cindy capitani

cindy capitani
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Rutherford, New Jersey,
Birthday
August 11
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www.cindycapitani.net
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wordsmith. left the paragraph factory for a private atelier. www.cindycapitani.net follow me on Twitter @cindycap

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Editor’s Pick
MARCH 3, 2010 8:41AM

Naked in the snow. Pornography or art?

Rate: 64 Flag

Want to see the best in snowfall creations? Come to New Jersey, where we don’t merely make snowmen and igloos when faced with a foot of good packing snow. Uh uh. We get down and dirty. Or artistic. Depending on your point of view.

 The latest (no, not the first) is the Venus de Milo in Rahway. (Or is it Jenna Jameson without limbs?) Either way you look at it, no one can say it’s not freaking good.

nude-snow-woman-sculpture-rahway-nakedjpg-4991bcbba035bbb1_large

Art or porn? You be the judge. Photos by Conneran family

I’m sure our resident snowman expert will attest that this is a work of art, breasts and, ahem, all else, aside. I have trouble packing a round snowball yet this family crafted something that, melting aside, could be on display at the Met.

 My brother’s 10-foot snowman pales in comparison. Yes, it was 10-feet-tall and has a sweet face and cute little ears; I have no clue how he did it. I will forever be impressed.  But the Rahway sculpture is lovely, the angles just right. It does, actually, look like the Venus de Milo.

  Unnamed

An impresive -- & more crowd-pleasing snow creation for a suburban lawn.

But now she’s clothed in a cheap bikini top and wrap. Someone called the cops to complain about the snow porn on a neighborhood lawn. So the cops, not knowing what to cite the family under, just asked them to dress her (and a corncob pipe and a button nose would not do).

  nude2-snow-woman-sculpture-rahway-nakedjpg-4991bcbba035bbb1_large

At least they didn’t demand she be removed, like Parsippany police did when a few teens made a snow penis last month. I wish I had a picture, but the youth were caught in the act and no one captured the Kodak moment. Ok. The teens created their art on the high school lawn, in the dark. Their real Kodak moment would’ve been the look on the first teacher’s face who arrived the next morning. A video would’ve captured a shriek showing a hand clasped over a mouth in horror, or a knee-slapping smile that would’ve erupted into belly laughs. Either way, we’ve all been denied great youtube entertainment.

 Whoever called the cops on the snow breasts is probably in the minority of those who think a cover-up was due. The family said they think their sculpture went from art to porn by adding the bikini. They said now she’s objectified. I think they’re right.

 Before, she did look museum-like, her breasts overshadowed by her lack of arms. The only thing modern about her look is her abdominals. Museum women – and the Venus de Milo – have nice, round jelly bellies. The snow chick is sporting a six-pack. She obviously hits the gym …

 This story will hit the Associated Press, if it hasn't already. And if the family cares to pursue it, they can make a legal issue of being forced to objectify their art, and being forced to send their children a horrible message about women, breasts, art, porn and freedom of expression.

 In my town, I think she’d have been overlooked (though gossiped about). We have a number of artists and a certain level of tolerance. The giant (permanent) sculptures on an artist’s home on a main drag are mostly complained about over coffee; no one’s called the cops, or if they have, the law opted not to intervene. Rutherford is, after all, the hometown of William Carlos Williams. Dignified poet, yes. Still. We have to embrace art in any form it emerges.

 Porn versus art is certainly not a new topic for debate and discussion. It’s just so rare for it to be staged on the suburban front lawn. And made out of snow.

 New Jersey. Home of crooked politicians and pornographic snow. Somewhere, I hear a publicist weeping.

 

 

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If only the authorities in Jersey acted with such dispatch again corrupt politicans. There are a lot more of them than naked snow sculptures.
Makes me glad I live in Europe and don't have to put up with stupid bullshit like that! Imagine someone calling the cops about a snow-bust....so pathetic. Even worse that the cops asked that something "be done " about it. Sad that one must feel "grateful" that it didn't have to be taken down. The snow penis sounded REALLY cool!
"Or is it Jenna James without limbs?"
*snortle*
Snow Art, I love it !
Cindy, as the old NJ state slogan used to proclaim: "New Jersey's Got It" . . . sexy snow sculptures! So far I have not spotted anything like that around here, but once the word spreads there are bound to be some.
Good reporting, Cindy. Hope you're able to do an update. A lot of snowman news lately (I was featured last Sat. in New York Daily News).

