I’m going to put one hundred luminescent duck sculptures in a visible location somewhere in Washington, D.C. While working on this street art project, I’ll document my progress online. You can see all the ducks created so far by going here.
My daughter Brett made duck 56 which she named “Hippie Duck.” I asked her about this name, and she said because it’s colorful and has a peace sign and a heart on it, it qualifies as a hippie duck. I told my kids that I like peace and love, and I asked them if that makes me a hippie. They said “yes.” I told them I was a generation too young for this categorization, but they said that was beside the point.
Brett made duck 57 using a favorite tissue paper flower technique.
I made duck 58 out of sea shells found during our Delaware beach vacation. These ducks provide me with a wonderful solution for items my children feel they must collect but don’t actually want to keep including old magazines, school projects, art projects, and now sea shells. When visiting the beach, leave only footprints, take only broken sea shells and towels filled with sand.
Duck 59 features the Edward Gorey illustration “Some Things Are Scary” taken from an old calendar. Gorey is one of my favorite artists and this text may become my new motto. It’s applicable to a variety of situations.
Duck construction brings out the feminist in Elizabeth Carter as evidenced by duck 40, “The Duck of Reproductive Rights,” and again with duck 60, “Blue Wetness.” Brett helped with this duck as well and listened as her mom explained that, “They need to stop making these ridiculous commercials with blue liquid.”
Which lead to a conversation about male fear of menstruation and Kiran Gandhi who made international news when she ran the London Marathon with menstrual blood running down her leg.
“It would have been way too uncomfortable to worry about a tampon for 26.2 miles,” Gandhi wrote on her blog. Elizabeth pointed out that marathoners often vacate waste without shame while running and that what Gandhi did, while no doubt a bold statement, would not have been perceived as radical if not for the stigma associated with menstruation.
My son, Ben, listened to this conversation as well which is worth mentioning because men can be feminists too. Also, I don’t want him learning about periods from commercials like this the way I did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIkLYc5lrmg&app=desktop
What is happening to this woman once a month so that she struggles to find the right pad that will help her to “really keep my mind on the job”?
Anyway, I’m still confused frankly, but I listen. I encourage my kids to listen, and Elizabeth is making duck sculptures themed around the female reproductive system which is likely helping us all in some way.
By the way, aside from being a runner and bold feminist icon, Kiran Ghandi is a musician and has toured with M.I.A. That’s reason enough to include the below video. I could try to unpack what this video says about race, culture, ethnicity, gender, and sex just as I’ve over-analyzed the 1985 maxi pad commercial, but I’d rather just watch M.I.A. rock out.
