Rave on!

I tend to forget that the annual Washington Post PEEPS diorama contest is perhaps not as significant an annual event to most other (reasonable) people. This became painfully apparent when I shared the fact I was up late on a recent Monday night submitting my diorama during the course of a manager's meeting on Tuesday and was met with confusion and blank stares.

It's not my fault their priorities are misguided.

I found myself explaining the contest and scrolling through photos of my oeuvre conveniently saved on my iPhone so they are always close at hand. 

(Note: I asked for and was granted an obnoxiously large raise shortly thereafter. I'm pretty sure these two things are related.)

This year, I pulled from my vast collection of rave experiences to create the following masterpiece:

It's PEEPS! At a rave! With peepmau5! 

Detail photo of PEEPS with pacifier, sunglasses and MDMA necklace.
(I used my daughter's beads -- something about this does not
feel like especially good parenting, though I'm not sure what...)

Anyway, as with all of my dioramas in the past eight years, the Washington Post shut me out yet again. I used to liken this phenomenon to Leonardo DiCaprio's genius never being acknowledged with an Oscar, so I now need a new frame of reference.

An oddly appropriate tribute to Leo. 

However, because I am freakishly competitive and quite possibly clinically insane like to hedge my bets, I also entered this year's work of art into the Pioneer Press contest, with the hope that a state smart enough to elect Al Franken as senator is also intelligent enough to appreciate fine art.

Hoping it's good enough and that, doggone it!, people like it,
Brutalism