Posts tagged thoughts
Andrea's Art Box
poetry, drawing, collage
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It’s Black History Month
And the thought that immediately comes to my mind is that I don’t know enough about Black history — which is really just History (American history and World history) that’s been marginalized (like Hispanic history, Asian history, etc.) — other than the obvious few that made it into high school history classes.
I realize that I don’t read enough books by Black authors. Though I do make an effort to include them in my reading and I love Toni Morrison and Gwendoline Brooks and Samuel R. Delany, but there are so many more great black authors to read.
Black History Month reminds me that culture and history gets erased everyday. And though a single month brings limited attention to Black History, it should really be remembered as a part of History as a whole, all-inclusive remembrance of the past without erasure.
Every month is Black History Month
Why Isn’t There a White History Month
Black People Get a Whole Month, What About Us?
Laurenn McCubbin: My Name is Laurenn, and I am a Bad (comics) Feminist
Today, I asked some questions on the internets about the upcoming Womanthology book. It has raised over $100k, and gotten some comics press. I, along with some other people, have asked where that money is going. In return, I have gotten emails, tweets & texts saying among other things that I was…
Reading the responses to this post is very interesting, because I, like many others, instinctively pledged my money to Womanthology on the assumption that I was supporting these women comics creator. And I still am, because this anthology will be made and these comics creators will get their stories read. Yay.
But I’m annoyed to find out that they will not receive even a token payment (except for a copy of the book). It doesn’t take much to drop a small sum of $200 or so on each writer & artist, especially after geting $100k in funding. It helps them pay that one bill that otherwise might not get paid, all of which keeps creatin.
Still, I’m looking forward to reading the anthology and seeing what happens from here.
flavia’s brazilian friends have posted this on her facebook wall a lot, and now i finally know what it means, i couldn’t agree more. abracao flavs.
I want to name a character this…
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Her Lover’s Fingers
Here is Andrea, who has been a friend of this blog almost from the beginning. Find her here: http://andreablythe.tumblr.com.
She’s a so-called “big” girl—too big for the modern world of fashion, but perfect for art. A few hundred years ago, the Old Masters would have jumped at the chance to transform her into Salome, Mary Magdalene or Bathsheba. In those days, a beautiful woman was a woman with proper curves.
The title refers to the strips of light and shadow that gentry trace those curves like the fingers of a lover who seeks to commit each one to memory.
I love vanevanfuller’s digital paintings, and I’m always amazed by the beautiful assortment of women and some men who participate. So felt instantly honored and bashful when he invited me to be one of his models. The result is beautiful, but my emotional experience with contributing involved a tug-of-war, two halves of myself pulling in opposite directions.
Intellectually, I believe that societies shunning and shaming of nudity is absurd. We live in our beautiful bodies and such fear about revealing them is strange and silly. Why shouldn’t we delight in the temples in which our spirits are housed?
In practice, however, I’m shy about nudity and about revealing my body to others. (Even now, as I write this, I’m thinking about the fact that this post will be automatically be linked to my facebook and thus all my family, and how when they see it, I will get that look. You know the one, the one will the smile and the eyebrows raised, the slightly mocking, but well-okay-if-you-must-but-I-would-never look. I’m thinking about the conversation with my sister, who will tell me I should be more careful, because there are oh so many creeps on the internet. I’m thinking about friends who may judge me, and on, and on.)
Intellectually, I know that the body, in all its shapes, is beautiful. I look at the women all around me in photos and paintings and on the streets in the real world. I look at my mother, my sister, my friend, telling me how much they need to loose weight. I look at them and I think, Oh, my goddess! How beautiful you are? Can’t you see what I see? Can you see it?
I say, “If you must loose weight to love yourself, then do what you must. But try just loving your body. Just as it is. Love it and tell your body you love it. Find joy in being.”
In practice, however, I just as often battle my own shame and self-loathing over my weight. I try to practice what I preach, but often fail. I try to tell my stomach that I love it and it is beautiful, but then look in the mirror an hour later and forget.
It’s a strange thing to sit her and look at this beautiful digital painting, which if it were anyone else, anyone other person in the world than myself, I would unabashedly love outright. But instead I’m sitting here with a flurry of mixed up emotions. I’m proud and anxious and happy and terrified.
Being the joyful girl and optimist that I am, I will likely settle on the side of joy and let all the rest pass. (What’s the fun of living in fear, anyway? Not much.)
I don’t know why I feel the need to share this, except that this painting shows a woman who is seems to be confident, but my emotional reality behind this picture is more complicated than it shows. And I suppose I just wanted to share a slice of it with you.
(Source: vanfullersublime)
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Tumblr’s new “Explore” feature
Tumblr seems to have a habit of “fixing” a problem by creating a whole set of new ones. The new “Explore” feature is interesting, and it does solve some problems with the old tumblr directory. However it also creates whole sets of new ones, especially since it only seems to list those tags that are most popular (as far as I can tell), leaving tags such as “poetry”, for example.
