Like other similar venues across our nation, the world-famous J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was closed to visitors because of COVID-19. So its staff decided to engage the public with an actual “Life Imitates Art” challenge. And the results were pretty amazing!
We challenge you to recreate a work of art with objects (and people) in your home.
🥇 Choose your favorite artwork 🥈 Find three things lying around your house⠀ 🥉 Recreate the artwork with those items
There were so many creative and wonderful ones it was hard to choose. Some of them were quite abstract, so I limited myself to ones that a non-arts aficionado could enjoy.
But even that left me with over 40 selections. So I decided to group them in very broad themes. There will be some overlap as one submission could qualify for more than one theme.
Let’s start with Animals. Proving yet again that cats are free-spirit critters (and confirming the old adage that they cannot be herded) there wasn’t one employing a kitty cat. A ferret – YES, but no cat.
One popular painting was “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. But I decided to go with “Male with a Pearl Earring”.
I was a bit surprised that Frida Kahlo self-portraits was such a popular subject. I thought these were the two best.
There were a few of the “Ugly Duchess” by Quentin Matsys which were quite well done. (One wonders if the subject knew the title of the painting they were portraying – although the two I picked were both males.)
Far away the most common theme simply involved people. Because there were so many, I made three GIFs; but I didn’t do a very good job dividing them up.
There were a couple cute Rockwell ones.
And I thought we should end with a selection memorializing what generated this “Life Imitates Art” challenge – the Coronavirus Quarantine. So the last one features artworks employing Toilet Paper and Masks.
I’m not sure if all those submitted are at the above Tweet – but there are quite a lot more there for your viewing pleasure.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: I always select “Do NOT Stack Frames” – but have never been successful in getting it applied. So I apologize that there are remnants of previous ones that annoyingly hang around.]
When China was the epicenter of the coronavirus, until Trump’s bungling mismanagement stole their title (“We’re #1! – We’re #1! – We’re #1!”) … like here in the USA now, masks we’re in short supply.
In fact they became so valuable, they took the place of poker chips!
But as the saying goes: “Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention!” And it appears that the Chinese were quite inventive.
Far away the most popular transformer was those giant water bottles:
Of course there always a show-off who takes the water bottle to a whole other level:
But not far behind water jugs was the Produce section of your local market, with cabbage, lettuce and oranges leading the way:
Then there always are those who follow the “Out of an abundance of caution” dictum, and take no chances:
Not sure exactly how this one functions, but it does look quite comprehensive – if a little too Tin-Foil-Hatish:
And there was one who compromised virus safety by accommodating his smoking addiction with a closable port:
I suppose anything in a pinch will do – I just hope it was a new sponge:
It seems that women’s products could also serve a double purpose. I thought I was being cautious by inserting a coffee filter between the layers of my homemade mask – but I guess you use what’s at hand:
And a farmer here in the USA used part of his wife’s bra:
In fact there were quite a few How-To videos on repurposing a bra for a mask. But sadly, this nurse’s efforts fell hilariously short:
And one just because I found it so cute:
Most of us are now weeks and weeks into self-quarantining, and are suffering from “Quarantine Fever”. So I want you to be honest, and confess what stage you now find yourself:
Over at Daily Kos, Kossack Noah Veil posted a Diary this week dispensing “FREE RUDE QUESTIONS” to share regarding actual “NASTY” queries that Trump should really be asked. To help in that endeavor, I’m “borrowing” a few from a very, VERY long list that I encourage you to enjoy at the link.
They tend to not follow a linear path, and I’ve scattered a few new suggestions along the way, but it deservedly earned its 474 Recommendations! And I can just envision John Cleese of Monty Python fame asking them.
NSFW Due to Language
They employ a GREAT deal of … ahhh … hmmm … “salty” language that I have elected to leave as is. (Not only would they lose their punch, but otherwise I’d be spending hours cleaning them up). So considered yourself WARNED!
When were the streets of Washington D.C. emptier: During your Pandemic, or during your inauguration?
Since you claim testing isn’t necessary, why does everyone who comes near you get a test?
What kind of fucking asshole lies to people about whether they can get tested for a potentially fatal virus?
Can you define corruption and explain how many ways it applies to you?
What do you have to say to the vast majority of Americans who think you are the biggest fucking idiot to ever hold political office?
Have you ever told the truth about anything? Prove it.
Hold up a stopwatch and say …
REPORTER: “Starting now, how long can you go without telling a lie?”
Click.
TRUMP: ”I don’t tell lies….”
Click.
Well, that was quick!
This cat turd in my pocket has a higher IQ than you. Would you like to ask it a question?
Why aren’t there any graduates from Trump University in your cabinet?
If you were created in God’s image, how come we can see you?
Can you list the Ten Commandments, and tell us how many of them there are?
Nobody gives a shit what your TV ratings are. Why do you keep mentioning it?
Do you know what the word “sociopath” means, and how is it possible it does NOT apply to you, you fucking shithead?
Do you have any Neanderthal DNA?
