May 2024 Patreon MerMay 

Snow White + Mermaid + Met Gala

This month my Patrons decided it will be a month of me drawing as many twisted fairy tales in the MerMay theme I can do on my Patreon. This is one of the mermaids of the few I created so far. ☺️

To show your support of my art and/or see all the characters created during MerMay join my Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/jmadorran

The Best Dressed

Harris Reed is an instant fav

Since Met Gala meant to be a garden this year, I feel it's fashionable to have a tree there.

The 2024 Met Gala, Artifice, Decadence, and the Mob that Approaches

The theme of this year's Met Gala is supposed to be a reflection on the 1962 short story The Garden of Time, written by JG Ballard. I have been disappointed in every way possible by the fashion that has resulted.

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TLDR: The Met Gala should have focused on the theme of death and rebirth of civilizations. But, maybe the short story that is based on hints that the 'civilization' and the decadence that these celebrities represent will be eventually destroyed. We, the working class, are the mob that is approaching them, and they are clutching their jewels in fear.

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The short story focuses on a couple, living in a sort of civilized paradise with flowers, music, beautiful clothing, and imagery that evokes jewels and extravagance at each opportunity. They pick at each magical flower in their garden to delay time and prevent an angry mob (whose intentions or goals are not made fully clear in the story) from approaching. In the end, however, the mob does ravage the area and leave their 'civilization' crumbling. It's supposed to be a nod to impermanence, to death and rebirth, as has been described in countless articles already.

And instead of focusing on anything even remotely related to that theme, the vast majority of celebrities chose to don outfits with tacky-looking flowers and jewels placed onto them. Even Ana Wintour was not free from this sin.

Even worse, the Met is actively collaborating with AI platforms for various artistic purposes. Don't get me started on how that already represents the active destruction of encouraging creativity from humans, and in turn, our artistic civilization.

In my mind, at least, the theme evokes the same sense of nostalgia that is so beautifully evoked in the film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Heavily influenced by the work of Stefan Zweig, it describes how the hotel and its concierge, and all the splendor and civilization and rich human culture they symbolize, eventually fall to ruin at the hands of a brutal militia. It almost exactly mirrors the way that Vienna, in all its beauty, was destroyed by extensive bombing during WW2. Stefan Zweig's disillusionment with the future of Europe echo the falling garden in Ballard's short story.

Then again, can that comparison really be made? Ballard's short story emphasizes that the death of this extravagance and decadence is necessary, even inevitable. No matter how much the couple in the story tries to hold back the tide by picking flowers, the mob eventually does approach. What does the mob want? Are they exhausted, in their ragged clothes, with how the wealthy remain sheltered in their corners of paradise?

Where does that leave us, the members of the working class? Are we the mob, and are the celebrities that we observe the people in the garden? Are they clutching their jewels, dresses, tacky artificial flowers, in hopes to preserve their wealth from us? Are we even approaching them, as they fear? Or are we just watching, motionless? Frankly, I don't think the people that attend the Met Gala can purposefully make any commentary on wealth, since each ticket costs roughly $75,000, a purchase so absurdly expensive for most of us. But the irony of the event, the reality of the mob, we the working class as we watch the event motionless, is a greater commentary than I think a lot of us realize.

Further reading: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240503-the-delicious-irony-of-the-met-galas-garden-of-time-theme

zendaya from the met gala 2024

MET Gala 2024 - O que teve

“Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (“Belas Adormecidas: Despertando a Moda”) – o tema do MET GALA 2024 – não é exatamente revolucionário, mas não impediu que estrelas desfilassem pelo tapete “verde” do evento com suas roupas inspiradas em um jardim. Ou mais ou menos isto. Estrelas de cinema, música, televisão ou streaming, personalidades e modelos se esforçaram para escolher o dress code…

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source: instagram (@giovannaengelbert)

Red Carpet Celebrities Fashion Highlights #metgala2024

Wanna know who was the weirdest dressed at the MET GALA 2024, go check this video out!

them white people said what to stray kids??