#and countless other

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

#writeblr #warm up #this is longer than i wanted i really considered removing that part about myself and what i went thru #but i think it really fucking bothers me that EVERY time i talk about being an artist #ppl assume i just like. had the skill and ability to drop everything and pay for grad school. #like sir i grew up poor. my house wasn't a safe space. i gave up a FREE RIDE TO LAW SCHOOL. for THIS. bc i chose it. #was it fucking hard? was i choosing the hard thing?? yes. #but we need to stop seeing artists as lazy layabouts that can ''afford'' to just ''sit around and create'' #when MANY - if not MOST - of us are NOT like that. we have to work our fucking ASSES off. hard work. long and hard work #part of valuing artists is recognizing the amount we sacrifice to make our art. bc it doesn't just #like HAPPEN to us. also btw it rarely has anything to do with true talent. #speaking as someone with a chronic condition i hate when ppl are like u have it easy. like actively as i'm writing this my hands r #ACTIVELY hurting me. i haven't been posting bc my left hand was curled in a claw for the last week #this isn't fucking luck. after a certain point it's not even TALENT. it's dedication & sacrifice. #''u get to flounce around and do nothing with ur life'' is a narrative that is a direct result of capitalism #imagine if we said that about literally any other profession. #''oh so u give up 10 yrs of ur life to be a doctor? u sacrifice having a social life and u get SUPER in debt? #u need to work countless hours and it will often be thankless? well i wish i was that lucky'' #we should be applying that logic to landlords ONLY #''oh ur mom and dad gave u the money to buy a house? and all u did was paint it white and rent it? huh.''

[stickstone]

#warrior cats #in order this is: #duskwater #ambermoon #flametail #willowshine #turtle tail #(and others) #gorsepaw #darkstripe #russetfur #(and some others) #countless fridged women #and like half the cast

[theparallaxview]

I feel like both internet liberals and leftists have a tendency to reverse-Great Man Theory Ronald Reagan at the expense of any insight into the history of his policies or the conservative movement that led up to him.

#YOU CAN’T JUST BLAME EVERYTHING ON HIM WITHOUT TACITLY ABSOLVING COUNTLESS OTHER MONSTERS AND THE WHOLE FUCKING SYSTEM OF ITS GUILT. #IT’S DEEPLY INDIVIDUALISTIC AND ARGUABLY ANTIHISTORICAL. #Anyway this is because I saw a post that blamed him for the US backing brutal regimes in the global south under the guise of anticommunism. #When that famously started back in the post-WWII era and has its roots in Monroe Doctrine ideology. #FYI I fucking hate him but he’s a part of a larger picture. #(Anyway I study American politics during the Cold War with a focus on the rise of the far right.) #original content #100 #500 #1k

[komediebrvte]

#i have been thinking abt this So Much. #not to mention the other countless times paramore and hayley have talked abt the talking heads!!! #paramore #talking heads

[magician-under-the-m00nlight]

aptx!kaito au in which Shinichi doesn't know aptx exists and feels insane that his leading theory is "a six year old is the mastermind behind Kaitou Kid"

#no I don't know how this would logically work I just thought it'd be funny #and yes this would fuck up countless meetings and character arcs but consider: the CHAOS #this au is a gift to me from me bc ch1120 is making me pop a vein and I needed a pick-me-up <3 #Shinichi humbling arc but it's because he keeps getting outsmarted by (what he thinks is) a literal 6 yo #(given that he never ran into the org and doesn't know shrinking is possible plus Kaito is much better at acting like a normal child) #and KID gets to bully Shinichi. as a treat #pls don't look at the drawing too closely ajdhhdhd tis just a dood in this cheap little notebook I got as a handout #somehow I find it easier to draw in places other than my sketchbook... less pressure to do it well and fill up all the blank space I guess #kuroba kaito #kaitou kid #kid the phantom thief #kudou shinichi #jimmy kudo #does anyone even call him that anymore it's so cursed. JIMMY #dcmk #detective conan #magic kaito #detco #idk what to call this au... #kinda want it to have something to do w the 'the truly impossible' sherlock quote hmmm #redefining the improbable AU #maybe? #shrunken!kaito #aptx!kaito

[tubapun]

EVERYONE SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANK WELKER

#scooby doo #fred jones #oswald the lucky rabbit #megatron #transformers #frank welker #curious george #the lion king #abu #the computer who wore tennis shoes #jimmy neutron #goddard #countless other tags could apply here hes been in so so so much

[tickfleato]

rain world ancients! felt like drawing a bunch of em umasked. decided to go back to the dog nose look

