art for communism's sake

Maybe I was overreacting, but I was very offended by an art project that I had to do recently. I knew beforehand that I would find it distasteful, because my teacher said we'd be doing something fun. She first had us each draw various body parts, enough for anatomical correctness but still separate images. Then she had us pool all of our work, which she doled out randomly. We each ended up with the correct number of each feature or appendage, but none of them matched and none of them belonged to the original artist. We then had to make a picture using our new pieces by cutting, pasting and drawing in the missing body structure. If you think this sounds like fun, then we cannot be friends.

I object to the project on principle.

I drew well. My pieces looked good. But the pieces I had to use for my project looked like crap. The legs especially: I had to replace my Princess Diana shapely heel-clad leg with something that resembled a four-year-old's interpretation of a tree. And the dim-wits who produced such atrocities received my carefully shaped and shaded features. Yes, I was angry that I had put in so much effort in return for crap. I am angry that I had to put my name on their work and that they could put theirs on mine. I feel that I got punished for doing my best. This is more than a dumb art project. This is communism in practice: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need. Am I overreacting? Is it "just an art assignment"? Evil on any level, macro or the very insignificant micro, is still evil and must be resisted as such. To punish virtue and reward vice is corrupt and immoral.

Another immorality she supported is putting one's name on another's work. I believe that is called cheating and is frowned upon by the Honor Code.

In addition, the final product looked terrible. Every single one of them. Granted, I put no effort into improving the failures of others, but some people tried very hard to correct the mess they were give to work with. None of them looked at all good. My teacher thought this was funny. I thought it was a sacrilege, a blasphemy to the name of art. We didn't start with a blank canvas to be shaped by our skill. We were given a chaotic muck and held to the same standard of creative production. Our only options were to accept a poor product by doing no work or twice the work, but the end result was ugly, no matter what we did. It wasn't even art for art's sake, because we wasted talent on carnage, the murder of art. Calling such ugliness art is a crime.

I really think that the project was an exercise in communism. So just remember kids: communism results in ugly misshapen people.