I like this type of art
Woman Dresses Up Road Kill
AP
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (May 7) - For the past several weeks, drivers near Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville have been noticing odd things about some of the road kill on the sides of the area's highways.
Some of the dead possums and raccoons have been dressed in pet or human baby clothes and have had their claws painted with nail polish. The carcass of a deer has been adorned with gold paint.
The culprit is SIU-Edwardsville graduate art student Jessica Whited, 24, of West Lafayette, Indiana.
In an interview with the Belleville News-Democrat, Whited said she is not an animal rights activist. She says she's just interested in seeing if people would give more thought to the animals if they were somehow given human attributes.
"I think this is my way of slowing down and paying homage to these animals," she explained. "I don't particularly find it offensive, but I understand why some people who don't understand what I'm doing could find it that way."
Whited, a 2006 graduate of Purdue University, said she takes precautions in dealing with the carcasses.
"I wear gloves," she said. "I don't know that I could touch it with my bare hands, because by the time I find them, they're pretty far gone."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press
AP
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (May 7) - For the past several weeks, drivers near Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville have been noticing odd things about some of the road kill on the sides of the area's highways.
Some of the dead possums and raccoons have been dressed in pet or human baby clothes and have had their claws painted with nail polish. The carcass of a deer has been adorned with gold paint.
The culprit is SIU-Edwardsville graduate art student Jessica Whited, 24, of West Lafayette, Indiana.
In an interview with the Belleville News-Democrat, Whited said she is not an animal rights activist. She says she's just interested in seeing if people would give more thought to the animals if they were somehow given human attributes.
"I think this is my way of slowing down and paying homage to these animals," she explained. "I don't particularly find it offensive, but I understand why some people who don't understand what I'm doing could find it that way."
Whited, a 2006 graduate of Purdue University, said she takes precautions in dealing with the carcasses.
"I wear gloves," she said. "I don't know that I could touch it with my bare hands, because by the time I find them, they're pretty far gone."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press
