In my own home too! I'm not really sure how to feel about this. Here's the situation. As previously mentioned, I paint mermaids. Naked mermaids, usually, so breasts tend to show. I don't consider it to be anything other than what it is. It's not pornography, it's not vile or obscene. Nor is it meant to be. It's just that honestly, if you were half woman, half fish, living in the depths of the sea. Where in the hell would you get any clothing and why would you want it?
Being a mermaid is about being free. Free from the confines of human life. Free from the restrictions of human law. Able to live free from the injustices and atrocities that occur up here, on the surface. It's about surviving and thriving in an environment that mankind couldn't inhabit. It's about growing a tail and learning to swim when cast out to sea, expected to drown. I paint them because they represent everything special to me.
OK, so on to the censorship part... Wifester has an aunt and two cousins coming to visit us this week. She gently said to me the other day, " I know this is a delicate subject, but would it be alright if we took some of the mermaids down, just while Visiting Aunt. and the boys are here? Just the naked ones. You know, boobs and all..." I was flabbergasted. I didn't know how to react. I said
"No, it's not alright, but OK, whatever" but in all actuality, I don't want to take them down. So, I think I've come up with a better solution than the removal of my work:
I can make a statement, and hide the nekkedness from the young eyes all at the same time.
"Fat Mermaid"
oil on canvas
by Angela Schleicher
"Birth of a Mermaid"
by Angela Schleicher
acrylic on canvas
So, after a long discussion with my wife, I found out that her reason for wanting to censor me has less to do with hiding mermaid breasts and more to do with trying to make sure that she was not prematurely exposing children who she barely knew to images that she was unsure how their mother would react to. Keeping the peace with family whom you've had a long going struggle with I can understand, however, when my holy roller, gospel preaching,bible thumping, born again parents came over to visit for the first time to see me in over 6 years, I didn't hide my naked mermaid breasts from them. I didn't even hide my paintings of naked alien women embraced and intertwined in love-making bliss, not my naked butt paintings either. I left it all out there for them to see, this is who I am, this is where I am, take it or leave it. I'm not hiding me from you anymore.
Maybe I'm in a different place in my life. Maybe I care less due to having had such an extended period of sheer absence of my family from my life. I learned that I can survive and stand strong without having to change who I am to conform, to satiate someone else's ideal of what or who I should be.
Come on, give it to me... what do you guys think? Let me have it honestly...Should the paintings go in the closet(no pun intended) until the aunt has left, or should the statement be made?Opinions are respected here, even when they're WRONG! ;)
I can make a statement, and hide the nekkedness from the young eyes all at the same time.
"Fat Mermaid"
oil on canvas
by Angela Schleicher
by Angela Schleicher
acrylic on canvas
So, after a long discussion with my wife, I found out that her reason for wanting to censor me has less to do with hiding mermaid breasts and more to do with trying to make sure that she was not prematurely exposing children who she barely knew to images that she was unsure how their mother would react to. Keeping the peace with family whom you've had a long going struggle with I can understand, however, when my holy roller, gospel preaching,bible thumping, born again parents came over to visit for the first time to see me in over 6 years, I didn't hide my naked mermaid breasts from them. I didn't even hide my paintings of naked alien women embraced and intertwined in love-making bliss, not my naked butt paintings either. I left it all out there for them to see, this is who I am, this is where I am, take it or leave it. I'm not hiding me from you anymore.
Maybe I'm in a different place in my life. Maybe I care less due to having had such an extended period of sheer absence of my family from my life. I learned that I can survive and stand strong without having to change who I am to conform, to satiate someone else's ideal of what or who I should be.
Come on, give it to me... what do you guys think? Let me have it honestly...Should the paintings go in the closet(no pun intended) until the aunt has left, or should the statement be made?Opinions are respected here, even when they're WRONG!
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