#rain world #rain world ancients #rw ancients #my art #fanart #aaalso working on another oc... 4 stars above countless pillars is like. my one other named ancient oc and now he actually has a design

[butchshevik]

no but really the focus on pronouns Determining Actual Gender And Having Unique Social Roles in lgbt spaces is absolutely bizarre and beyond any form of basic material analysis of gender it exists in the real world. like speaking from experience you can literally be a stone butch lesbian who goes out of ur way to exclusively dress in traditionally masculine clothes, who uses a masculine name, who intentionally and explicitly plays a complex and deeply nonconforming gender role as both social performance art and for personal fulfilment, and then get lumped in by other lgbt people in the category of "she/her type" (and, more broadly, if you use she/her and are afab, you inevitably get labeled as 'cis' regardless of your actual gender performance as interpreted by the world writ large) just because you dont care enough about pronouns to determine and enforce the use of any others for yourself

#i think ultimately from a Sincere Gender Studies Position the fixation on pronoun use is a reflection of the performative nature of gender #being taken to its natural extreme by people who read half of gender troubles and both understand that Gender is a Role We Play For Others #and paradoxically wanting to be recognized and respected in that role even though they understand that its a losing game #and further i think that ultimately linguistically pronouns are a hot cultural point in english speaking countries #but the shitty nitty gritty of gender and its identifiers being a construct of colonial import #is that if we lived in a planned culture where such a thing could be mandated we should move to a one-pronoun system without the capacity #for assigned gender roles #not have multiple (countless) pronoun configurations with an Assigned Gender Role for each one #but thats just my two cents

[zinzabee]

The Red Angel of Preventing Harm!!

CURE CRIMSON!!!

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #precure #pretty cure #technically inspired by the outfits in #tropical rogue precure #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt raph #rottmnt raphael #tmnt crossover #precure crossover #I made this specifically for me a couple months ago #but I hope some other people see this and enjoy it #I love being an artist and drawing whatever the hell I please if it so makes me happy #oh the Donnie in the second image is a Blue Lantern #that's my friend's kinsona #idk if Countless has posted about him on tumblr yet? #digital #fanart #oh yeah this is technically a kinsona #risesona #something of that nature #but its also just an excuse to draw Raph as the greatest magical girl ever

[h4unted--h0use]

everyone always says "let men be feminine" and "let people be gender nonconforming while still being confident in their gender identity" and all that shit until they dont conform to their gender despite still being cis. "let men wear skirts" until you harass them about being transfem. "let woman have short hair" until you swear theyre actually transmasc or a lesbian. please!! leave ppl alone???

#this post is mainly about #f1nnster #but also #will wood #and various #countless others #gnc #gender nonconforming #transgender #saying this as a trans/genderfluid/gnc person!!!!! #f1nn5ter #fuck i forgot the 5 last time #whoops

[invisible-brandy]

phanisms

#why is this interaction genuinely just me and my best friend countless amounts of times #like every other day #dan and phil #dnp #phan #dan and phil games #dnpgames #dnp clips

[legendoflozer]

Been having Legend thoughts on my mind.

I just keep imagining little kid Legend, happily living with his Uncle on their orchard. Then skipping to 6 adventures later, where Legend is now a traumatized young adult who wears a mask of gruff indifference because he keeps losing the people he loves and he can’t help but be angry and lash out but he still loves so fully and and and-

#lu legend #lozer time #wailing screaming crying #legend usually isn’t a Link I think very often about but he’s been Haunting Me #ogggjhgghh little happy link picking apples with his uncle…. #legend who has lost so much… who has gone thru countless battles… #AND NO MATTER HOW MUCH HES GONE THRU HES STILL GOOD IN THE HEART #HE STILL HELPS OTHERS!!! HE STILL LOVES SO FULLY WITH ALL OF HIS HEART!!!! #WAILING #linkeduniverse #linked universe

[armenelols]

In personality, Elrond takes the most after Idril actually. Wisdom - check. Common sense - check. Knowing when to retreat - check. Knowing when to listen - check. They are gonna have a blast meeting each other.

... They both know what it is to leave a child behind, not knowing whether they'll ever see them again.

They both know what it is like to have war refugees under their care, looking up to them, depending on them.

They both know the looming threat of mortality taking those they care about. Tuor, once upon a time a mortal man; Eärendil, who might have chosen elves, but not because he wanted to be one of them. Arwen, forever lost to Elrond now; Elladan and Elrohir under a big question mark. Elros, lost forever.

