"12/37 Hollywood, Florida, Xmas Turkey, Russell Schoyer" 1937

This is a photograph, probably taken in 1937 in Hollywood, Florida, showing a Christmas turkey, and titled after Russell Schoyer. It's not about brushstrokes, but about capturing a moment, a process of documentation. The black and white tones give it a nostalgic feel, like a memory fading at the edges. The turkey, stiff and lifeless, is held in one hand. A frosted cake in the other. It's the contrast between the celebratory cake and the reality of the cooked bird that gets me. Is it a celebration or a memento mori? It's this kind of unsettling that I look for in art, a little knot of ambiguity. It makes me think of artists like Mike Kelley, who took everyday objects and situations and made them weird, a little off. Art doesn't always have to be beautiful. Sometimes it just needs to be honest, or maybe just a little bit strange.