The worst medical crisis in over a century that the US has ever faced is happening at the same time as the worst president the US has ever had is in the Oval Office. Do you think this is a coincidence?
How disappointed are you that NO student will EVER plagiarize a SINGLE word of your incoherent rambling speeches?
Have you ever in your entire life used a dictionary?
That MIT uncle of yours who is alledgedly so smart? Tell us one single, solitary actual thing you learned from him….
That wasn’t an actual thing….
Neither was that…
Do you actually NOT know what the word “actual” means?
We are now a bigger shithole country than all the countries you called shitholes. Don’t you think they deserve an apology?
Could you please repeat your oath of office? You’ve violated it so many times that America thinks you need a refresher.
Everybody on earth recognizes that you don’t have a shred of human decency. As the worst human being who has ever lived, this is your last chance. Can you say one single empathetic thing?
By what metric are you NOT the most incompetent leader on earth … EVAH?
What’s it like being impeached?
How far have you gotten on drafting your concession speech?
When you leave office, you will obviously be arrested for your endless crimes against humanity. Do you have any preference for what prison you will spend the rest of your life?
(Hmmm – Let me see if I remember how to do this …)
To commence, I’d like to start off on the right foot with a beautiful photo courtesy of Webshots …
KIDDING
In the interim I’ve been able to restock my larder with topics. But I want to begin with a timely one, courtesy of Dr. Donald Trump. And to lay the groundwork, here are his actual words from yesterday’s proxy rally Coronavirus briefing, directly from the White House Transcript:
THE PRESIDENT: So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting.
And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.
There you have it – Dr. Trump is now switching from Hydroxychloroquine to powerful ultraviolet light and/or injection of disinfectants. So we can all imagine how Hydroxychloroquine is feeling right about now …
There is some concern about bringing the UV “light inside the body” as Trump suggests. Here is one of its more disturbing side effects:
But I want to focus more on his suggestion of directly injecting a disinfectant into the body. I was confused about where this idea came from – until someone provided a snapshot of Trump’s old pharmacy:
The good news is that there are options beside IV administration.
For us pediatricians, that is great news. We all know how scary needles are to most children – so the good news is that Clorox now comes in a chewable tablet.
And for those adults who also don’t like needles, but are not fond of taking kids’ medicine – you can use an inhaler. But to date, only Lysol has developed this delivery mode:
So it appears there are lots of modalities available for administration of disinfectants.
Well, obviously all this goes to prove that we have an EFFING IDIOT in the Oval Office.
As a physician, I truly hope that these “Thought Bubbles” for Dr. Birx, based on her reaction at yesterday’s briefing, are accurate
To begin, I want to share an important and helpful PSA video of how to put away your groceries to avoid contamination. It’s by a family physician, and although long, it’s well done.
Having done my good deed for the day, let’s enjoy some amusing aspects of the impact of Coronavirus – as it’s always good to see the humor in things.
Who knew that Shakespeare would have a take on this pandemic:
What’s the difference between Covid 19 and Romeo & Juliet?
One’s a corona virus and the other is a Verona crisis.
And we wouldn’t want the visual fine arts to feel left out, so here’s Albrecht Dürer’s famous “Praying Hands” sketch– but with a timely update.
But there’s an obvious downside to overdoing it. My aunt sent me this picture of her hands after washing them 73 times yesterday:
I went to Costco today (wearing my red “Cowboy” bandana for a face-covering – and over half of the people were wearing a face-covering of some type), and it looks like we’re seeing at least some relief from the TP shortage. But one never knows – it could rear its ugly head again with scenes like these:
In the Meat section of your grocery store:
A grocery store in Denmark or Finland (I forgot which) developed a clever way to stop the hoarding of hand sanitizer:
Now that folks are stuck at home, tempers can become short – even involving our beloved Critters
But for some, it’s given them time to develop a real talent for creativity. (I like the second one better):
If you’ve decided you’d rather test your creativity in the kitchen with some new gourmet recipes, you just might want to start following Justine on her Twitter account. While she’s no Julia Child, she does have a flair for the innovative:
I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a parting shot at the A$$hole in the Oval Office whose gross incompetence has literally cost lives.
As you probably know, the CDC is now recommending that everyone wear a facemask of some type when they go out. They asked *Rump if he would agree to appear in a PSA photo promoting the wearing of facemasks.
As you know, if you say “photo” and “promote” in the same sentence, Donnie will jump at the chance.
Unfortunately, the CDC forgot to factor in that *Rump is dumber than a bag of rocks:
One is an ugly, almost invisible microscopic Zombie that is currently wreaking havoc not only in the United States, but around the world – and about which we’ve heard a great deal:
The other is also an ugly, but way too visible fat Zombie that is also wreaking havoc not only in the United States, but around the world – and from whom we’ve heard WAY TOO MUCH:
I’m bringing this up because there’s an excellent overview article in WaPo about how viruses function that’s aimed at laymen. And it’s FREE to be read and shared as part of WaPo’s effort (like The New York Times and The Atlantic magazine, and I’m sure other publications) to help educate the public about Coronavirus disease or COVID-19 (which is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2).
