"Please make me a painting of Lady Gaga devouring a unicorn carcass"

Artist Rose Briccetti created this work for Regretsy, an Etsy metablog, as a commissioned work. The creative brief spotted on Etsy and republished by Regretsy editrix "Helen Killer," demanded "Lady Gaga in one of her bizarre outfits hunched over a unicorn carcass, blood all around her mouth." Go check out the full-sized image at Regretsy, along with the story of how it came to be.

[via BB Submitterator, thanks Eric Harley! Note: an earlier version of this blog post implied that "Helen Killer" issued the creative request herself, and she did not. The language of this post has been clarified.]

• [PeaceNerd]

  COUNTYLAW!!!!

  ah, scuze me, wrong thread.

• [mkultra]

  Lovely painting. I have a few quibbles with the composition, but nice.

  Even better, this post serves as its own Unicorn Chaser. It’s self-chasing.

  It makes its own gravy.

• [surrealestate]

  This is why I love Regretsy. While April is making fun of all these folks producing this strange stuff, she’s also helping them hook up with buyers, and has done a lot to support some of the crafters, like fundraising to help one of the embroiderers in dire straits with illness in the family get a commercial embroidering machine.

• [duggo42]

  This piece makes as much sense as Gaga’s popularity in general.

• [Anonymous]

  I’ll just say what I said to my Butler, Jeeves Christ, when the painting was delivered:

  “That is not a bizarre outfit.”

• [Anonymous]

  So, for how much did the artist sell the piece, please? I dream of weird people asking me weird commissions like that, but rich folks like simple, colorful things, and I don’t wanna paint a monster obama drinking urine for a measly hundred bucks!

• [Nash Rambler]

  I don’t care what the above posts say, this piece entertained and amused me. Great art? Nah. Good art and a great jab at the Gaga? Oh, most certainly.

• [erissian]

  I am often bemused by the wildly unpredictable level of butthurt in the comments, but… wow.

  Remember when the users used to be wonderful too?

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun.

• [Hagrid]

  Meh. Could be better.

  • [michael holloway]

    Agreed.

    Good ideas badly executed are not worth doing.

• [rybosomes]

  Anyone else think she was hunting that thing in the Barrens?

• [Jason Rizos]

  Wow, Lady Gaga, you so weird!

  • [Lobster]

    This is pretty much my reaction.

    Boingboing, I’ve been coming here for years because you DO show me wonderful things. Intelligent things, weird things, quirky things. Lots and lots of steampunk!

    Why are you showing me an attention whore, now?

    • [z7q2]

      Because BoingBoing has had a unicorn chaser meme going for years now?

      This BB content whiner meme is getting tiresome though. If you discontent folks think you will influence the editors of BB with it, I think you’re sadly mistaken. The internet is huge, go prowl it, yanno?

• [Anonymous]

  could use more bizarre outfit.

• [cinemajay]

  This is just another turn in her road to supreme super villainy!

  http://www.theonion.com/articles/lady-gaga-kidnaps-commissioner-gordon,17789/

• [purple-stater]

  “Lady Gaga in one of her bizarre outfits hunched over a unicorn carcass, blood all around her mouth.”

  A black blouse with a yellow hair ribbon is considered bizarre these days?

  • [Amsterdaam]

    I think that is actually a hair-hair ribbon.

    Still, out of all the bizarre costumes, that is pretty tame.

    This guy got gypped.

    • [skeletoncityrepeater]

      Is ‘gypped’ part of acceptable vocabulary on this site now?? Can we say K**e and N****** too?

• [fnc]

  I read the post, but I think this may just be a still from her next video.

• [markfrei]

  I think that’s actually Courtney Love.

  • [littlerunninggag]

    Lisa Kudrow.

• [IamInnocent]

  Helen Killer, really?

  What’s the Gaga going to say about that use of her image?

• [scifijazznik]

  It’s like everything that’s wrong with everything jammed into one insipid, uninspired package.

• [VagabondAstronomer]

  What do we chase this with?

• [Anonymous]

  Lady GaGa
  is a very talented composer and performer, but as her interview with Larry King revealed, she is addicted to the attention and fame and thus all things material and meaningless!

