some new collages i've worked on lately:

there is a recycling center in chapel hill, and there's a section for magazines. there's a rack where people can put their old magazines for others to read, and i went there the other night to get some stuff for collages. i ran across several beauty magazines, and i've always been struck by images of beauty displayed on these magazines and also the messages about sex that we get from them. the first is an ad for lingerie, and i found the quote interesting (if you can't read it, it says "contrary to popular belief, red doesn't have to mean stop"), and wondered what it was really suggesting. of course, that's only my interpretation, but i think that the message underneath the ad is one that is communicated often.

the second is something i've wanted to work on for a while, and something that i'm certainly not finished with. i think it speaks to us all, male and female, because i think we are all hooked in one way or another. women are hooked into believing the images of "beauty" they see, and men are hooked into the same as well as the idea that women are something to hehold in the eye, something to be purchased and lusted after. we've learned to see them as objects, not people, even in the magazines that are supposedly for women. pornography is something that grips millions of men, a dark corner in almost every man i know's heart (including my own) is this battle for our minds. do we allow media and the voices around us to shape our view of women, or do we see them as daughters of God? do we view them as something to obtain, just like cars and watches, or do we view them as God's display of beauty and grace? it's a battle we fight daily, it's a struggle that both men and women need to recognize and work with one another to overcome this darkness.