Chimera

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I've been working with my art collective Meow Wolf, on one of their projects Chimera, which goes into local schools and collaborates with kids to make art. At the end of this semester we got into small groups and made movies, most of which involved zombies, aliens, and "party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO.

At Ortiz Middle School some of the kids had gang tattoos and way-too-cool attitudes, but in the end they were just kids and we all had a lot of fun once they warmed to us. One little guy had symbols on his knuckles, an all-white outfit, complete with fedora, pointy shoes, and a bejeweled belt-buckle. I complimented his style and he absolutely beamed. 

My favorite group of middle schoolers wrote a movie about a news-anchor/science teacher, goblins, a meteor and a Sphinx, one of the funniest ones was titled "Inspirations" but they are all viewable here. My favorite plot was devised by a class at Gonzales Elementary. Benji, a friend and fellow wolf, saw that this plot held social commentary about capitalism, socialism, pop-culture and surrealism: P Diddy was the football coach for Charlie. Steve Jobs hands Charlie flowers and opens a vortex into a world of cat clones with his iphone. At some point Paul Bunyen is working at Mcdonalds, but he looks like Fidel, which appeared to make a statement about socialism serving capitalism. 

A couple of times during lunch break all the Meow Wolfers went to the Horseman's Haven, a little family restaurant in the parking lot of a gas station notorious for having the spiciest chile in town. We discussed how excellent it would be if Benji ran for mayor - everyone loves Benji and he could run on a platform of art, youth, tourism, and decriminalizing marijuana. He was dubious about it, because he wouldn't want to go to tons of meetings all the time, but is an excellent speaker. "Could I just be a puppet?" he questioned, Vince, the founder of Meow Wolf, said he would be Meow Wolf's puppet, and mentioned that to win in New Mexico all one needs is around 4,000 votes, Benji could simply shmooze with all the 15-year-olds now, and in 3 years get their votes. As we left the Haven our waitress referenced Benji: "He's so nice! Such a happy boy!" I asked her if she would vote for Benji for mayor.

At the end of the semester we piled out all the costumes and equipment, and noticed that the curb outside the school said: "Kiss and Drop." I kissed the items and dropped them, then trotted into the sunset.