Culture and clash

Sorry for the snark delay... technical difficulties, so I'll have to borrow Bravo's stills and Hulu's video (because Bravo doesn't know how to post embed code without BREAKS in it).

On with the smackdown, shall we?

This week's challenge: create an eye-catching book cover for a classic. Each artist had to design a cover for "Pride and Prejudice," "Dracula," "Frankenstein" or "The Time Machine."

And what a great prize: the winning piece will actually be used for the next edition of the book in question. High culture, and a clash of opposites in terms of the challenge's effect on the artists.

Goofball and... let's call him Pattern Guy (AKA The Only Gay in the Village) loved the challenge.Goofball's a photog with lots of commercial and Photoshop experience, so he knew exactly where he wanted to go with this assignment.

Ready for printing, right there.

Gray Panther, on the other hand... horrified at the very concept of Art in the Service of Commerce. She doesn't do commissions, she doesn't do spec work, and she doesn't have the faintest idea what to do. Finally she decided just to give the middle finger to the assignment and the judges. She focused on the words of the title. Written backwards.

These are classics of literature! Your two biggest selling points are the title and the author!

Maybe I shouldn't mention Designated Hotness because she's been such an easy mark... but she keeps giving me reasons to close my eyes in agony. She's been assigned "Pride & Prejudice," which she's never read. "I've seen the movie..." Sigh.

So her fallback was her back; nude photo shoot in the bathroom, throw something together from that. Distract the judges with sex appeal!

And she misspelled Jane Austen's last name. Despite having a copy of the book on hand

Compare that to Tortured Artist, who'd never read Mary Shelley's Frankstein. But he calculated that he could read the book for the first time, and finish his piece on time.

Okay results, I suppose, but that's the second time he's used a blueprint in his artwork. It really came down to Goofball and Pattern Guy TOGV.

His first thought was to use color that would grab the reader from across the room.

TOGV imagined a faceted, whirling time machine -- see the tiny ladder to the left? -- with text that seemed to be whooshing by. Nice concept. I might pick up one of those abstract "reimagined classics" book covers. But they don't really do anything for me. The judges thought it kicked ass, though.

And then they kicked out Gray Panther.

Kelly called it on Facebook:

On these shows I always say that if they spend too much time showing one character throughout the episode that is the person who is going home. And sure enough, it was true tonight. I pegged who was going home at about the halfway point. And boy, what a stinker she made.

I think Gray Panther's been doing her own thing, her own way for too long to be on this show. She said as much in her parting comment: "I guess I just wasn't able to adapt to the situation." But it's your job as a contestant to adapt. That, and play to the camera.