Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Cheeky

From the Washington Post:

"A Richmond area high school art teacher who was fired ... after officials learned he created paintings with his bare buttocks and other body parts has sued school officials. Stephen Murmer said in a federal court complaint filed [last week] in Richmond that his firing from Monacan High School ... violated his First Amendment rights. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, seeks unspecified damages. School officials investigated Murmer after seeing a video on the Web site YouTube in which Murmer, clad in a swimming thong and a Groucho Marx fake-nose mask, demonstrated how he applies paint to his backside and presses it onto a canvas."

Needless to say, this has made the nation's headline writers very happy ("Va. Teacher Fired for Buttocks Art Sued," "Teacher Fired For Producing Paintings With Buttocks," "'Buttocks' Artist Sues After His Odd Work Gets Him Fired," "ACLU files lawsuit for 'the butt artist'").

The complaint is here. You can see the YouTube video here, and a sample of his work here. Murmer has a website (buttprintart.com, of course) here.