Rude Bulbs

The coat Melania Trump wore to meet immigrants who had been detained and separated from their children said "I really don't care do u?"

This summer I ended up making more rude bulbs than I initially intended to for this summer's political bulbs project now up at Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River, Oregon. Some of these are rude because the news was rude. Some are rude because I just felt like being rude.

What fills a MAGA (Make America Great Again) hat? Ice cream or poo?

I was happy to discover that even what I considered to be the rudest, most childish bulb that I have ever made, flew just over the heads of the young people who were visiting my studio. I was relieved when one young guest identified what I meant to be the poo emoji 💩 in the hat as soft serve ice cream.

Grab them by the feline

Another of my rude pieces is similarly subtle. I sculpted what I wanted to be a tiny hand (hence the large sleeve) holding a pussy cat. I thought this was a clear reference to 45’s infamous “grab them by the pussy,” but I have since learned that this needs to be explained. I hope that in the context of 29 other bulbs addressing politics and the current administration, the reference will be more clear.

Scream 1 and Scream 2

The first screaming face was initially done as a direct representation of an angry white woman in a MAGA hat screaming at a protestor. I both enjoyed doing the faces and thought they so captured the current political discourse so well that I decided to make more.

nasty language bulb

I had been thinking of word as snakes, flames, and things that take on a life of their own once out in the world. I hadn't specifically thought to do this as a bulb, but I had been thinking of something similar for some time. The mouth with rude, hateful word flames coming out of it, for that reason, is one of my favorites of this series. I didn't include eyes because I didn't want them to distract from the topic and because the bulb shape makes their placement a bit awkward with the mouth and nose in this position.

Mansplaining bulb

I apparently forgot to take a picture of one of my last two rude bulbs from this series. I've discussed the "Well, actually..." bulb before, but in a similar vein I wrote on another bulb. This one, without a photo, says "Hey baby, can you give me a smile?" I was looking for the a generic phrase that captured the misogyny, patronizing tone, and entitlement that we all know in street harassment. It makes me cranky just writing and discussing it. I realized after I delivered the work that I should have covered the bulb in something utterly disgusting, like vaseline, so that the bulb, like the street harassment comments themselves, leaves a lingering film of unpleasantness for those who get too close.