Would it be okay to include this and link you on my magazine, Today's Snowman?
you're right sheep. there's a whole lot of actual crime that needs addressing. leave the snow breasts alone.

When I was writing this, shannon, i was thinking how this would so not happen in europe. And i do wish i had pix of the snow penis...

haha thanks brian. but really, venus, no?

art in any form - i'm all for it scarlett.

des, keep us posted if you see any. and NJ does have it!

Thanks Bob. And i would be absolutely honored if you put a link on your magazine. Thank you!
oh, and I can't wait to read your Post article bob. cool. congrats. This is the year of the snowman, no? We've certainly had more snow than i can recall. tho they -- the weather gurus -- say no records have been broken. yet.
I'm jealous that you have that great snow sculpture in your neighborhood. We had over 60" of snow but no masterpieces like that. Too bad the police made them cover it up.
this makes me ill.
People are r ridiculous. It takes all kinds. C'est la vie.
Cool statue. I know if I lived around there, I'd take my 6 yr old son to see it and use it as an informal art lesson. Of course he's six so he'd be disgusted by the nudity...lmao...but still, he'd remember it..and maybe some of what i would tell him. rated
Thanks, Cindy. To chime in, I'm actually not all for Europe's total intolerance–I'm thinking of the huge erotic murals I've seen on the side of German business buildings showing large penises. And I think there's a big difference between this snow sculpture and co-ed's across the country erecting colossal erections.

Snowmen and snow women have been naked from the start go with many notable beautiful snow nudes created by the likes of Michelangelo and Larkin Mead. But there are snowmen which should be illegal–racist snowmen, snowmen preforming sex acts in public places, etc. Snowman making is one of our most public art forms (and yet the least judgmental) and as such has some responsibilities.

The earliest evidence I know of pornographic snowmen is the Miracle of 1511 in Brussels. Not only was this frozen Woodstock one an early form of pornography but an early form of political commentary. Laws existed back to the 15th century to protect snowmen against vendors upset over snowmen which editorialized the day's issues, especially snowmen depicting certain classes (and church and government).

I'll pass on all the global warming discussion and freaky weather. Full disclosure, I can't wait for some warm weather.
The only trouble with hawt snow is that it doesn't last very long.
Send Bob Eckstein a message--he's the Snowman Expert. He'll want these in his collection.

You may have heard the story about the New Jersey politician who was asked, after an environmental hearing on a chemical plant, whether the choice for New Jersey was between jobs and cancer. His answer: "I don't see why we can't have both."
first it was art and then it turned into an ad for beach wear - now she needs a belly button piercing ...does make ya want summer more ...geez... one of my favorite sculptures at the Philadelphia art museum is in the Indian section of the museum - it stands about 5 feet and is a large penis with a face on its head - I would have liked the penis snow sculpture too... oh well. I bet the complainers have Playboy in their bathroom.
CORRECTION; "vendors" supposed to be vandals (Snowman vandalism was so rampant in Medieval times that "police" got involved back than, too.).

At least we have photography to document all this great art. Even before photography, many of the more important historic snowmen live on in engravings and drawings.
American puritanism rears it's head yet A-GAIN.
You know, to qualify as pornographic, it should make you horny.

Makes me worry about these peoples' neighbors...
You know what? I think it's lovely that the artist chose to acquiesce by dressing the snow art. I agree that the complaint was infantile, ludicrous. But I'm also heartened to hear that for some people, the making of it, the art itself was the point, not some huge protracted public fight. I think often of Greg Correll's notion of graceful retreat. The world could use so many more people like that.
Cindy, did you know about the anti-drug crack-head snowman made in Newark, NJ? I'm telling you, Jersey has snowman fever.
The artist was more gracious than I would have been. I would have probably chopped off the breasts in protest. But then that's just me!
Thanks for sharing this with us. Rated.
Too, too funny...and sad.
oh lord, and here I was beginning to feel good about living in New Jersey, thanks to New York...R
Calling this porn is just silly.
I know porn when I see it, and this is definitely not porn.
Thank you for this piece. I sure am tired of snow, but enjoy the snow art.
I think I know that woman. Did she used to be ice?
She's porn? A frigid gal like that? Golly. You need to warn those sensitive people to steer clear of that back room at the Metropolitan, you know, the one with the greek statues. They might want to cross Paris and Rome off their vacation bucket lists as well.
What in the hell is wrong with people?
Maybe all the needed was pasties and a fig leaf. But the only pornography anyone sees in this is what's in their own mind.
I think US and UK are suffering a serious case of PCitus - political correctness in the extreme - take 2 breats (er... pills) a day and come back next week!
I have, somewhere, a black and white snapshot of my mother, her three sisters, and my grandpa smiling and standing in front of their family of snowmen on the front lawn. They've given Mama Snowman some GIANT gazongas.