They know what is it to see their world fall apart just because people won't listen.

#countless others lost too obviously #elrond fostered far too many mortal kids and lost all of them #and there's tuor's family too #he won't see them again #and while this post isn't about tuor (i love him so much) obviously this has to affect idril too #and she knew huor and húrin if nothing else #but also they both would obviously care about elros his kids etc despite never meeting them #just #a giant punch to the face #... ANYWAY elrond and idril are besties pass it on #elrond #idril #tolkien #silmarillion

[monicabinq]

Early 2000s movies are so unrelatable to me , these beautiful women will be like ‘i have a good job that allows me to pay for my cozy cottage in the countryside/ cute flat in a very big and expensive city and also i have friends i love very much but i’m such a loser, because i don’t have a boyfriend :(‘ like girl you’re living the DREAM

#the holiday #bridget jones’ diary #this also applies to the guy from #notting hill #who had his own small indie library #and countless others

[riverin-stories]

did y'all see thaht animated short too

#acheron #black swan #hsr black swan #hsr acheron #honkai star rail #hsr #riverin art #rondos across countless kalpas my beloved #anyway #acheron and black swan design reinterpretations #as neat as i think these two are they Sure have like. very similar silhouettes and or elements to their outfits + looks #really wanted to give acheron short hair and Also put black swan in a looooong dress. that's all this really is #ig this could be... #acheswan #(if you squint) #(but also it probably doesn't count if they're just standing next to each other) #acherswan #(??? how do you spell them..)

[aroanthy]

i love how fraught and complicated discourse around various utena characters ‘dying’ is when anthy is literally stabbed to death eternally by a million swords imbued with human hatred. and then utena gets stabbed to death by them also. like. ‘death’ is incredibly interesting in rgu because most of the time it’s this ambiguous figurative thing that has interesting implications re: ohtori as a closed-off world one can escape. we are all trapped in our coffins. mamiya is the only named character with a grave. nemuro memorial hall functions as one all the same. ruka is implied to have died in the hospital— was he dead all along? who was the boy we saw for these two episodes? is this dead boy the same boy, or is this just another coincidence from the shadow girls, cutting like a knife? it’s heavily implied that akio and anthy murder kanae by poisoning her, adding to the previous implication that they were poisoning mr ohtori too, but there are no perceptible consequences of this. kanae’s absence is not felt. she’s fed an apple slice. what happens to the bodies? we know what happened to the 100 boys, but what about everyone else? and so on and so forth. ‘death’ is a tricky thing in utena, i think it’s constantly functioning on figurative and literal levels in very different ways for very different purposes. dios died. dios was dying. dios didn’t die. he grew up. etc etc

#what am i trying to say here? #idk! think about all of the pieces you have #dying is complicated in ohtori in countless different ways #and i find it boring to see so much ‘this character is dead and that’s it’ stuff #when death is used farrrrrrr more figuratively than some ppl give credit for #and i think the movie too does wonderful things with death #and what ‘dying’ really means #being disbelieved. being forgotten. being rejected. haunting despite this #much more interesting to think about wrt commentary on abusive relationships than it is #to think about what?? oh me when my brother died but plot twist he’s alive and can walk on this road all cool. like????? #akio doesn’t have the power to make himself revenant #he THINKS he does and he absolutely has power when he’s alive and he imbues that power with such meaning that it does live on after him #but ANTHY. anthy is the one struggling with herself and her feelings and the impact of trauma and abuse (that power!!) in aou #he’s dead? he died? she brought him back through her memories? or she’s left him (metaphorical death) and he’s haunting her?? #all such interesting interpretations #i haven’t mentioned touga bc i don’t have the energy today. if dead and just illusion of others memories then why active. why awful #like in aou akio is only Obviously scummy when he’s alive. his illusory self is based upon anthy’s love for him #if anime!touga is nothing more than nanami/whoever’s memories of him before he died……. why does he actively choose to suck again and again #like nanami wouldn’t do that. unless it was meant to be a subconscious thing like ooo he’s dead all along but that’s not what her arc is #it’s not ‘he’s been dead all along’ literally or figuratively. it’s ‘he’s unsafe and i don’t want him’ #sigh. once again i am asking people to think about nanami and touga’s dynamic through touga’s eyes #it’s so interesting to me how people forget to consider his motivations or feelings on ANYTHING #like sure his motivations and feelings are scummy but they’re interesting!!!!! they intrigue me!!!! #compel me even #anyway ignore how i said i didn’t have the energy for this and then typed it all out anyway #dais.txt