Scandalishious

Ann Hirsch performing as Caroline in Scandalishious 
to Donna Summer's Last Dance in 
Caroline's Official Goodbye Video
Oil on canvas, 7 x 5 inches, 2016

It's time to announce a textbook I've written, not about music this time, it's about art. You are an Artist! An Interactive Approach to Art History will soon be issued in a digital format and a few months later in print. There are a few places I allow my art work to be shown. These are small portrait illustrations in the margins next to a discussion of an artist. This one here of Ann Hirsch is the last one submitted. The portrait may double for the Top 100 2015/16. As part of my 'research' on Ann Hirsch, I watched about twenty of the 200 videos Hirsch posted, while still an art student, on her Caroline's fun fun channel on YouTube. These videos, created between 2008 and 2010, are five to ten minutes each and are fun to watch. They're actually kind of addictive. In most videos she introduces a song to which she will dance. The introductions are great. In her sweetest innocent voice (she plays an 18 year old character called Caroline—Hirsch was 23 at the time) she addresses her audience and talks about topics ranging from feminism, haircuts, art, her clothes, love, literature, and online bullying. Hirsch managed to get an enormous online following and over two million views. She directly addresses her audience, and interact with many through the commentary board. She dances to a wide range of music in her videos. The Smiths, Animal Collective, the New Pornographers are a few. In one video she dances laying down to Freda Payne's Band of Gold and cries. In the last video Hirsch posted in the Scandalishious series, Caroline's Official Goodbye Video, she dances to Donna Summer's Last Dance. She had to stop as Caroline because she soon would be found out. A bit later she featured as herself ("I'm Ann, and I'm an artist") on VH1on national television, in a reality show called Frank the Entertainer.