No One is Lining Up at the Courtney Love Kissing Booth

Courtney Love's lips were the subject of recent scandal after she was caught arriving at a London nightclub "sans makeup, unwittingly revealing her scabbed mouth and spotty skin" to a group of waiting photographers. The report called Courtney a "shadow of her former self" and claimed that even though she quickly tried to spackle her scabs and blemishes with a "heavy-duty coating of make-up", it did little to "hide her freakish appearance." Glaring close-up photos of Courtney's blistered lips are splashed throughout the article and as if they didn't get their point across enough, they've included an enlarged image of her swollen lips so you may observe the disconcerting crustiness in greater pixilated detail (click the first photo to see what I mean). I thought how awful it would feel to be publicly scrutinized like that and yet at the same time, I visualized Courtney standing in a carnival kissing booth, pop-eyed and confused as to why the crowds were avoiding her. Medium: ink on paper, digital color/text.

Comments

[hanbam_vizhole]

What a Poor/Scary Girl? Like paris hilton..

[Meg]

She's a huge mess, but that just looks like worn off lipstick, I'm pretty sure it's not scabs. It's the exact same color as the lipstick smeared on in the next shot and she WAS wearing eye makeup in both shots, so she didn't just show up without any makeup on. I'm skeptical.

[Viper Tetsu]

Spot-brilliant caricature of the closest thing indie-rock/underground/grunge/whatever-you-call-it music has to Kathy Griffin (if you subtract the ability to laugh at ones' self and exponentially multiply drug intake by 1000)!

I see the Goldie Hawn resemblance, but here, she also looks kinda like Donald (SINGIN IN THE RAIN) O'Connor's skeezy rot-lipped illegitimate ho' daughter (if there ever was such a sad beast). Or maybe I'M on drugs.

[Fabiola Thing]

"She’s a fucking talented musician, she’s also a beautiful soul. I think she’s so beautiful, but if I ever told her that, and Courtney found out, it would be hell."
- Kurt talking about Kristen to Dylan Carlson (WKKC? page 149)

Kurt thought in terms of beautiful souls. He had to censor every word and action in an attempt to contain Courtney’s ugly anger and jealousy. Kurt and Kristen are beautiful souls. Courtney is a bleak soul.

"Courtney’s scary. If I take a hike, she’ll make me look bad or do something to make my life miserable."
- Kristen to a friend (WKKC? page 146)

"Don’t fuck with her, just bite your tongue when Courtney does something stupid or insults you. That’s what I do. Courtney has the power to make us a lot of cash.
- Eric Erlandson to Kristen (WKKC? page 147)

"As long as she has three puppets who agree that she is the star, there are no problems." - Kristen on Courtney (WKKC? page 147)

"You fuck my guitar player, constantly make eyes at my husband and now you’re telling me how to sing. Just don’t fuck with me because you’ll regret it forever."
- Courtney to Kristen (WKKC? page 148)

"At first she’s really nice to you to your face, but if you do something that she doesn’t agree with, she’ll do something behind your back to make you look really bad."
- Kristen talking to her mother about Courtney (WKKC?)

"I care a lot about you but you’re such a low life, Your whole life is a fake. Everything. The people you hang with, the drug dealers, Courtney...even your guitar playing. You’re so good at fooling the crowd."
- Kristen to Eric Erlandson.

[Erik]

And the timing is perfect with the news that she's now dating Pete Doherty. Two peas in a crack pipe!

[deanna1104]

maybe we can get ralph nader to do some sort of consumer recall on her lips.

[kellygrl]

she looks better in the cartoon!! yikes!!! her poor daughter...

[Francine]

Methface! Explains the 60-pound weight loss, too.

[Pearly]

I think the scabby-ness is a by product of having her big lips removed...
They look smaller.

[Jenn F.]

I can handle Courtney Love's shitty make-up artistry, I can handle her nasty over-processed hair, I can even handle her all-over-the-board wardrobe choices. All of those things are amusing and entertaining to say the least. What I just can't stand is her inability to write a cohesive English sentence. Whether its basic stupidity (which I doubt) or general laziness (which I suspect), it's an insult and an annoyance to the reader.

