ART AND NUDITY UNDER FIRE
School extends suspension of posterior painter

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

A high school art teacher suspended for moonlighting as a self-proclaimed "butt-printing artist" will apparently have more free time to work on his cheeky creations.

Stephen Murmer was told last week that he was being placed on paid administrative leave for five days from his job at Monacan High School after Chesterfield County school officials became agitated over his unique brand of artwork.

And

Outside of class and in disguise, Murmer creates floral and abstract art by slathering paint on his posterior and pressing it against canvas in the manner of a stamp.

And

Earlier this week, she said teachers were expected to set an example for students through their personal conduct.

Click here for the rest.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like this guy's kind of doing a performance art thing, wearing a mask, and painting with his butt publicly. Sounds a bit silly, if you ask me. But that doesn't matter. Like all good art teachers, this man is an artist in his own right. What he's doing is clearly for artistic purposes and therefore legitimate. Punishing him in any way at all for this is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Frankly, in spite of the fact that I think butt-art is a bit goofy, this teacher is setting "an example for students through...personal conduct." A good example. When I was teaching high school theater, I believed that it was extraordinarily important for me to continue working as an actor and director on my own time, if only for credibility's sake--I also found that continuing to act gave me all kinds of insights into the subject I was teaching. But I don't really need to say all that: it is self-evident that a teacher should stay active within his field.

Beyond all that, I'm really starting to be disturbed by what is now clearly some kind of puritanical anti-art movement in this country. This is the fifth high profile incident of which I've heard this year in which artists have been attacked and punished by self-proclaimed arbiters of morality. First there was the incident where an art teacher was fired because topless art photos of her appeared on the internet. Meanwhile, a Church of the SubGenius performance artist lost custody of her children because a family court judge didn't like the anti-religious content of her art. Then a police chief had to resign because of topless photos his wife uploaded to the internet--okay, I'm not sure if this woman was an artist, sounds like a weird biker thing, but it's along the same lines; someone was punished harshly for self-expression. Finally, an art teacher lost her contract because some kids she took on a field trip to an art museum saw some nude art.

Now this shit about the butt-painter.

If you look at all this in the context of the "abstinence based" sex education movement, condom misinformation coming directly from the federal government, as well as the fed's new abstinence propaganda for people in their twenties, it's pretty damned hard to not conlude that something's afoot here. Despite their defeat at the ballot box last month, the narrow minded and dim witted forces of religious fundamentalism are on the move, and they're taking people down. That's pretty fucked.

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