• [Boondocker]

  For those coming in late, we’re critiquing other people’s art, other people’s ideas about what makes good art, other people’s ideas about what makes good blog content, other people’s ideas about fashion, other people’s celebrity, other people’s comments about other people’s art, other people’s comments about other people’s ideas about what makes good art, other people’s comments about other people’s ideas about what makes good blog content, other people’s comments about other people’s ideas about fashion, and other people’s comments about other people’s celebrity.

  Now you’re up to date.

• [peter x]

  The memes are eating each other…the horror!

  BTW cant you get Chinese painters to turn your ironic crack dreams into an oil painting “suitable for framing” for a lot less $$$??

  Lots of painter guns-for-hire out there. This guy charges roughly 70 bucks for a 24×20 oil delivered to your door. Granted he might tack another 20 bucks on to emulate Ryden or paint Palin nude riding a donkey (on velvet?)…but I’d send him a photoshop to at least get a quote, before your next project.

  http://stores.ebay.com/Sweet-home-oil-painting-studio

  • [Anonymous]

    Um, seventy bucks isn’t really that much for a 20″x24″ oil painting. Why do people assume artists should do everything for “the love of the job”? I mean artists have to eat too.

• [Doug Watt]

  Nice image, but isn’t that more like a Unigoat than a Unicorn?

  • [Anonymous]

    Have to agree with Doug here. And it’s also pretty fat for a unicorn. But then I haven’t seen a unicorn for real in weeks.

• [Anonymous]

  Comment from Regretsy:

  “The blood of this unicorn will keep Gaga alive for a short time, but then she’s going to need to kill Harry Potter.”

• [ewendel]

  You seem to misunderstand “the story of how it came to be.”

  This was an Alchemy request from some unknown party, someone, it seems, who was willing to pay hundreds of dollars for the painting. Submitter Mike sent it in to Regretsy, the blog edited by Helen Killer, which often features ridiculous Alchemy requests. The artist, Rose Briccetti, created the painting for the actual Alchemy user, not for Regretsy, but she sent a picture of the painting to Regretsy because the Alchemy request had been featured there.

  I know this seems nitpicky, but I might expect you to at least read the original post before you linked to it.

  • [Anonymous]

    Thank you! I was going to mention this same thing. This was not made “FOR Regretsy” but for an actual Etsy buyer who commissioned the work, which was later posted on Regretsy.

• [Church]

  Now THAT’S a unicorn chaser.

• [Anonymous]

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcMuTsBFQTE

  Nature documentary footage of jockeys on the Serengeti being hunted by their main predator, the artist formally known as Prince.

• [jeligula]

  Wow. I am now officially done with Boing Boing. Happy mutants, my left nut.

• [Dig Duggler]

  Wow… execution fail. Looks like the artist spent less time painting that than I spent typing this. An exaggeration to be sure, but not by much, I bet.

  • [Michaelchr]

    Wow, your comment is so insightful and worthwhile. I’m sure the artist will take it into account when she makes her next painting. Since it’s critique time please provide some of your own work for review.

    • [Amsterdaam]

      One does not need to be an artist to offer their opinions on art. All one needs is a set of eyes, an opinion, and an audience.

      • [Michaelchr]

        Yes you don’t need to be an artist to be a critic. There is a difference between worthwhile and worthless criticism though, and Dig’s seem to fall soundly into the latter.

• [Prospero761]

  Regretsy has become one of the few blogs I MUST visit daily. Helen Killer (April Winchell) is one of the funniest women around. I do hope she makes her way East again, so I can get a signed copy of her book.

• [championselector]

  gee, lots of folks have had their hatorade for the day, mm?

  the painting is funny, the story is great, someone got what they asked for and fairly (as in at the agreed rate) compensated someone who got paid to exercise their creativity. sounds like the parties involved are happy with it.

  so why are so many people slinging sour about it?

  lady gaga does drink unicorn blood, btw; it’s on her rider.

  • [Felton]

    Hehe! Really! What is this, the Player Hater’s Ball?

    • [Felton]

      Oh, this link is probably NSFW!