"Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA)" by Felix Gonzalez-Torres

The Art Institute of Chicago has quite an interesting exhibit going on right now. It is a piece of edible art by Felix Gonzalez-Torres involving, you guessed it, candy. Now don't get too excited, just because there's free candy does not make this a happy story.  Quite the contrary, actually. Each individually wrapped candy represents love as well as death. It represents both happiness and disease. Each piece of this 175 pound candy pile is a part of a story.

You see, this piece is the artist's representation of his lover, Ross Lay-Cock, who tragically died of AIDS in 1991. Ross' ideal body weight had been 175 pounds so with every piece of candy taken, the pile gets a bit lighter. This is symbolic of the weight Lay-Cock had lost due to his illness. The difference between this exhibit's weight-loss is that it is easily replinished. The pile is always refilled, granting the artist's wish for his lover to live on. I believe we are ingesting a symbolic piece of the man by taking him into ourselves and letting a piece of him live on in us. I was very moved with the story behind this exhibit and hope you have been, too.

Heartbeats (Jose Gonzalez Cover)

This video is, obviously, a cover of the song "Hearbeats" by Jose Gonzalez, whom I love. This cover is done by a wonderful singer and man, William Beckett. Some of you (okay, a few of you) may know him from the local band The Academy Is... (there, I made it easy for you. All you have to is click that to see how amazing this band is).
This video is inspiring to me because this man has a beautiful voice and I often listen to it when I create. I'll go out to shoot and listen to my iPod all the time or come home and hear a song and just need to make art. I do this with other artists as well but most often with this band and this singer. They have been my favorite band since my seventh grade year and continue to hold that spot today, quite a feat when you know the amount of music I like to listen to.
Another reason I chose this video is the man himself. He is an inspiration. He has overcome so many hardships in his life and still struggles with a few demons today. Though his has had a bad past, he continues to be one of the sweetest people on the fucking planet. Believe me. He inspires me not only to create art but to persevere no matter what my current situation is. If he can do it, I can do it, right? Right.