Episode 1: Kitsch Me If You Can (Works)

Original "Kitsch" Piece: Jousting

Final Piece: Knights Carousel

Artist: Kathryn Read

"I decided to only give myself a few minutes to decide from any artwork I could find at only one trip to the Salvation Army.  The picture I chose reminded me of a carousel, and of course jousting knights. That night at Bible Study, it occurred to me that the Knights of the Round Table probably took their motto of how a knight should live from that's nights Bible Verse: Philippians 4:8--- ...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. I decided to make a carousel of 8 knights; one for each word to live by.  A (poor quality) video of the carousel spinning can be found at my blog."

Finel Piece: "Variations
*Click HERE to listen to composition*

Artist/Composer: Josh Newton

"In classical music the Theme and Variations form has always been around.  And it is perfect for this challenge - take a melody everyone knows (opera aria, chorale tunes, religious chants, etc) and vary it a bunch of times.  After watching the episode, and seeing some of the choices, I settled on THE PERFECT tune.  I don't want to give it away, but here it is with five variations, and a reprise (there is a short introduction - I am sure when the tune comes in you will recognize it).  I am not sure if the minor variation, or the really weird variation is my favorite."

Original "Kitsch" Piece

Final Piece: "It's the Child Who Suffers"
Materials: paper, glue, ink on 16x20-inch stretched canvas

Artist: Becky Cochrane

"As little as I can tolerate it when people say "Think of the children!" as a knee-jerk reaction to things they don't like or agree with, lately, "thinking of the children" is something I can't avoid. I can't visit an online news site or watch a news show on TV without hearing a lurid story of children abused, abandoned, or killed.
I took what I assume is meant to be a playful illustration for a nursery and altered it with real headlines or excerpts from news articles and essays relating to child violence. Sadly, such accounts weren't at all difficult to find."



**More works to come**