Recently in health, we were talking about the AIDS virus... rather boring since I've been learning about AIDS since before kindergarten. But, It's gotten me to think a little bit about things. How would I react if I found out I contracted it? It's the quiet part of today's gay youth culture; no one discusses the virus for fear of ruining the sense of invincibility everyone seems to have. Hell, even I do it. Recently I borrowed a book from the library (Men on Men 2000) which is a compilation of several short gay stories. Naturally I read all the stories which I feel I can relate to (teenage love, boyfriend frustrations, etc.) and I hardly even touch the ones I know nothing about, especially all the stories about AIDS. Now, however, I want to pick up that book again to read those stories I neglected the first time around.

To transition this subject to the glass etchings I've done, I remember going to my first art gallery where I actually took the time to look at the pieces. This particular artist, whose name eludes me for the moment, did several "smog paintings" on plaster and glass plates of famous celebrities who've contracted AIDS or died of lung cancer. In the center is a sort of interactive piece where one walks in, and you can see through the small hole at the very end the amount of dead bodies compiled each year due to those two killers. Juxtaposed around this along the walls are photos taken of the LA atmosphere, and it's disconcerting how you can really see the level of smog increase as the year rolls on. When exiting the gallery, they hand you pamplets with information about those two particular diseases complete with additional artwork from the artist. She was quite talented.

Sadly, when I came back to that place about two months later, it had been changed into a Claire's.