Jenny Holzer is an artist who works closely with words; her most well known pieces have all used words, cast in light as her medium. She is an uncommon type of artist, one who can write as well as they illustrate. She brings to mind the often-repeated piece advice from high school writing classes ("show, don't tell"), yet Holzer effectively does does both. She became famous in the 1970s, with her series "Truisms," which involved simple slogans displayed in a variety of ways, from street posts, to fliers. She later began to project the same aphorisms onto the sides of buildings. A collection of her texts from "Truisms" began its permanent display in Las Vegas in the MGM city center this month.

Before turning to electronic and verbal art, Holzer dabbled in abstract painting, but admits, "I was rotten at it. I was looking at Marth Rothko and Barnett Newman. I couldn't measure up." In the interview, Holzer recalls the first time "inspiration struck."

I moved to New York in the 1970s and started writing when I was at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. The epiphany for me was that I wasn't a writer, and I had to do something with these texts. I put them in the streets as posters. I did a lot of skulking around downtown with a bucket of wheat paste and a roll of posters late at night and would occasionally get caught.

She also explains that she no longer considers herself a writer in any way, and has begun using only other people's words in her work. She says she realized it was time to stop writing several years ago:

I stopped using my own words in my work around 2001. I'm a half-baked writer at best and find the process painful, and I wanted to be able to include a greater range of subjects and emotions and all those good things than I could muster. In short, I like the art part better.

The "art part" now involves working with declassified government documents and silk-screening them onto paintings.

Even though Holzer has given up writing, she still shows a knack for coming up with short, terse statements that are all the more interesting because of their brevity. And surprisingly, many of them are funny. She describes her fitness routine as "righting myself when I trip" and her favorite line of the moment "the future is stupid." She also weighs in on her Twitter impersonator: "There's someone pretending to be me on Twitter. At least they're using my stuff. I wouldn't tweet. I like when my work is anonymous and public." And her favorite chore: "I really like doing the laundry, because I succeed at it. But I loathe putting it away. It is already clean." Her nightly routine involves frozen pizza and Law & Order, and despite the fact that her good friend Helmut Lang comes over and gives out raincoats, she seems wonderfully normal.

The only thing stopping my girlcrush from going full-out is Holzer's rejection of the label "feminist artist." Many people want to categorize her as part of the feminist art movement - including the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art - but Holzer claims she is too reserved to be a feminist (which is odd, considering this is the woman who wrote "mothers shouldn't make too many sacrifices" and "raise boys and girls the same way"). Earlier this month she told the Australian that she is:

not apologizing about being female, even enjoying it occasionally, imagine! It's good to be able to practice, and it is still harder to be female, which is shocking to me. I had imagined when I was young that much of this would be resolved forever. I was so wrong.

Art House [New York Times]
Art House (Slide Show) [New York Times]

A fascinating-sounding exhibition, "Child Models — from Claude Renoir to Pierre Arditi," has opened at Paris' Orangerie. It's devoted, not to Baby Gap cherubs, but rather the subjects of 100 paintings and sculptures, very often of an artist's own children. Here, we can hear the surviving children's impressions of the experience (via documentary), see photographs of the families juxtaposed against famous images, learn what became of people whom we know only as iconic youngsters, and in general learn about the perspective of this most unique group of muses.

The range of memories and impressions, as related by the Wall Street Journal, is fascinating:

Claire Denis, one of Maurice Denis's grandchildren, explains that "as a model you feel completely loved and chosen for who you are," whereas Olivier Brayer, son of artist Yves, says, "It wasn't fun for a child to stay still for several hours and try to find a pose which was relatively comfortable." His complaint is echoed by others...Other models have happier memories. Pierre-Auguste Renoir often painted his family, and the exhibition features portraits of his youngest son, Claude. Another son, Jean, the film director, also posed for his father. In a book about Renoir he wrote, "When I was very little, three, four or five, he never chose the pose himself but took advantage of my doing something which seemed to keep me quiet," such as when Jean was eating soup or playing with toy soldiers. When his father wanted him to stay still longer, he recited stories, such as Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier."

Others, like Vuillard, used friends' children, for a wholly different experience. And Picasso's children - depending upon his age and relationship with their mothers - all had different impressions of the artist who immortalized them. (There's also no word of what, say, his young daughter Maya made of his rather abstract interpretations.)

Child Models From Claude Renoir to Pierre Arditi [Art of The Day]
Remembering A Model Childhood [Wall Street Journal]

Remember, we asked you to come up with ideas for turning a copy of Going Rogue into art. Our three favorite ideas, in no particular order, are below. We've anonymized them, partly for fairness and partly because not all of you gave us your usernames.