This was in 1960, in rural, conservative, Catholic, Indiana.

No one batted an eye.
It use to be the difference between pornography and art was pornography has no artistic or social redeeming quality and is for the distinct purpose to cause sexual arousal.

As for the snow women, if someone is aroused then I think we have a whole new sexual behavior category. Of course it is OK to muse about our uptight society and sex, but the real test of artistic tolerance is when your next store neighbor makes a snow penis or snow people having sex in the front yard and you have to explain to your 5 year old what those two people are doing. It is all funny until you are the one across the street.
it went from lovely to tacky. such a shame.
I like her outfit.

However, I would have preferred to have seen her adorned with two red buttons. Better than a lump of coal.
actually, I like it with bikini top and wrap much better. I love venus de milo. this weren't that.

btw, I can't stand bad nudes done in sand or paint or anything else. i know i know, i'm a snob. but don't shoot me for it. I'm not talking about abstract nudes. I'm talking bad nudes because to me they look STRANGE. they look like aliens. I guess theres nothing wrong with an alien nude. but at least give it antennas or something. those bee things. or antlers. something.
Nope, she'd have been torn down in my town. Northern Colorado has its bastions of common sense, but where I live is not one of them.
This reminds me of Ashcroft insisting on a blue back drop to cover up the scales of lady justice behind him for some press conference he was having. Sweet Jesus. It's not as though they had used food coloring to establish better definition of nipples or pubic hair for pity's sake. Any kid who could become aroused by that deserves the release. I mean maybe the family pet would be able to get a decent night's sleep without having to keep one eye open, know what I mean?

Let Portnoy have at it. Fido needs the rest.
This is in New Jersey and nobody has stolen it yet?
I think she's amazing either way but definitely better without the clothing. What sort of society do we live in that sees the beauty of the nude human body--male or female--in and of itself as pornography? Even right wing fundamentalists like John Ashcroft (the Attorney General/Baptist minister who demanded that the bare-breasted stature of Justice in DC be clothed) must admit the body is a creation of God.

It must have taken a huge amount of thought and effort to recreate this work of art. I think it would have been, if nothing else, a learning experience and good for the children involved in the process.

The people in this community remind me of the pope who made an artist paint clothing on Michelangelo's figures on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
To those who would have liked to see the snow penises–I am constantly emailed giant snow penises made on campuses. Trust me, it's no picnic.

Back to the subject of mores; I was just in the Cartoon Museum in London where a there was class on a field trip to see the Viz collection, which for those not familiar with the magazine, is a tame adult magazine with erotic cartoons. Most of the sophomoric captions were obsessed both c words and f word (sorry, I sound like such a prude). The children were around twelve and thirteen and I was the only one blushing at the exhibit.
And yet those morons on "Jersey Shore" remain at large. Interesting.
This story just hit on MSNBC.
Having finished growing up in Hawaii, I will never understand the idea of human body-by-itself as pornographic. This is part of the great sadness of puritanism. I salute island life and all its almost-nudity in everyday life: the shirtless in elevators and bikini-clad grocery shoppers.
Back in Scotland in the late 60s I went on a church-sponsored summer camp. On a beach day, we buried one of the girls up to her neck in the sand and made her this huge voluptuous body. This was OK, until one of the guys found a lump of dried seaweed that formed a nice curly triangle and placed it on the crotch. Several of the youth leader types looked like they were about to die of shock. However, the minister in charge strolled over, gave it a once-over, and issued a ruling. The adornment could stay, so long as no-one took pictures of it and got him fired by outraged parents. Very liberal dude for a Presbyterian minister in those days.
Notice which photo the prude editor put on the cover?
I'm amazed at how Venus-like it is, considering the limitations of snow as an artistic medium. What is with those neighbors??? Betcha anything they squawked their heads off about Janet Jackson's televised "Wardrobe Malfunction."

Maybe after the next snowstorm, the Snow Venus should be joined by a Snow version of Michelangelo's David....
When I look at this, I think of John Ashcroft. Why?
Art-schmart. She's got no head. She's not even a snowman... err woman... Where do you put the carrot? *snork* People are really ridiculous. Stupid quasi-puritans.
I grew up in South Jersey(you know, the part that North Jersey ignores) and we never had a problem with the police and snow "art".

