Heros and Pop Art

 HEROS:

 I strongly believe in heros. What I mean by that is someone you look up to, someone you idolize, that inspires you, and helps you realize what you really love in life. I believe they are sort of a muse, who shows you their way and lets you create your own world based on what you praise in them, or admire. I have a few Heros. I believe that kids should have heros because they help and inspire people, because lately i've been wondering a lot, who am I? And what do I want? It doesn't matter who or what the hero embodies, whether it is Superman or Thomas Edison, it just matters that the hero means something to someone, that the person strongly believes in their values and ideas. I believe heros are a means, a kind of segway, into self creation and self expression.We all need someone to look up to, to help guide us into our own creations. We can incorporate our heros into parts of ourselves.

Some of my heros have been:
Albert Einstein
Lady Gaga
Andy Warhol
The Beatles
Martin Luther King Jr.
The Dalai Lama
The Rebbe
Siddartha - Buddha
 Fictional Character - Alana the Lioness - Tamora Pierce
V in V for Vendetta

To elaborate on heros, I have been reading autobiographies about Andy Warhol recently. The reason i was first intrigued by him is because of my fascination with Lady Gaga. The reason i like Lady Gaga so much is because she provides a whole new definition of pop, beauty, and the music industry in Hollywood. When i think about pop in my lifetime, yes there was Madonna but she was kind of before my time, i think about Britney Spears and the Black Eyed Peas and of course many many other bands. I realize that i appreciated some of these bands/pop singers music but none of them really sparked my interest. When i first heard Lady Gaga's music i actually thought it was horrible. It wasn't until i saw her music videos and the beats, and costumes started to grow on me, which is when i really gained an appreciation for her. I feel like she has redefined pop music much like Andy Warhol redefined art in the pop world. I feel like Lady Gaga became famous because of who she is, and even though everyone thinks that her "Lady Gaga" appearance is a facade and an act, it isn't to me. I interpret her music and clothes as art and as self expression, after all the media is the biggest source of self expression in the world. I think that she is one of the most justifiable artists in the music industry, and she isn't afraid to express who she really is. Her outfits may be considered ridiculous and obscene to many, but to me they are fabulous and beautiful., because they represent who she is and what she likes, and she's not afraid to show it. She is so intrepid and out there and I appreciate that in her. I also like that she is herself a whole lot. She is not trying to be something someone likes, she is what she likes and it just so happens that a whole lot of people like that and can relate to her. She is not like Miley Cyrus, who for her whole life, under a Disney contract, has been what other people wanted to see. Then she breaks free out of this Disney contract and comes out with this new music video where she's "finally free" and she actually looks like she is trying to be like Lady Gaga. It almost looks like she is trying to be what she thinks society is interested in right now, which is sex and a kind of dark, outrageous costume look. Even though Miley Cyrus has broken free of her contract, i still think she is trying to please someone. What I am really wondering is...who the hell IS Miley Cyrus? And what does she mean to the world? What does she represent?
Another thing that i like about Lady Gaga and Andy Warhol the two most famous people in Pop history is that they take old things, such as musicians, songs, themes, costumes, images, soup cans, and present them as something new, giving them a new meaning and a new character. For example, Lady Gaga got her name from "Radio Gaga" a song by Queen, and Andy Warhol's pictures of celebrities and soup cans were all from cut out magazines or pictures that were re-printed by him. I like this because they take ideas from other places and present them in new perspectives, and they get their ideas from inspiration, which is really "real". By real i mean that everyone is usually inspired by something in the world and it often causes people to act or create something based off of that inspiration. This is what Andy Warhol and Lady Gaga both do. In fact one of Lady Gaga's heros is Andy Warhol. I am also fascinated by this because it is so controversial. Taking other people's work or ideas, or even re-printing images from the media, can be interpreted as "stealing" or unoriginal. Really though, i think that it is very original, it is taking something that inspired them and showing it to the world from their perspective, or recreating it to present something that describes their interpretation of an image or song in the media.
Another aspect of Lady Gaga that I really appreciate is that she presents to the world, the truth. What I mean by the truth is that everything she creates, all her songs, music videos, and most costumes are sexual. She is almost obscene with it, and definitely very explicit. But in my opinion she is just revealing what goes through everyone's heads. Face the facts, we are all sexual beings. I like that she isn't afraid to show this, and she isn't afraid to take criticism for it because it is "who she is".

So lately these artists have been inspiring me. They have been inspiring me so much that I have been seeing beauty in strange things. For instance, lately I think trash is beautiful. Now, why would trash ever be beautiful? I don't really know. But I am viewing it in a different perspective than it is usually viewed and that is why i see beauty in it. The beauty in it is that it is what our economy uses up and disposes of. Just looking at a heap of trash, you can see how many things people throw away. It is really pretty because it is just a bunch of our material objects from our society and how it operates. Starbucks cups, pizza boxes, foil, drink containers, old food, plastic, aluminum foil, a broken toy, all of them just overflowing out of a trash can, or out on the field of a concert venue. All of it just thrown to waste, it's so cool because it represents so much. I've been thinking about going to a junk yard and just exploring what people throw away: old couches, old cars, broken pieces of things. I just want to sculpt something out of the pieces and put it together to form a psudo tree. A tree of our economy, a very wasteful economy. Those are my ideas lately, and when I go to a junk yard i'll put pictures up.