chasing the sun

Art by Danijela Antunović

i had to draw her she's so nostalgic

Year of the dragon　2024

made a whole bunch of fun glaze combo snails recently

maëlys chay

Nike of Samothrace, Louvre, Paris, 04.10.2015

fall cat meetup

Capilla Sixtina

Sistine Chapel

This video is the closest thing I've seen to actually viewing the chapel in person, because holy shit the pictures do NOT do it justice.

When we did our Vatican tour and were about to enter the Sistine Chapel, our guide kept stressing that we would be looking at a flat ceiling. Which baffled me because come on, doesn't everyone know that? I mean the whole point is that it's flat, that's why Michelangelo put all those paintings on it. And then we went inside.

Oh. God.

Arms and legs were reaching down towards us. The "columns" couldn't look more like actual marble if they tried. The Biblical scenes were less like two-dimensional scenes and more like windows into an entirely different world. It was the most extraordinary, most convincing tromp l'oeil this side of Wile E. Coyote disguising a rock face as a train tunnel.

Yes, it was busy. Yes, the guards will get pissy if you take photos or speak in anything above the slightest whisper. But Michelangelo did some really impressive shit in that chapel.

(Also some Vatican bigwig complained about the Last Judgement fresco when Michelangelo was painting it, so he included a portrait of the critic as Minos getting his balls bitten off by a snake, which is a magnificently petty move.)

IT'S FLAT‽

I knew about the passive aggressive bit, but... wow. Amazing.

Yeah, I have gone my entire life thinking that the architectury-looking bits were actually, you know, architecture.

You are loved. You are important. You are protected.

Two versions of the same drawng, couldn't decide which one I like better :)

A little blue abstract landscape, just for fun.

(ink and markers on paper)

Here's a comparison video between two pieces of the same cat! I started hand embroidery at the beginning of 2023, and seeing them side by side is my favorite. Enjoy!

Those EYES?!?!

Kyiv-based artist Alexey Kondakov uses surrealistic documentary photography to superimpose figures from classical artwork into everyday scenes of modern life. He is renowned for his Photoshopped collage series in which Kyiv, Ukraine served as the backdrop for characters from old world masterpieces. The artist merges the past and the present, showing with a deft eye how classical figures fit seamlessly into contemporary situations that, in themselves, are timeless.

Wally Dion, born 1976, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Fabric Star Quilts.

Wally (Walter) Dion is a Canadian artist of Saulteaux ancestry living and working in Upstate New York. Working in a number of media including painting, drawing and sculpture.

Wally explains:

"The first fabric star quilt was made as part of a 2022 residency at Wanuskewin Park. It was my way of reflecting upon prairie tall grass and the reintroduction of bison into the Great Plaines. I wanted to make several transparent quilts and superimpose them; one in front another... a quilt for the microbiome, another for the bison, their manure & hooves, another for the summer fires that scorch the ground and a final quilt for the sweetgrass braid.

I was considering how all of these things worked together for thousands of years to create what is known as the 'prairie tall grass ecosystem'. A vast and fertile expanse of land stretching from the foothills of Alberta to the banks of the Mississippi. I wanted to highlight the invisibility of systems when everything is working well, as it should be.

I started with the green quilt because it is the colour of the sweet grass braid that is exchanged in ceremony and relationship building. I considered the nature and tradition of quilting; impoverished craftspeople using tiny scraps of fabric. I considered the act of offering fabric and adherence to tradition. I thought of a thousand tiny prayers and how that might look; invisible acts of respect and adherence to protocols spanning decades. My thoughts travelled across the land, imagining the trees and rocks collecting these prayers like a bush of cloth, or an etched boulders."

Villa Hadrian, Roma, nov 23