Medium: Computer Graphic

Size: 10 inches x 8 inches (25 centimeters x 20 centimeters)

Year: 2009

Description: This piece was literally a last-minute addition to my exhibit. It's literally ripped from today's headlines and it took me about 15 minutes to complete. The couple in the photograph are Jon and Kate Gosselyn, who are stars of TLC's controversial reality series "Jon & Kate Plus 8". In case you've been living in a cave recently, here's a brief synopsis of the series. Jon and Kate were a young married Pennsylvania couple who wanted to start a family only to discover that Kate had a hard time getting pregnant. So the couple visited a fertility clinic where Kate became pregnant with twins. Unlike ex-President George W. Bush, Jon and Kate were not content with merely twin girls so they made a repeat trip to the fertility clinic in the hopes of getting just one more child. Well, in an illustration of the old saying "Be careful of what you wish for..." Kate found herself pregnant with sextuplets. Jon and Kate refused selective reduction on religious grounds so they became the parent of eight children from just two pregnancies. They struggled financially until the TLC series came along and the series became a hit. I never paid much attention to that series and pretty much ignored it until earlier this year when, in a forum thread about Nadya Suleman's octuplets, someone made a post saying that she lives in the same area as the Gosselyns and things about that couple aren't as hunky dory as the reality series portrays them as. Through that thread, I discovered why Jon and Kate are no longer on speaking terms with Kate's parents (<a href="http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_Kate_Gosselin_estranged_from_her_parents">http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_Kate_Gosselin_estranged_from_her_parents</a>). I also discovered two blogs devoted to criticizing the series. One of them, Truth Breeds Hatred (<a href="http://truthbreedshatred.blogspot.com">http://truthbreedshatred.blogspot.com</a>), was started by disgruntled members of Kate's extended family who are concerned about how the reality show is affecting their children. The other, Gosselyns Without Pity (<a href="http://gosselinswithoutpity.blogspot.com/">http://gosselinswithoutpity.blogspot.com/</a>), was started by former fans of the show who became alarmed over what they've seen on the show--especially with Kate frequently criticizing Jon in front of the cameras. I viewed the links for a while then I forgot all about the Gosselins until about a few months ago when I was going grocery shopping and I would see the tabloids at the checkout line where the headlines screamed that Jon was seen partying with young college co-eds and he was accused of having an affair with a school teacher. Then the headlines screamed that Kate was dating her security guard. As time went on, Jon and Kate stories began to seep even through the magazines that I regularly read, like Entertainment Weekly, and I began to feel annoyed by those two. Of course the cheating allegations have been woven into the first episode of the new season of "Jon & Kate Plus 8", which debuted on Memorial Day. So I created this graphic as a sarcastic response to the controversy. I based the design of the image after those inspirational posters that are frequently posted in corporate offices and doctors' waiting rooms. They typically have a black background with white lettering and they include one pretty photo along with one or two words (like "Success" or "Teamwork") along with an inspirational message.