1. Decomposition

My backyard in Austin, TX is a wild and mysterious place. It's full of waist high weeds and the decaying remains of some dead trees my landlord recently had cut down at my insistence (I was afraid they'd fall on my roommate's car). So I'm thinking a good use for this book would be a study in decomposition. I'll get the book, open it to a random page in the middle, put it on my back patio all winter right outside my bedroom/office window, and take daily photos as nature takes its course. I can provide regular updates on its status, and when it is as completely disintegrated as a hardback book can be sitting on a concrete pad, I'll make a photo collage dedicated to the Jezebel community and compost the remains. There is a rather large feral cat colony living back there, so I'm hoping Momma Cat, Orange Cat, Big Black Cat, Fuzzy Tail Black Cat, Gray Cat, Scary Cat, and any of their assorted kittens will play on it and make something cute out of something horrifying; maybe the opossum or the amazing escaping dog three doors down will also get in on the action. I know this is not as speedy as many of the other appropriate proposals for the future of this ridiculous piece of pop culture, but I think it is truly fitting for what the book is- a piece of garbage.

2. Amelie style

I would use the book Amelie style. I would take out the pages (cause its easier to carry around) and take Polaroids of it in various locations and mail the pictures to her. Pictures would include: the book at a condom factory; happy sex workers using the book to spank their clients; cows chewing on the book; wolves tearing the book apart; the book with John Kerry kissing it and any other offensive thing I can think of.

Also, because I am an environmentalist I would recycle those pages and use the recycled paper for an edition of MS. Magazine - of course this may be hard to actually do.

3. Magnetic poetry

I'd love to cut the book up into phrases, then rearrange the phrases so that the sentences actually tell the truth. Sort of like magnetic poetry, but with Palin's own nonsense and lies as the building blocks. I'm betting the result will be considerably shorter than the original.

Now it's your turn: vote! The winner gets a free copy of the book, and their finished art project posted on the site.

[Tokyo, November 25. Image via Getty]

French artist Alice Daquet in a huge balloon prepares for her performance at the opening ceremony of the art festival of 'No Man's Land' located at the former office building of the French embassy in Tokyo on November 25, 2009. Some 70 artists will display their works at the festival from November 26 until January 31, 2010. AFP PHOTO/Kazuhiro NOGI (Photo credit should read KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images)

[Milan, November 19. Image via Getty.]

A woman walks past two-meters high fuchsia snails in Milan's city center made by The Cracking Art Group consisting of Renzo Nucara, Marco Veronese, Alex Angi, Carlo Rizetti, Kicco and William Sweetlove on November 19, 2009. The recycled plastic snails are displayed all over Milan to announce the international Exposition of 2015. AFP PHOTO / DAMIEN MEYER (Photo credit should read DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)

[Nottingham, England; November 13. Image via Getty]

NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 13: A visitor views 'A bigger splash 1967' by British artist David Hockney during the opening the new Nottingham Contemporary art space on November 13, 2009 in Nottingham, England. The new 19 GBP million building, by architects Caruso St John,officially opens tomorrow with a major retrospective exhibition of over 60 works by David Hockney. The venue is also hosting Los Angeles artist Frances Stark who is having her first exhibition in a public gallery in this country. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

[New York, November 2. Image via Getty]

Members of the media view the Young Archer on November 2, 2009 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Young Archer, a marble statue attributed to the teenage Michelangelo, will be on special loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the French Republic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 10 years beginning November 3, 2009. AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

[Bogota, October 22. Image via Getty.]

A woman works on her laptop next to the work of Mexican artist Miguel Angel Madrigal in the Artbo international art fair in Bogota, October 22, 2009. Sixteen Colombian galleries and 30 from around the world are exhibiting their artist at the 2009 ArtBo. Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Cuba, USA, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Chile and Colombia, are participating at the fairs� pavilion with their most relevant artist of Contemporary Art. AFP PHOTO/Guillermo Legaria (Photo credit should read GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Sydney, October 22. Image via Getty]

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 22: Photographs are seen during an exhibition to showcase 150 local artists in Glebe on October 22, 2009 in Sydney, Australia. The exhibition runs for a month with the lifesize portraits displayed in a variety of outdoor locations in Glebe. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

[London, October 21. Image via Getty]

A gallery assistant looks at a portrait of Frida Kahlo by Mexican artist Diego Rivera entitled 'Nude with beads' during the press view of the 'Revolution on Paper' exhibition at the British Museum, in London, on October 21, 2009. The display of Mexican prints is the first in Europe focusing on Mexican printmaking in the first half of the twentieth century. Through this period, the country faced socialist revolution with artists promoting the values of the revolution in poster artwork. The exhibition runs from October 22, 2009 to April 5, 2010. AFP PHOTO/Leon Neal (Photo credit should read Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

[Madrid, October 19. Image via Getty]

A woman looks at the painting 'Honeymoon Nude' by John Currin (1998) during the opening of the exhibition 'Tears of Eros' at the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum in Madrid, on October 19, 2009. AFP PHOTO/DOMINIQUE FAGET (Photo credit should read DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, October 16. Image via Getty]

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 16: A woman views a watercolour by artist Jamie Hewlett, which he painted following a trip to Char Atra in Bangladesh, in Dray Walk Gallery on October 16, 2009 in London, England. A collection of nine works by Jamie Hewlett entitled 'Under Water Colours' were organised by the international development charity Oxfam and aim to highlight how climate change is affecting people around the world. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

[London, October 14. Image via Getty]

