I went to school dressed as what?????

With the appoaching holiday season, people have been coming to me with their commission requests, some I am up for....others have been met with a resounding "um...no, no I...I just can't" (this was in response to someone who wanted a series of kitten and puppy ACEOs).

One of the requests I got was to do an art box of the Madonna...I will admit, I was barely listening, and at first thought the person was asking for Madonna- the material girl...not Madonna- mother of God.

Low and behold...they meant...mother of God.

To set the record straight...I have not been religious for wuite sometime now, though I am not a candle buring heathen either, I am just somewhere in the middle. I like to think that I would be a Buddhist...If I doidn't hate so many things...

wait, I am getting off track here. I need to focus.

I was asked to do something that involved the Virgin Mary, I'll say this, it's been a long time since I was asked to do a "virgin" anything...frankly, I was and still am scared by this. I am out of my element. I am best when dealing with subtle sensuality, beauty, bombshells, sexy anything...how am I going to be able to do this???

When I was little I went to Catholic School, my mother was devout, my father...not so much, he liked the idea of me going to Catholic School because of the better education, my mom liked the whole religious thing, and frankly I liked it there.

One of the schools I went to I had to wear a uniform...eeek. little plaid, little socks...oh, I don't even want to think about the tie...sad thing is, if I wore that today it would be an entirely different story...

The other school I went to had a strict dress code, but no uniform. This was hard...after all I was a very fashion forward 10 year old. Madonna (Material Girl) was everything to me...loved her. In fact I wanted to be her, with those cool acid wash jeans...oh, wait, we were not allowed to wear jeans to school...drat!!! That's ok, I could still wear that lacy tank top...oh wait, that's right, NO TANK TOPS, what was I going to do?????

I was at a lost, was I stuck wearing dress trousers and slouch socks for my entire school year....

I poured over the school handbook, there had to be loop holes, there had to be a way around it...

My favorite ooutfit/bad Madonna Wannabee costume that I could wear to school was this matching shirt/pant set...it was white, with brightly colored "paint splatters" all over it, since we couldn't wear sneakers I was forced to wear dress shoes with this, but that's ok, becasue I wore little hot pink pumps...oh yeah...it was hot.

My jewelry was cutting edge as well, I wore about 100 multi-colored jelly bracelets on each arm, and fingerlace lace gloves and my hair was tied up in a side ponytail.

I WAS AWESOME...or so I thought. I would wear this little number to school at least once a week, once though I made the mistake of wearing it to school on Bible Study day, this was the day that we would meet with the priest and have class, nit just with the nuns...

It was there, that I got singled out, and publicly ridiculed for my outfit, nit just the outfit...but my choice in heroes, the priest called Madonna a "harlot" and said I would bea "harlot" too if I didn't "change my ways"...I was devastated...

I went home in tears, begging to be taken out of the school, that no one there "understood" me...The next year I was removed from the school and put into public school (which was by far an even worse experience).

Since then, I have always felt like the outsider, the harlot in nun's clothing if you will...

I accepted the job to make the Virgin Mary box...I have tried to acclimate myself to this by doing a few other Madonna inspired pieces as well, this is one titled "Mother and Child" it is available in my etsy store.

I am hoping that no one calls my bluff, that they will not see that I am really still a 10 year old all dressed up like Madonna inside, that they will just look at it, and it will mean something to them...far different than what it means to me...

I know this was long and probably made no sense...but I am hungry, and cannot be held responsible for anything I have said here...