I want to start out by saying that I really appreciate everyone who liked, commented, or even looked at my art. I didn’t except the attention, and I honestly thought it would get looker over. I really can’t come around to think that somebody likes it. I want to explain each picture, and explain what I wanted to achieve with this project. (If you don’t want to read each picture then please skip to ARTPOP and Aura and read those ones. Thanks.) 1. Venus: Venus was first because it was the first idea I came up with. Seashells for obvious reasons, the blue pebbles are the water, the sand is the beach, and the white pebbles represent sea foam. It is said that Aphrodite/Venus was born from sea foam. Originally there wasn’t going to be sand but foam instead, but as I put it together I had my art friends come in periodically, and they said “sand would be cooler.” (I refer to my art friends a lot and to me they are kind of like the Haus of Gaga.) But anyway, I took a paintbrush and “painted” the sand. The lighting is all black except for a big light ascending from a spotlight from the top. Venus has a special place in my heart because it was the opening into the project. It is also the most liked. 2. Jewels N’ Drugs: (After Venus, I put every song on shuffle and wrote down what song would show up. So the list is random.) When I saw that Jewels N’ Drugs was second I was like “drugs, I need a lot of drugs. CRYSTALS TOO!!” But I thought that it would be a bit boring so I listened to the song, and I heard “Slap honey, on a young pancake, we know how to make that money.” And the idea came, pancakes and honey. As for the composition, it just took a couple minutes. Jewels N’ Drugs isn’t the most popular song on the album, yet it’s there, and I think that Lady Gaga took a big risk, as did I. Using frozen pancakes and my grandpa’s prescription drugs took a lot of balls and brain power from me. 3. Swine: Swine is a song about cocaine and feeling used by another person, respectively speaking. The ball is bleeding in this picture, the blue paint is its blood and the powder is cocaine. There is also a blue pig in the eye of the skull. The placement of Swine is quite ironic because that was the week I was cheated on twice by the same person, sent to the hospital, and I just broke down. I really never cried that hard. So when I came to school, I let it out, with rage I painted the blood. The skull wasn’t originally in the picture, I put it in last minute because I felt dead inside, and I wanted to symbolize that. I then had my art friends come in and we painted the words “Swine” and a pig nose, and we sat around and it was a chance for me really see how much of a deep song Swine is. 4. MANiCURE: MANiCURE is a cool record, so badass. I just really wanted mirrors in this picture. Women are always checking the mirror to see how they look like. It’s a trend, everything in the picture is self explanatory, but I do want to point out the Fame Perfume symbol at the center of the ball. It’s my favorite part, as well as how the ball looks and the glitter on it makes it look like stars in the night sky. 5. Fashion!: This is my favorite song on ARTPOP. To me, it’s the “pure pop” song on the album. The first time I heard it, being a massive Spice Girls fan, I said “THE SPICE GIRLS SHOULD SING THIS!!!” Little did I know that was the idea behind the picture. Each pattern represents a different Spice Girl; Posh, Scary, Ginger, Baby, and Sporty. The headphones are modern pop fashion and the glasses are “Gaga Fashion,” and the diamonds and pearls is the old style fashion. This is the least liked picture out of everyone’s opinion, but that’s alright because just like on the album, Fashion! Is a hidden gem. 6. Applause: The pressure was on. This is the leader of ARTPOP so I had to do something big. It starts out like this, the day Applause was being debuted at the VMA’s; it was my little sister’s birthday party. It was at a place where you paint a Venetian Mask. At the party, I painted the mask and she had these tie dye balloons. When we came home, we danced around with the balloons singing our heads off to Applause. Everything in the picture reminds me of that day, and how my little sister and I connect with each other through Gaga’s music. We love to dance to ARTPOP on Sunday nights. Fun fact: Her first concert was the Monster Ball in 2010 and she was 6. 7. Gypsy: Oh Gypsy, why did it take me forever to come up with an idea for you? At first, it was supposed to be Wizard of Oz themed, and then scarf themed, then Born This Way Ball themed, then like monuments around the world I don’t know haha. Then it came to me. LET’S COMBINE THEM!!! Ruby glitter for “like Dorothy on the yellow brick, hope my ruby shoes get us there quick.” And the hour glass for the tonight in “I don’t want to be alone forever but I can be tonight.” The night never ends. I love the vintage look the effect gives it, it’s a fun one. 8. G.U.Y.: This song replaced Dope because everyone thought/thinks G.U.Y. was the next single and I wanted to be “in the loop.” Dope wasn’t chosen because that song is too much to make into a picture. G.U.Y. is simple, yet metaphorical. The ball has a reflection of me (a guy) “on top of” Veronica (the statue). She’s the girl under me. The ball also symbolizes the weight a woman has to carry in a relationship, how much she cares, how much she wants it to work. Fun Fact: G.U.Y. is the only photo shopped final copy. Every other picture has yet to go through the editing process. 9. ARTPOP: At the iTunes Festival, Gaga said that ARTPOP means we can belong, us and her, for this picture I wanted to show that we, Little Monsters can coexist with each other without all the bullshit, that we all can all be happy together and enjoy the music. Gaga a message with this album, and my goal was to show you what that message means to me. It’s inspired by rave culture and the @ names spell out “ARTPOP” in the back. You can’t read whose name where, but know that without it, ARTPOP couldn’t be complete. 10. Donatella: Coming Soon 11. Mary Jane Holland: Coming Soon 12. Aura: Aura, a song respectively about women’s rights, a song about Muslim women, and a song that opened us up to ARTPOP. I would go into further detail, because that one will be out soon. I’ll just leave it at; Gaga once said that to be an artist you have to be a part of a revolution. I can finally call myself an artist because I am a part of the ARTPOP revolution. Thanks for reading this incredibly long letter. I love you guys ~ Emil Special thanks to: Mom, Grandpa, Yana, Mrs. Strompolos, Diana, Funmi, Danna, Addie, Sym, Robert, Niyat, Ismahan, Vanessa, Madi, Paige, Betty, Fartun, Emma, Drew, Anna, Alea, Olli, Jack, Jack E, Phoenix, Amin, Jason, Stephanie, Carolina, Austin, everyone who took the time to tell me what they thought, the Monsters on Instagram, the Monsters on Twitter, and Lady Gaga.