A visitor looks at a piece of contemporary art entitled 'Tiger 2009' (L) and 'Kitty Cat 2009' by Farhad Moshiri at the Frieze Art Fair in Regents Park, Central London on October 14, 2009. AFP PHOTO/Ben Stansall (Photo credit should read BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

• "I think people may have seen that and got the wrong idea about us," said the chief executive officer, and a former employee claims there is nothing sexual about it. Oh really? •  Wanna know what's on Obama's walls? The Times has a full list of the art on display in the White House. The pieces range from a Winslow Homer to a Degas to a Rothko, thus proving once again that the first family has good taste. •  A supermarket in Britain has issued an apology after a pregnant woman was denied an unpasteurized cheese by a concerned employee. She described the experience as the "most patronising encounter I have had the misfortune of experiencing in a long time." •  Recent legislation in Gaza that bans women from riding on motorbikes has raised concerns over efforts by Hamas to Islamise Palestinian society. While few women ride motorbikes, this seems to be part of a larger trend toward moralized legislation. •  Michael Vick, the football player most famous for his dogfighting bust, is getting a reality TV show. Although we hate PETA, we agree with them here: "People who abuse animals don't deserve to be rewarded. They shouldn't be given multimillion-dollar contracts...or given the privilege of being a role model." • A British man who had sex with his daughter over a period of 33 years and fathered two children by her has been sentenced to twelve years in prison. He pled guilty to two of incest, two rapes, 12 indecent assaults and two indecency with a child. • Here's a good reason to move to Sweden: Toys "R" Us has been reprimanded by an agency that polices advertising in Sweden after a group of sixth-graders learning about gender roles determined that boys were portrayed as active, but girls were passive in the store's 2008 Christmas catalog. • Mazen Abdel-Jawad, a 32-year-old Saudi man, has been sentenced to five years in prison and 1,000 lashes after boasting about his sexual conquests on TV. For being shown on TV with sex toys, condoms, and lubricants and cruising the streets for women he was charged with, "publicizing vice and confessing to crimes on a satellite television channel." • According to a new study from the University of Michigan, an increase in the number of cases of nasopharyngeal cancer, a rare condition in which a tumor grows behind the nose and above the tonsils, is linked to HPV. • University of Toronto researchers have invented a new technology that can measure tiny droplets of estrogen from samples of breast tissue the size of a needle. Currently doctors need to do a biopsy to collect such data, which could be useful to see the progress of breast cancer therapy, to see if a woman is at risk, or for other problems like infertility. The technology will not be ready for several years. • Katie Couric will be honored with the 2009 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media by the University of South Dakota, but a columnist for the school's student newspaper says she's not ready for the award. "A 'life-time achievement award' to Couric is jumping the gun," writes David Whitesock. "Despite Ms. Couric's laudable efforts to introduce the evening news to the Internet generation, she has fallen short of 'Evening News' predecessors." • Bob Dole, who lived next to Monica Lewinsky at the Watergate complex in the '90s said at a heath reform summit today, "If I'd had little wiretap there, I could've been president... I never had..... a conversation with that lady." • Before making his final decision on whether he should run for president, Barack met with Chicago politicians Newton Minow and Abner Mikva who have six daughters between them. Obama said he admired both men's daughters, and hoped his own daughters would grow up to be like them, and that he wouldn't run if the two men felt that doing so while the girls were so young would damage them in any way. • An Australian hospital psychologist has had his license suspended for just two months after telling a sexual assault victim that he was sex-obsessed, had "very strong sexual feelings for her" and that he had "fucked up big time" with her therapy. He treated her in 2004 and 2005 and authorities only learned of his misconduct after the woman threatened to kill herself and hospital staff found a noose in her home. • Advocates say advances in DNA technology, reforms in how police investigate rapes, and better prosecution of rapists are reducing the number of reported U.S. rapes. FBI statistics say 89,000 women reported being raped in 2008, down brom the 109,062 reported rapes in 1992. • Julie Parker, 80, is the oldest and longest-tenured employee at Yosemite National Park. "Julia interprets Native American culture to our visitors," says a park spokesman. "She shows visitors how baskets were woven, toys or brushes were made and acorns collected from native black oak trees, ground up using a metate and made into mush... Julia is truly a national treasure." • It took Patrick Mills of Florida two days to get a nine week old kitten out of his car's engine compartment. Someone heard meowing coming from his engine, but Mills and firefighters were unable to coax the cat out even with donated milk from Starbucks and tuna from Panera Bread. The cat was finally frightened from her hiding spot when a Feline Friends of Destin volunteer rattled a metal coat hanger in the engine. The volunteer took the cat home and said she's healthy except for a minor cold. •

[Hong Kong, October 6. Image via Getty]

A woman walks past 'The Importance of Elsewhere - The Kingdom of Heaven' by Damien Hirst in Hong Kong on October 6, 2009. The work is part of a sale of Asian and Western art with an estimated value of US12 million to go for auction on October 7. AFP PHOTO/MIKE CLARKE (Photo credit should read MIKE CLARKE/AFP/Getty Images)