I wish they could add things, rather than simply replacing things. Keep the Directory, because it serves a distinct and useful function. Then add Explore, which serves a completely separate, distinct and useful function.
Having BOTH would allow people more ways to discover new blogs than just one system alone. But no, instead they replace the system entirely, thus solving one problem by creating a litany of new ones.
Oy.
When I look at the lives of the poets, I understand what’s wrong with me. They were willing to make the sacrifices that I’m not willing to make. They were so tortured, so messed up. I’m only a little messed up.
Nicholson Baker, The Anthologist (via newspaperblackout)
I understand this sentiment, the idea that my problem is that I don’t have problems, or rather I have problems, but there’s not big enough, not deep enough, not whatever enough. Sometimes I go to women’s circles or spiritual meetings, and I start to feel left out because I have no deep scaring, no great emotional revelation to present about my life.
I’ve come to believe that it’s a completely ridiculous sentiment — the idea that one has to experience a fucked up life to achieve any kind of artistic or spiritual greatness. Yes, there are authors, poets, artists out there, who their suffering is an integral part of their art, but there are also other authors, poets, and artists, who create fabulous art while living a mostly harmonious life.
One can connect to world deeply and profoundly without diving through shards of glass or wandering the dark monster filled tunnels of depression. Sometimes, it’s enough to just sit completely still and be quiet for a while, to listen, to be aware of what goes on around you.
You don’t have to be at war with the world and yourself to create. You just have to have the passion and drive, the deep rooted desire to create something that someone somewhere will find of value. Maybe it will be one of the great works of history. Maybe it won’t. But it will be yours, your creation, and that’s enough.
(Source: austinkleon, via newspaperblackout)
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There was this little prince with a magic crown. An evil warlock kidnapped him, locked him in a cell in a huge tower and took away his voice. There was a window made of bars. The prince would smash his head against the bars hoping that someone would hear the sound and find him. The crown made the most beautiful sound that anyone ever heard. You could hear the ringing for miles. It was so beautiful, that people wanted to grab the air. They never found the prince. He never got out of the room. But the sound he made filled everything up with beauty.
Julian Schnabel, Basquiat (via liquidnight)
This quote represents my favorite part of the movie. A gorgeous little fairytale, if ever there was one.
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Elements of Style, Strunk and White
A reader correctly shares his frustration with us:
“Looked up the GQ site a few days ago (there was a piece by Alex Pappademas about Winona Ryder whom I think I’d forgive anything, never mind shoplifting) and encountered this sentence concerning her role in Black Swan: “The character … is a wreck who embodies … everything the movie has to say about the terrible toll performance extracts from young women.”
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201101/winona-ryder-forever-black-swan-star-trek (5th paragraph)
And that reminded me that I’ve seen phrases such as “extracted his revenge” or extracted vengeance from” here and there over the past year or two. What? ’Exact’ can’t be a verb anymore? Vengeance and Terrible Tolls are Exacted upon folks. The spreading semi-literacy of the age is exacting too high a price, no?”
Now, I say “amazeballs,” because it is The Parlance of Our Times, but I agree, it is beyond the pale to say “extracted his revenge.”
Prove him wrong with better writing, Alex Pappademas.
Yes, yes, yes!
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teresamurphy replied to your post: teresamurphy replied to your photo: Guess who’s…
I use to dress up as wonder woman when I was little. I even taped a star to my forehead. Looking back now, I can see I never had the chance to be normal. :P
Haha! :D
Ah, what fun is normal. Normal’s boring.
I think I would have loved Wonder Woman when I was a kid, if I had known about her. Unfortunately, I missed that boat.
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teresamurphy replied to your photo: Guess who’s holding the Princess of Power in her…
I’ve watched this recently too. It brings back memories! She-Ra was pretty cool when I was a kid. :)
She-Ra was damn cool. I loved that she was a fighter, since I was a fan of action since I was a kid. Though I would watch Transformers and GI Joe, and later TMNT and X-Men, because that was where the action was.
So many of the down an dirty fighters were boys territory, and I always wanted to be cool like that. (Take Princess Bride, for example, screw Princess Buttercup; I wanted to be the Man in Black.)
Don’t get me wrong. I loved Barbies, Jem and the Holograms, My Little Ponies, and Rainbow Brite, too — all that was considered girl’s territory. However, what gave She-Ra the lead in cool was that she radiated power (literally when she transformed) and rocked the sword. She was girly, true, but strong in a way that a lot of the other cartoon women of that time were not. Defeating bad guys with rainbow powers is nice, hacking away at an evil horde with a four-foot sword is awesomesauce.