The best thing about this portrait, my dear friend, is your fantastic depiction of her completely spaced-out and empty expression. That and the ridiculous lips. It's a shame, really, to see someone who is naturally quite beautiful so physically warped by cosmetic surgery.

When asked about her mother's appearance in an interview a few years back, young Francis Bean was quoted along the lines of saying that she likes it best when her mom "dresses up nice in designer clothes" and such. Such a simple concept, isn't it? I like it when my Mom dresses nicely and makes herself look pretty. I hate it when my Mom looks like a buck-a-trick 'ho.

[Jenn]

So I am sitting in the dentist office yesterday and they are playing a movie in the waiting room - Lady & The Tramp. I am watching the scene where Lady gets hauled off to the pound and meets all the dogs. Along comes the one named Peg and I am thinking something seems kind of weirdly familiar about her and then it hits me Courtney Love bears quite a resemblance to that old beat up dog in the pound. Except the dog has better skin.

[that_girl]

Drugs and age have affected Courtney greatly. She used to be pretty.

[moonmaid]

Poor girl. I've always had a soft spot for here, despite all her craziness, mostly because of her devotion to her daughter. But lately she is trying my patience!

[Elizebeth]

I never think about her as a beautiful woman, and lately how could you. But there is a picture of her from 2002 where she looks so stunning. It's amazing her roller coaster, she really is so beautiful when she lets herself be.

[t.o.t.e.]

actually the rumor is that it's a big scar across her lip caused by surgery to remove lip implants. it would make sense because lately she's been saying she wants to have all her bad plastic surgery reversed. dr youn from Dr 90210 talks about it on his blog: http://www.celebritycosmeticsurgery.blogspot.com/

[Morrigan]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought of Goldie Hawn in 'Death Becomes Her'. It's those spooky zombie-like eyes and empty stare.

14, thanks for giving me a giggle-break during my capstone writin' (it's sorta like my thesis). :)

[ILSA]

She looks EXACTLY like Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her...in fact, she probably IS dead.

Has anyone else heard or seen the video about how Pete Burns' lips became infected with grotesque, bleeding, pustulous cysts after having those massive lip implants done...he said his lips almost had to be amputated. I think that that is what is going on here.

[boop_boop_boop]

(shudder)

[EH]

What I don't get is why no one is talking about her crazy, freaky cat-eye contacts. The lips are awful, but the eyes are pretty darn crazy looking, too.

[April]

Have you ever seen the movie "Death Becomes Her" starring Bruce Willis, Meryl Streep, and Goldy Hawn? Well Courtney looks exactly like Goldy's charecter after she becomes one of the living dead after taking a youth serum that makes the person live forever. Maybe that's what happened to Courtney...she's really an undead.

[sugarbear]

It's like her fake lips beat her up. :D Great work!

[Erik]

This is awesome, its like Paris Hilton on acid with herpes, only worse. The one thing I can say in Courtney's favor is that she appears to not give the first damn about the world's opinion of her and that's kind of cool. But the skanky crustiness is gnarly and appalling.

[gilmore]

Oh my GOD! I am going to have to sleep with the lights on tonight! When I saw those crazy photos of her, I had hoped you were going to do something with them. A kiss booth?!! I love the way your mind and your skilled hands work.

[just wonderin]

eewww! Now her bad acid trip outside matches her distorted inside. Was she trying to purge her lips ala Joan Crawford's "No more wire hangers?"
This one is really creepy as I am afraid of clowns, though
I do love your title, at once a simple statement and yet such a sad commentary.
xoxo

[Thorne Smith]

It may just be me, but she'd make an excellent zombie in the next "Dawn of the Dead" movie. Very little make-up (if any) would be required.

Well done!

[midevil]

Scary, absolutely scary.

[Bam-Bam]

Wow! Hilarious. And what's with her scary eyes?!? Contacts?

[Fairmaiden327]

I don't believe she's been alive since she sold off Nirvana's effects.

[C]

Maybe if it was a reverse kissing booth. Where she paid customers... Great spin, great work, great art, as always 14.