Pig Out

Origami - know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.

Bills!  Bills!  Bills!  What else is there to be said about your bills?  They’ve had their day of reckoning in popular culture with references from Destiny’s Child, Beastie Boys, and people with the last name - Nye the Science Guy.  I admit it would be a fun challenge to crumple up my bills, throw them in the trash, hop on the first train to Flint, MI., and outrun my debts, but I recommend finding a use for that piece of paper before throwing it away. 

Are you thinking of ideas for how to use a piece paper covered in your personal information?  Well, I imagine you have by now come to the only logical conclusion – burning the paper to lower next months heating bill.  But, with all due respect to Spock, the logical conclusion is boring, and the correct answer is origami.  Encyclopedias and know-it-alls around the world describe origami as “the ancient art of making paper into slightly more interesting pieces of paper.”  But making a typical flower just won't get across my artistic expression anger about bills.  So, I turned to pigs.  

Aside from being extremely tasty and sending their little ones to the market, pigs are known as a symbol for greed.  So transforming folding a recent utility bill into the shape of a pig was the best statement I could make. 

Step one: Use electricity.  This will result in your mailbox blossoming with an exciting letter asking you to send your money to keep the lights on.

Step two: Pay bill.  Now that you’ve become accustomed to living in the light, you have realized it would be a difficult thing to live without.

Step three: Follow the directions here to create this little utility bill piggy.

With a background in working retail that sometimes involved entire shifts spent folding t-shirts, I am secure in my self-appointed categorization as a natural born folder.  Naturally I assumed my clothes-folding skills would translate seamlessly into decoratively folding paper into animals.  Here’s my ego-defeating final result. 

All my hard work, after unsuccessfully trying to re-fold into a pig-ish shape twice.

I clearly overestimated my folding abilities.  I should have lied in the outset of this post and written about making paper airplanes that have had their wings clipped.  Or just simply posted the lyrics to “Bills, Bills, Bills.” 

My first couple folds were on track with the directions, but that fell apart quickly.  In my defense, I think the use of a pre-folded piece of paper like the bill I chose (which was folded to fit in the envelope) was my downfall.  That or my frustration with how quickly my work distanced itself in the wrong direction from the pictures with the instructions.

After the crushing embarrassment of comparing my origami pig to the other google images of origami pigs and even just comparing my final product to the more beautiful blank piece of paper it began as, I thought maybe changing the environment of my creation would enhance the image.  So I decided to give Huey the pig (because Huey Lewis is as misunderstood as my grasp on origami) some farm friends.

Quite the barnyard party.  Who brought the e....i-e-i-ooo?

The closest thing I had to farm animals were a rubber ducky, a caped monkey (classic farm animal), and an elf.  This didn't help.  In fact it made for a more depressing photograph, when admitting that all of these props were surprisingly close at hand.  Speaking of surprisingly close at hand props, my final hope of saving this project involved a cassette tape and showing Huey having a blast. 

Probably the only compilation to ever feature Dream Weaver and Feed My Frankenstein.

There's no wrong way to eat a Snickers, or have a blast.  Even if that means putting the Wayne's World cassette tape on the cans and letting Huey tear the place up.

Domo Origami Mr. Roboto Songs
- "The Gambler" - Kenny Rogers
- "The Bends" - Radiohead
- "Bills, Bills, Bills" - Destiny's Child