the intense loss from watching his friends and comrades in arms die in a needless war. Maybe I can see regret, but...

Well what I'm really getting at here is holy fuck what sort of shit were those students showing you. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

So, how do you feel about vaginas?

In all seriousness, the Vietnam Vader picture strikes me as kind of tasteless. Not offensive, but just wrongheaded. My initial reaction was a laugh at the completely inappropriate juxtaposition followed by an uncomfortable feeling that I shouldn't have laughed at it. And then of course when you consider that Vader killed his underlings, ruled by fear, and basically had no friends but Luke at the end of his life, it rings hollow in-universe. It would make more sense for Padme and Shmi to be there, since he actually cared about them.

Just a question in this context, and I will take no offense whatsoever at being corrected because I'm genuinely curious, but when it comes to being transgendered, how do you look at it? From my point of view as a straight cisman it seems that it is either a mental or physical illness: Either the body is built incorrectly for the mind, or vice versa.

The reason why I ask is that it seems fairly normal to me to associate nakedness with honesty, i.e. "the naked truth." (Whether the student is capable of properly conveying this is probably more of a matter of skill than anything else).

I'm struggling to put this into words, really. I mean, if someone is cisgendered, doesn't the metaphor hold up? I understand that it may not be a universal truth, but if it applies to them, what's the problem?

I... can see how that would be frustrating. The idea of any person being defined by their genitals is bizarre to me. I tend to think of people being defined as how they act and the choices they make rather than what's between their legs.

Granted I'm a straight cisgendered male who has basically no aesthetic interest in the private bits of either sex, seeing them as only a means to an end. Maybe it's different if you come from a class of person traditionally discriminated against.

Derailed thread of awesome?

I'm not sure what to think, except to say try not to focus on cannon, 'cause hell, Lucas threw THAT out the window several times in episodes 1-3... The artwork is very well drawn, as for tastelessness, it's bad, but not nearly as bad as some other art I've seen, trust me. Rule 34 anyone, now THERE is some tasteless art.

To be honest, marginally tasteless though it may be, there's a lot worse and more offensive shit out there. This artist just didn't take the deaths of hundreds of thousands of brave men seriously.

Nihilist wrote:

Some people hide their dicks, others pack them, others bind, people take hormones, get implants, piercings, pump themselves, get tattoos, cut off the offending body parts at home with a knife- what's to say that isn't them, if you're denouncing outer influence? And this is why I find your work disconcerting. If you were going to explore all aspects of identity you're going to have to compare what it's like, the way you imagine yourself to be, as opposed to what everyone else sees you as, and deal with the incongruency in daily life.

This is very fair enough and everything. Nonetheless, my main issue with it is, the OH I KNOW I'LL SHOW MY UGLIES I'M SO EDGY gets a groan and an eyeroll out of me at best.* I mean, everyone can do Shocking By Crassness. In my eyes, if you don't need crassness to get a reaction from people, that's when you start being an artist.

If I'm not making sense, blame the bubbly.




*Favorite DA quote ever: "You have such an artistic vagina, I widh I could hug it." Remember Hot Pink, anyone?

Deep vader picture...... oddly comforting to know a mass murderer of the ENTIRE planet of alderaan is feeling sad about a few clones.... kinda feels like this pic is another to be tossed into the void