Ugly Fish?

Hello fellow artists and art enthusiasts!

My name is Felicia Follum and this is my first post for Art-a-Day, though I have been following the blog since March. I am an emerging artist and will be graduating from the University of Wyoming in May.  My artwork tends to focus on social issues.  My most recent body of work deals with African American religious culture and my next body will be dealing with human trafficking.

To see more about me and my artwork check out my blog, website, or Facebook page.  But for now I would like to share one of the watercolor studies I painted a couple days ago. This painting was supposed to be a study of cloth using my dad’s old fish tie. I ended up drawing the fish instead of the waded fabric at the other end.  I really enjoy the colors in this painting...

My mom hated the fish tie and gave it to me in high school.  I kept it and entered it in  an ugly tie contest at Alexander's, a jewelry shop.  It won enough for a free pearl necklace. 

DIRECT TO YOU

Continuing to play with the images I shot in Vegas over New Years. I couldn't believe how many families were walking around, and especially the number of families with children in strollers. Vegas used to be known as Sin City, but it has really gotten kind of tame these days. More like a semi-adult Disney theme park than the Adult Entertainment Capitol of the World. The Strip no longer has that gritty edginess and I, for one, lament its passing.

However, the seaminess is always there, just beneath the surface. As you walk down the Strip, you will still be inundated by the down-and-out passing out discount cards to the strip clubs, massage parlors, escort services and other clip joints that lurk in the shadows a few blocks off the main drag. As I was having lunch at a sidewalk cafe outside the Paris, a billboard truck advertising "HOT BABES - DIRECT TO YOU" cruised by ever so slowly and stopped directly in front, blocking the view of the fountain show at the Bellagio across the street. The families walking by were embarrassed, little girls looking away and the little boys transfixed by the half naked babes, as their parents tried to quickly hustle them away. All I could think was "What the hell are these parents thinking, bringing kids to Vegas - God dammit, this is Sin City!"