Mary Van Notes

We both suffer from unrequited love.  

I’m a proponent of the idea of letting art speak for itself.  But there were some things I wanted to share, so to reconcile I opted not to post any thoughts on the youtube video itself, and instead post them here.

A week after the November election, I found out that someone in my immediate family voted yes on 8.  I was disappointed and upset.  I thought to myself, “Wow… If I can’t even relate to my own flesh and blood, who can I relate to?”  This feeling of disconnection was something I had felt for a long time.  For awhile I didn’t think I had any friends, anyone to relate to.  My foray into art and performance was always an outlet for expression, a way to connect to the world at a time when I felt disconnected. 

My idea for the video came about as way to deal with the news after the November election.  I wanted to show how I felt.  It was a big idea that may not have come to fruition if it weren’t for me seeing the Project Direct contest.  It became an excuse to get the video made.  I told my roommate about this idea I had and I said, “I want to make a video about how I don’t relate to people.  And I don’t have anyone to ask to help me with it… since I don’t relate to people!” 

One of the happiest things to come out of making this video was that people did help me.  I felt blessed.   And slightly stupid.  Here I was thinking I didn’t have friends, when I do.  I have great friends!  Ones that hang out with me all day cutting and taping paper together! 

This video was truly healing for me.  I started the video feeling disconnected, but I finished the video feeling blessed.  To my friends and fans, thank you!

You can watch “papercuts” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w4aZh9BzfY

p.s.

The video was also a comment on the popular-quirky, DIY style of videos today that use paper and hand-made sets.  I love those kinds of videos (like vids by The Receptionist) but I noticed that those videos always have humans interacting with paper.  They were always magical and fun.  But if you were truly in a world made of paper and you were human…. wouldn’t that suck hairy stinky nuts?  Like big time?  For reals…

Merry Christmas World Wide Web!   Here are a couple of stupid silly videos (my specialty).

Please enjoy Vintage

And How To Be A Girl 3