Acceptable Obsessions
Acceptable Obsessions, 19x15, 2003, prisma bronze & raisen noir, carbon ink.



Arnold Schwartzenegger boasts, "I just use my muscles as a conversation piece, like someone walking a cheetah down 42nd Street." As in most neighborhoods, sports prowess established the childhood pecking order in mine. My first driver's license documented my stature as five feet tall and weighed one hundred pounds. My relationship with America's athletic obsession was more similar to Charlie Brown's. After most church services and around school, most significant conversation revolved around sports scores and other frivolity. The Mennonite girl in the drawing assumes the posture of Michael Jordan's celebrated 1988 leap from the free-throw line. None of our Mennonite school All-Stars demonstrated a glimmer of this skill, but they were nevertheless idolized. The enthusiasm in the small gym as the team played other private schools mirrored NBA hysteria. Mennonite communities tried to keep their sports stars modest. Shorts were forbidden for either gender, unless warn overtop a boy's sweatpants. Girls dressed in culottes and t-shirts rather than tank tops.