This is really something. I lived in Norfolk for a few years in the late 70's and couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. Unfortunately people who want to impose their moral standards on others are everywhere.

Seriously folks, it's an art gallery...the human form is beautiful..if you are offended by nipples depicted in art I feel sorry for you.

Oh and the guy who worries that children might see nipples? Nipples were made for children! It is just a happy coincidence they are fun for adults too!

Waterside art gallery covers breasts for window shoppers

NORFOLK

Behind the glass walls of Mayer Fine Art, a gallery inside Waterside Festival Marketplace, air currents rustled the disposable plates covering breasts on a drawing.

The Styrofoam plates were there because late last week, after a visitor complained about an image featuring exposed breasts, gallery owner Sheila Giolitti was asked by Waterside management to put the artwork in a less conspicuous spot. Since she could find none, she improvised.

Giolitti's plan was to invite the public to stop by and decorate the Styrofoam-plate "pasties," she said, and to supply the glitter and pens.

"I think it's a ridiculous concern and should be treated as such," she said on Wednesday, stressing that she was irritated with the complainer, not the management. "This nude is so tame."

The art was inside the gallery, but much of the work on display can be clearly seen by passers-by on the second floor of Waterside.

"My opinion is, it's a big to-do about nothing," said Lane Brown, general manager of Waterside.

Brown was on vacation last week when the issue arose. He said he won't ask Giolitti to remove the art. While he wishes she had a more discreet spot for the work, he is accepting her solution.

"If people have a problem with it," he said, "I don't know. It's artwork. You go to the Chrysler Museum, go anywhere, and you'll see similar things. I can appreciate their position, but you can't satisfy everybody."

On Wednesday, every once in a while, a brisk current nudged one of the plates off its mark. From about 11 a.m. to noon, however, none of the passers-by even glanced at the offending artwork.

When the drawing was brought to their attention, visitors expressed widely varying opinions.

"I just feel like a woman's private parts are hers," said Jane Bruno, 42, of Suffolk, who added that she would rather not see exposed breasts in public.

"Because it is art, it doesn't offend me that way," said Jaz Brown, 26, a Virginia Beach construction worker on a break. "Art is trying to capture the person. I think it's beautiful."

"What about little kids, though?" said his co-worker, Daniel Pitino, 35, of Virginia Beach. "Not sure. Not sure."

A mother with a 3-1/2-year-old son said it didn't offend her to see nudity in art. "But my little boy would be asking questions," said Kimberly Heath-Shoup, 32, of Chesapeake.

"Adam and Eve were naked before they got the apple from the tree. Nobody thought about these things until that happened," Heath-Shoup said.

The drawing is part of a show, which runs until Aug. 20, featuring work by 16 undergraduate art students from various colleges. Much of the work is abstract.

The piece in question is Erika Risko's "Martyrdom," a realistic rendering of the figure on four sheets of paper. She is a senior at the Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia.

Speaking from Philadelphia, Risko said Giolitti told her on Wednesday about the controversy. "I just think it's all very funny, that a community that accepts a Hooters can't accept a piece of fine art that's in the tradition of Greco-Roman art dating back thousands of years."

I saw that on the news here and was hysterically laughing at someone who doesnt have a life and has to invade everyone else's

some one is offended by bewbs? Oh the agony!

boobs

Me and my boobs are off to the shower...have a good day everyone

"A mother with a 3-1/2-year-old son said it didn't offend her to see nudity in art. "But my little boy would be asking questions," said Kimberly Heath-Shoup, 32, of Chesapeake."

OH NO!

Children ask questions? Am I wrong here? I thought it was a parents job to answer questions their children ask.

I'm not even sure a three year old would even be aware there was a problem in most cases, until someone older made it a problem for the child.

Anyway, it ruins the art to have to put styrofoam over it. If that is the case, as the artist, I would feel like it was defeating the purpose to display the art and would remove it from the gallery and find a different one to host the art.

<<<<<< Runs in...... did someone say nipples?

TEN THING MEN KNOW ABOUT WOMEN
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. WOMEN HAVE BOOBS

LMAO,
Hooters has Breast on the Menu.

I wonder why they dont have NIPPLES???

They do. Simply adjust the air conditioner a little colder.

Nipples were meant to be exposed. Nipples were meant to be shared.



the spirit of John Ashcraft lives on

Oh Good Gosh!! And parents wonder why their teenage boys hide the Playboys or the Victoria's Secret catalogs disappear. What a ridiculous waste of time. They are breasts, we all have them. Some of just have more than others.

I wanna know why some fat dude with man boobs can go around topless but 36 A me has to sweat in the summer heat because I can take my shirt off......!!!!

Cause men got the notion that boobs were for them and not babies as they were truly intended.

Its not a Notion
Its a Love Potion.
Natures Pacifier....

Besides,
I dont think its men who have an objection to topless Women
Look to your sisters ladies....

I definitely have to agree with this. Children should ask questions. When I went to school, that's what that learning thing was about.

They are also taught to look, but dont touch!

Of course when little boys grow-up they tend forget that when it comes to Boobs!!

Only in America do these things come up as serious issues.
Heaven forbid that a child asks a question that might embarass an adult. If parents cant talk to their kids about nudity in art then how can tey be expected to talk about sex , pregnancy, and drugs? Whoops cant do that somebody might get offended!

Or worse they might learn to think for themselves ! NOOOOOOOOOO!

don't forget to lather...

...rinse and repeat...