Must be the prudes up north:):)
I live in Rahway and want to set the record straight on this issue. The local police did not tell the homeowner to cover her snow statue. They were responding to a complaint by a neighbor, which they are required to do.
On a lighter note, Rahway does have a small but burgeoning artist community downtown, so perhaps next time, it could sponsor a snow/ice sculpture contest!
From one Cindy to another, I loved your article. New Jersey or not, this was a beautiful work of art. Some folks are just looking for something to be 'shcocked' about, it's too bad they don't have the insight to enjoy an artictic endevour. Very enjoyable.
I loved the 10 foot high snowman.that freakin rocked ......and the Venus.....what a great little story.....a snow penis?? This is my favorite post of the day . Rated
I agree with Sharon. Chop off her breasts in protest!

Or, better yet, and far more obscene, build her a head - bald and kerchiefed; hook her up for her chemo; lay her down; stage the whole thing in pink.
Art! Definitely art!_r
put me in the art column. a male friend from college sent us (not just me) photos of himself naked on top of a huge pile of snow in PA, with a strategically placed snow shovel..his wife took the photos. I referred to it as snow porn. your story just shows how people have their priorities in strange places
She's lovely! Too bad the artist didn't do a whole series of venus. The birth of Venus where she's rising from the sea on a shell is beautiful, I realize it's a painting, but it would be a lovely snow sculpture!
Somehow the bikini top and towel make a really strong ironic statement. Also leaving something for the imagination is way sexier that a full monty. But that's just me. R
I thought it was beautiful without the bikini, and agree with the family. Geez, people, we've got other fish to fry!
I'm more concerned that her arms and head have been chopped off than the fact that she's naked. Of course, in America nudity trumps violence in the naughty department.
The snow bikini changes the snowgirl from an it,into a she.
I'll bet if you would ask any kid that saw the snowgirl what they thought about it,they would only giggle and think nothing more about it.

I guess its ok to show prime time murder,dead rotting bodys,rape,pimp's mistreating ho's and any nature of crime on T.V.

Don't even let me get started on Reality shows! Shows that are making the abnormal, normal. Shows that teach us how to be shallow,two faced,single minded dicks.
I mean that couldn't affect kids could it ?

Really, I think it is a shame. I thought she was hot for such a cold woman.

I think I'll build a giant snow lilly in my yard.
Nah, people would just think it's a flower!
I'm so floored so many people has a lot to say on this issue. real work called so I apologize for not being able to comment back sooner. i'm glad many feel like i did, that the cover-up was an over reaction.

Tichoana, I'm glad you wouldn't shy away from taking your 6-year-old.

I can't believe you have no snow masterpieces Joan! NJ folks are creative, nudity aside.

wow bob, that bit of snowman history is amazing. i can't believe there were laws to protect snowmen from vandals. huh.

nickki, you should still feel good about living in NJ -- there's a good headline everyday.

Con -- is that true about the politician and cancer? i hope so - hilarious. sad. tragic. but it's nj.

leonde -- that's a great idea! a belly button piercing. i wonder how many people that would offend.
Just fyi, Cindy, this story has made it onto the Weather Channel today!
did they mention me Ardee? haha. and Leapin Larry said it made MSNBC. i'm glad the story has grabbed some national media attention.

oh, and yes behind blue eyes, i absolutely did notice which pic was used for the front page here. found that amusing.

john walker -- hawt snow doesn't last very long. too funny. and, yeah, so true!

and i'm just randomly commenting back -- and will continue because there's more stuff here than i could ever put in a blog.
I love this. It's unbelievable that anyone would call the police! Wonderful reporting and photos. R.
I almost dropped dead from killing myself when I heard about this, but, because I'm a loser, and foul up everything I try to do, I didn't drop. I just backed into some furniture and banged my head and knocked over a lamp.

Sad state of affairs in the household that called the cops. I feel bad for those people, whoever they are. I wonder if they shower in wet suits?

Reporting from the afterlife, yours truly,
Max
badflasher.com
This is not just art but also a lot fun and the Jersey cops are definitely the fun police. They did not just waste their time and tax payer's money on that day but also showed a lack of a sense of humor.
In my opinion it was not even porn just a bit of nudity. If that was porn then Michael Angelo's David must be porn too.
By the way, porn can be art too. I run the erotic cartoons website, http://www.smuttytoons.com and use the terms erotic art and erotic cartoons interchangeably.
thanks jenny. was way cool. i actually do wish my kids saw it ... of course, they would have to listen to my take on it....