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There is beauty in Cold Steel.
Ceres, in her new crime boss fashions
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One of the best stories I ever read as a child was a fantasy novel by some local dude selling books out of a suitcase on the sidewalk downtown, and I don't remember what it was called or who the author was, and it's so obscure that no matter how many elements I remember, I've never been able to find it through web searches. I only vaguely remember the story - it was a love story, something about a tower on an island and two characters on a quest to discover their forgotten past. They fall in love and at the end the only way to stay together is to allow themselves to forget again, and you realize that they're right where they started, in the exact same tower, and they're doomed to go on this same quest over and over again, never completed, but that also means they'll fall in love over and over again forever. And I remember how that ending blew up my little child brain into a million pieces.
I don't know what happened to the book, and I'll probably never read it again, but if you're somewhere out there and you were once selling fantasy novels from a suitcase on the sidewalk in the suburbs of Chicago, and if you ever felt like your writing never meant anything or went anywhere except a hundred copies you had printed yourself and sold for almost nothing, please know that your story buried itself in my young brain and has probably shaped my worldview in ways even I don't understand.
There are a lot of sweet, well-meaning folks in the notes advising me on how to search for this book, and I want you to know that I will never find this book. And that's okay.
This author self-published, which at that time meant he paid out of his own pocket to print 100 copies and sold some but not all them for cash on the sidewalk in one small town. E-books weren't a thing. There is no digital record to find. Even if I remembered any of the names or details, it wouldn't be searchable. No librarian has it in a catalogue.
The vast majority of books written before the modern day are lost media. Countless artists poured their hearts into stories that were read by few and lasted only as long as the paper they were printed on. Most of the art ever made has been destroyed or thrown away. Most of the music ever written will never be heard again. The expectation of permanence in art is very new, and even now, there are millions of works of art that will never be recorded or posted or shared. Millions more that will never even be completed.
Creation, with few exceptions, is a mandala. A vulnerable song performed for dear friends by a campfire, but the singer soon forgets how it went. A poem shared in a coffee house that rattles the audiences' bones but will never be heard again. A sketch of a lover on hotel stationary that the maid will throw away tomorrow. Our current reality exists by the influence of art that no one remembers.
Permanence is not purpose.
Windpferde ("Wind Horses") by Pantao Stelzen Theatre
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Creative Dessert Designs By Chef Matteo Stucchi
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First completed art since the thumb brace came off: Chaglu and Princess Shredder! Just a goblin who knows her dinosaur is the Best Boy.
(Male dinosaurs have fancier plumage than females. Princesses are the fanciest people around! Ergo, Princess Shredder. Chaglu knows. She's seen a picture book once).
I did this sketch before I had to stop most art. It would've looked very different if I'd been able to finish it in April! Since then I've transformed my palette, gotten more confident with watercolor, and discovered the magic that is a rose red + phthalo green. I used three* paints for this, and none of them were blue).
*Okay, also white acrylic gouache, because I really shoulda figured out what I wanted to do with Princess's eye before I started painting it. Instead I re-did it. Twice.
...reblogging because I desperately want people to appreciate my goblin.
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ancient
Pegasus Automata
Video courtesy Maurice Feely
@skycowboys thought you'd like this!
Oh heck yeah
Night ✨Gown
Just want to paint all the translucent things~
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Photographs That Show Action Figures Interacting with Everyday Objects
Japan, Osaka-based photographer Hotkenobi stages action figures in real life settings to create a series of quirky photographers.
Source: culturenlifestyle.com
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went looking for a creation myth, ended up with a pair of cracked lips
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Modern Unicorn (left) next to extinct megafauna ancestor (right).. Based partially off of the extinct Kyptoceras + cave painting horses*
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In a hidden grove…
I got to work this amazing piece for the ever awesome and supportive (and patient- thank you) @arataya of her characters Goedwig and Sollix- An Archfey and her human Ranger consort. I’m really happy with this piece and just look at how soft and peaceful it is 🥺
Bonus lines and flats under the cut!