Viruses are a true conundrum for scientists, many of whom actually refer to them as “Zombies” – because they really do NOT fit the criteria of a living thing.
Specifically, viruses are problematic for biologists because they don’t have cells, and therefore do not belong to the three main groups of life that all other organisms do: Bacteria, Archaea (a different form of microbe) and Eukaryota (plants, animals, fungi, etc. – organisms whose cells have a nucleus enclosed in a membrane).
This diagram might be too technical, but it’s an overview of how a virus hijack’s a cellular host’s machinery:
Viruses are basically just rogue genetic material (either DNA or RNA) housed in a protein shell called a capsid. They are unable to reproduce on their own, and so they use their protein shell to invade the host cells in order to insert their DNA or RNA into the host’s cells, and commandeer the host’s “machinery” to produce more of their own DNA or RNA viruses.
As noted in the WaPo article:
There is a certain evil genius to how this coronavirus pathogen works: It finds easy purchase in humans without them knowing. Before its first host even develops symptoms, it is already spreading its replicas everywhere, moving onto its next victim. It is powerfully deadly in some but mild enough in others to escape containment. And for now, we have no way of stopping it.
So paraphrasing from a Comment, we can see a striking similarity between the Coronavirus Zombie as detailed above, and the Trump Zombie detailed below:
There is a certain evil genius to how this Trumpublican pathogen works: It finds easy purchase in humans who know nothing. Before its first host even develops symptoms, it is already spreading its lies and hatred everywhere through Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc. – before moving onto its next victim. It is powerfully deadly in some “hosts” causing them to run over protesters with their cars, but mild enough in others to make them merely vote for the GOP. And, for now, we have no way of stopping it.
But come November 3rd we’ll be able to decapitate (it’s the only way to kill one) that Trump Zombie with our votes – and DESTROY IT!
(Have I hinted enough that I would truly encourage you to read the WaPo article to gain an overview to how a virus functions?)
BUT I also want to share some absolutely wonderful ads that are being produced from a variety of sources to attack *Rump – with many using his own words as a petard on which to hoist him.
I hope you’ll feel free to share them with like-minded friends, and those fence-sitters who are amenable to common sense.
This one is from Mike Bloomberg:
Even though @MikeBloomberg is not the candidate I’m currently backing, this is a FANTASTIC ad. It helps EVERY Democrat who’s running!! Please watch it and share. 👀 pic.twitter.com/Tpbj1y4uVK
This is the Priorities USA one (again, using his OWN WORDS) that *Rump’s lawyers have sent a “Cease & Desist” letter to try stop it from airing.
NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN!
In fact George Conway (Kellyanne’s husband) is leading the charge in getting into as wide circulation as possible:
Trump refused to take the threat of the coronavirus seriously, now he won’t take responsibility as his administration has been totally unprepared for this crisis. pic.twitter.com/Jdh1GY9HHS
Enough of this Doom & Gloom. Let’s close with a smile!
Since people are hunkered down, it’s amazing how inventive they’ve been in entertaining themselves. One theme I’ve seen repeated several times involves folks doing their own DJing. (Is that even a word?)
PSA Heads Up: If you have a cat, be careful what you employ in your bag of tricks:
During Trump’s self-proclaimed “Democratic HOAX” that has morphed into an actual PANDEMIC, the world needs a leader who can be taken BOTH literally AND seriously. Sadly, Trump fails on both counts.
We’ll try to find some enjoyment – hopefully at Trump’s expense. But let’s first begin with some FACTS & TRUTHS – both of which are clearly anathema to Donnie:
Now let’s enjoy some humorous takes on Trump’s gross mismanagement of COVID-19 beginning with a microscopic view of the virus that explains a lot:
One does have to wonder why Trump put Pence in charge of dealing with the Coronavirus (other than to ensure that they’d BOTH go down together). But apparently in his own unique way, Pence is on top of it:
although people are doubtful of mike pence's ability to orchestrate a coronavirus response, my sources are telling me he is working diligently behind the scenes, collecting two of every animal
It looks like Trump and Pence are finally taking the Pandemic seriously:
Here are a couple of Tweets that provide a PSA about the virus:
BEATLES: Yeah you, got that something, I think you'll understand CDC: It's Covid-19 BEATLES: I wanna hold your hand CDC: Not advisable BEATLES: I wanna hold your hand CDC: No
The World Health Organization has announced that dogs cannot contract Covid-19. Dogs previously held in quarantine can now be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out.
Taking hoarding to a whole new level! Maybe we can do this poor soul a favor and provide a few recipes using boxes and boxes of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and dozens of bottles of 1000 Island Dressing.
If you’re wondering where Trumpkins are getting their medical care …
And if you’re looking for that unique gift to commemorate the Pandemic:
Ones that I particularly got a kick out of:
And to close, my favorite: There are two types of Costco shoppers with different approaches in preparing to hunker down:
