#multi medium art dolls

[customcreatures]

Angler fish doll with glow in the dark lure. For anyone who’s wondering, that’s her husband attached to her stomach

EDIT: now available for sale here

#art dolls #ooak dolls #ooak art doll #angler fish #sea monster #sea monster art #angler fish art #artists on tumblr #scultpure #multi medium art dolls #the first of a few guys I've had done for a while and am finally getting around to posting #my art

[seaoflove07]

🌹 Oc Introduction 🌹

• Artwork by The Drawables •

The red rose symbolizes romance, love, beauty, & courage.

It was the beginning of you and me,

Little by little,

You haunted my heart

and I

Became your Rose.

- Poetry By Me.

• I created my Oc on Picrew •

~ Diabolik Lovers Oc ~

A human young adult.

Name: Christine Melendez.

Gender: Female.

Pronouns: She/her.

Age: 20 years old.

Nationality: Hispanic American.

Languages she speaks: She is fluent in English and Spanish.

Blood Type: A+

Favorite Color: Pink.

Birthday: October 21st.

Favorite Flower: Pink and Red Rose.

Favorite Season: Summer.

Favorite Food: Pizza.

Favorite Drink: Coffee. She's a coffee lover who drinks 5 or 6 cups a day. Please don't judge her.

Hobbies: Reading Poetry, Coffee Dates, Listening to Music, Baking Cookies and Nature walks.

Places she loves going to: The Beach, Botanical Gardens, Mall, Coffee Shops, Museums, and Bookstores. (Even though she only reads on her Kindle)

Christine is very hard-working and responsible. She hates laziness. She is a very outgoing person, loves hangouts and she's very talkative. She is not a shy person when it comes to meeting new people.

She lives in the United States and works at an Elementary School. She's one of the younger Teachers. She loves working with children.

Christine has a kind heart and loves helping others. But her little self can get moody at times and she gets angry easily. But she knows how to control her temper.

~ APPEARANCE ~

• Artwork by December Custom •

Eye Color: Medium Brown.

Hair: Blonde and her hair is 24 inches long. Sometimes she will have two different hairstyle.

Example: Left soft wavy. Right soft curls.

Height: 157.48 cm.

Breast size: B cup.

Scent: Roses.

All her body care, hair products, and perfumes are rose-scented. She's obsessed with the scent, it brightens her mood and it’s relaxing to her. Christine has a lot of perfumes but her favorite one that she wears almost every day is a perfume oil called,

“Pure Rose.”

• Photo by Me •

The scent is described as a Flowery scent of pure fresh red roses in full summer bloom. 🌹

It's Azusa's favorite on her as well. 🤭

Style: Girly and Feminine.

• Artwork by Mark BrushesHands •

My Oc will not have a main outfit. She will have different outfits in all her arts.

Christine loves fashion and getting doll-up. She loves dresses. (Casual and Elegant)

She also loves skirts, cute blouses, high heels, and gold jewelry. Her favorite everyday necklace is a Gold Cross.

~ Diabolik Lovers AU Story Information ~

Story Title: Love Planted a Rose. 🌹

It will be a Trilogy. Dark, Maniac, and Ecstasy.

Art Cover and Story Description, Here.

Christine Diaboy Ship: 🔪Azusa Mukami.

• Artwork by The Drawables •

Azusa will be her one and only, I will NOT do Love Triangles or Multi-ship with the other Diaboys.

~ Why he calls her “Rose?” and not “Eve?”

Azusa calls Christine “Rose” mainly because of her scent of roses. But he has also said that the Red Rose in general reminds him of her.

Quotes is from a short Fanfic I wrote.

Azusa: “… I was… walking in the garden… and I picked up this… red rose for you...”

Caressing her cheek, he looks at her with so much love in his eyes.

Azusa: “You are… just… like this rose… You’re pretty… like this rose… you smell nice… like this rose … your skin is soft… like the…rose petals… and your blood… is the same color… like this rose…”

Quotes are from my Novel, Chapter 3.

Christine: “Rose? Why are you calling me “Rose?” When my name is Christine.”

He moves closer to her, runs his fingers through her hair, and strokes it. While caressing her arm with his other hand.

Azusa: “Your scent… is so good… and your skin… is so soft… like rose petals… you remind me of a beautiful red rose… The name suits you…”

“So nice... my own... little rose...”

Azusa likes to give roses to Christine as gifts, he also loves to place roses and other flowers on her hair. To him, she looks adorable. Later on in their story he also bought her a Red Rose hair clip. (The Red Rose in her hair that you see her wear in most of her arts, that's the clip he bought her) ☺️ Azusa also knows how to make Flower Crowns but he will only do those on special occasions.

Azusa and Christine both like going to the Garden a lot. They love taking walks together, holding hands, and enjoying the beautiful view of the different colors of the roses.

Roses are a huge symbol of their relationship.

The reason he doesn't call her “Eve” is because Yui Komori is in my story. She is the only true Eve. I did not want to replace Yui with Christine for the Eve Tittle. So I came up with another plan instead. Yui in this story her Diaboy choice is Ayato. (They are my favorite Ship) 🤭

Yui and Christine become good friends and you will see lots of interactions between them in the story.

So there is no reason for Azusa to call Christine “Eve” when she's not Eve.

Karlheinz has a different plan for Christine. He personally chose her. But I won't reveal that plan yet because it's a huge spoiler and a big character change. I'll probably reveal that plan in Maniac.

More information about their canon story and Ryoutei Academy. This will all be in another separate post.

~ Past Relationship ~ ⚠️

Before Azusa, Christine had a 4-year relationship with a guy from her hometown. His name is Mark. He was her first love.

Their first two years together was fantastic, and she was madly in love with him. But in their third year together everything changed. Mark started to be cold, he became verbally abusive to her. It was so bad to the point she started to believe his words. Making her feel worthless. They had lots of heated bad arguments. One time out of anger he almost raped her. He didn't succeed because someone knocked on his apartment door.

They continued this terrible relationship.

Christine even though she was unhappy she still loved him and tried to make it work. But nothing was good enough for Mark and he still continued to treat her like garbage.

One day he told her that he had been seeing someone new for a while now and that he wanted to start a serious relationship with that woman. He ends the relationship with Christine.

The fact that he was cheating behind her back, that he ended it first and moved on with someone else like she was nothing.

That broke her.

• From Picrew •

There will be Flashbacks of this topic in Love Planted a Rose, and the asshole Ex will make his appearance in Maniac.

Love Planted a Rose, (Dark) will come out in either January or February. It will be published here on Tumblr and A03.

Admin Note:

If you read up here, thank you! I did try to not make this extremely long.

If you decide to read her story with Azusa, you will get to know Christine's personality even more. And of course, you will see her relationship with Azusa bloom. 💗🔪🌹

I do plan soon to open my Ask box again and maybe to do some Interactions with other Ocs.

I don't do Rps here on Tumblr. Only on Discord. If you want to Rp with Christine, just send me a DM and we can plan.

Christine Aesthetics.

~ Flower Crown ~ Angel ~ Flowers ~

~ Lavender Haze ~ ~Christmas 2023 ~

#diabolik lovers #diabolik lovers oc #christine #his rose #azusa mukami #diabolik lovers fandom #diabolik lovers fanfiction #azusa & rose #mukami brothers #love planted a rose #diabolik lovers fanfic #diabolik oc #oc introduction

[cadaverdolls]

Ayoooooo! Back at it again with plushie gun. I have three other PCs I plan on doing in the next few days!!!

This PC is from @bound-tosydney ! The shading on the art they do is just MWAH! I love it.

Now,

☁️ Poof! ☁️

Made a version with and without the nun hat. Plushie break down below!

The only concern is the halo. It could definitely be a clip on. For such a skinny piece it wouldn’t be able to use magnets. The ears could use them but being sewn on is also fine. The bunny tail would either be magnets or sewn on as well. Seeing as TFs can be hidden I think magnets would be better. The hair should either be made with doll hair or medium length fur so that hair clip halo can stay in place.

Drawing wise I’d say I want to maybe do shading next time? More than just the lines I’ve been doing. Make the colors stand out from eachother more. Also still haven’t done the multi colored lashes yet… I’ll try to remember to do that.

Anyway, I plan on adding more PCs and OCs to my list. I stopped for a couple days to hang with friends and find some PCs. These week long breaks will happen every once in a while. Maybe every 4 dolls? Idk. We’ll see how things go.

#plushie gun

[so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site]

I love your custom dolls! How did you get into remaking Barbie dolls?

Thank you! I'm glad you like them! This is actually a multi layered answer since there were several factors that got me into this hobby.

When I was a teenager I became a fan of media that doesn't get a lot of affordable merch, at least in the US. Especially Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. I really wanted action figures of my favorite heroes, but the import fees put them WAY out of my budget. I was like "man I wish I could just make this stuff for myself". But there wasn't any real guidance on how to do that.

Then. The 2020 pandemic. I needed something to do. I had an abundance of free time and finally found tutorials on YouTube showing how to customize dolls! By that point I was an adult who finally had both some budget and had gathered artistic skills in painting and sculpting. I got a bunch of dollar store knockoff Barbies and started practicing. Once I honed my skills I moved on to buying specific dolls to get the articulation and details I wanted for each character. I also recycled several of my well-loved childhood Barbies into new characters.

It's my favorite art medium at the moment because it combines so many other skills I have: painting, sculpting, sewing, etc. I prefer Barbie because it's a more realistic looking doll line but it's still commonly available-- a lot of doll artists prefer Monster High or Rainbow High because they're easier to work with, but I don't like the exaggerated proportions as much. Plus Barbie's new diversity means it's easier for me to get different skin tones or body types for characters.

My favorite thing to do is to make my own figures of characters I like, especially since I have the ability to make them as screen- accurate as I want! That rare outfit variant that never made it to the official merch line? Yep, I can make that for them! I've also made a self portrait doll and have worked on a few to look like family or friends.

It's a super fun hobby! Some people think it's weird I'm "playing with dolls" at my age, but it's a great creative exercise I think many would enjoy!

#asks #asks answered #custom doll #custom dolls #hobby #original post

[katyspersonal]

Omg, I’m so glad to hear this! I totally thought you were maybe tired of writing those long posts, and I mean granted, I wouldn’t blame you. That’s A LOT of writing, but man, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy devouring every word of it. Your thoughts are incredibly insightful (hehe, get it?). No one else I’ve seen really delves into the Japanese text and all the visual details quite the same way. I really do hope you feel encouraged to keep sharing but with no pressure simultaneously if you are looking to keep your main blog mostly for art stuff! It’s all up to you of course, but yes, please know that you have a very dedicated fan hiding in the shadows that loves scouring through your notes like a Byrgenwerth scholar studying the cosmos lol!

...Ahaha allllllright I really need to find the weird guy that started to apparently pay people to send me compliments fshjghds Because recently I am having abundance of them and that never happens :^) /j

Thank you very much though; This means a lot! I will admit, I shared majority of my core theories, the rest are just some details I share at my own pace or when prompted <:3 Bloodborne solidified my belief that videogames ARE the best form of art for me. With BB, to understand more you need to analyse EVERY medium - more lore lurks in the songs lyrics, in songs leitmotifs, in colors, in subtle design similarities between clothes, in environment, in face datas, in cut content that is STILL useful, in internal filenames, in item descriptions, in item placements... And, ah, yeah, dialogue is there too I guess! xD

I have strong love for complicated, multi-sided things like this. If BB music was just pretty music with no lore significance - that would not be the same. Just check out how first stage of Rom's theme sounds like broken version of first stage of OoK's theme! If clothes designs were just cool drips with no lore significance - that would not be the same. Look at how interesting it is that default Hunter and Henriett are wearing bootleg style of Old Hunters! It just means a lot for me when someone enjoys all these infinite DETAILS with me ;-; Bloodborne is a godsend for my habit to overthink!

But... Yeah, never count on localizations of foreign media, ESPECIALLY Japanese ones. For some reason western translations often seem to warp the original context to fit their values/agendas more - and then western fans pick that up and continue. Or sometimes they simplify lore for no reason? Just ask Kirby fans what they did with Four Matters in Star Allies! Gehrman being made into a creep that tells you that you can do... things with the Doll is just one of the most awful examples, and I totally believe it was intentional and not a misinterpretation! Because a sexist creep is "easier to understand", in opinion of localization team, for western audience than an actually cool character or something? It is CRUCIAL for me to know what creators were truly trying to say! For example:

This is what Miyazaki had to say about Fauxsefka, and it changed my perception of her a lot back then! I used to think she was just a crazy binch using people to drain Insight from them once they're Kin with the cosmos yeah... But angle of Miyazaki helped me to look from different perspective and I could suddenly see what he meant with her character? Her dialogue about 'willing to save even if just one person' no longer seemed like bullshit lying to win sympathy, but as genuine sentiment - she was helping people to evolve past the risk of falling into beasthood the only way she knew how!

And it is arguable, twisted 'heroism' but isn't it what makes it SO interesting? THE core fun of interacting with overseas media is how different some things can be! Original Japanese script is just the next fastest way to access what creators TRULY wanted to say, after reading direct interviews of course x) So yeah that's why I always rely on direct excerpts from Japanese for my theories!

#ask replies #fandomry rambles #i am not good at reacting at a praise sorry dsfhdshfds #but this made my day! #tbh i am not sure if i could return to SIMPLER games/lores to analyze anymore. #besides nonverbal aspect of bloodborne loredigging is a feast for my autistic mug really. visuals and sounds are just :ok hand: #you'd think someone as wordy as me LIKES words but... it is complicated really. #deep down i wish we could just invent Runes too that would just pass the 'context' without flaws of human speech and semantics #my fav bit is still how red moon is called paleblood sky and blood of moon worshipping Kin is indeed pale #so it is called that because it drains their blood out of color!

[4me4you]

4me4you visits Tokyo Park Gallery which featured a Group Exhibition -“Tokyo Colours”.

TOKYO COLOURS was a group exhibition which featured Urban Japanese Artists: Ashiya Shiguma, Mayumi Konno, Neko, Saiakunana and TYM344.

Through paintings TOKYO COLOURS presents  an alternative approach to Pop: a Post-Superflat reaction to Art.

Artist: Ashiya Shiguma draws partially concepted animated women in unconventional mediums such as cardboard and transparent multi-layered acrylic sheets.

Artist: Mayumi Konno’s women wear a mysterious piercing gaze, attentively observing the viewer,surrounded by violet and blue plush dolls, abstract backgrounds, and missing textures.

Artist: Neko takes full advantage of his endless artistic inspiration, turning every medium and surface into paint-layered colourful works of art, crowded with women in racy, risqué situations, teasing the viewer.

Artist: Saiakunana is a punk-rocker, known for making pink acrylic/mixed media paintings, incorporating uncommon materials such as typed paper, water bottle labels, English writing, and hand-drawn guitar-playing girls. 

Artist: TYM344 revolves upon the concept of ‘Binarization of Art’,painting urban landscapes composed of street signs and advertising in Black and White, solely populated by two enigmatic characters: Yuu san and Ai san, who smile and react to their painter/photographer.

#4me4you #fourmefouryou #art #art gallery

[penultimatesaint]

I think I know what my problem is.

When I was a kid, my dad kept a Mad Magazine subscription running for me. My brother and I would go to his house and enthusiastically tear into each new issue. Spy Vs. Spy, caricatures of celebrities and politicians I didn't know, the absurd-yet-not-unrelatable misery of Monroe...

But of course the first thing I read was the letters other kids had sent in. I read them and wondered how -Ed. would insult me if I gave them a chance.

So I did. I wrote a letter...a long letter. I drew pictures. I asked them questions. I told them which Tom was my favorite Tom. By the time I was done I needed a manila envelope to mail it in.

Sealing it, I said to my dad, "There's so much stuff in here, they'll *have* to respond to *something*!"

He said he didn't think so, which I was hurt by at the time--but he was right. Of course he was. It was unfocused, multi-media child spew.

Which is basically how I live my whole life, art-wise.

I learned how to knit last year! I picked up 3D modeling this year! I've done pencils, pens, highlighters, sharpies, pastels, charcoal, origami, papercrafting, still lifes, comics, poetry, mix-and-match books, short stories, novels, visual novels, digital painting, irl painting, animation, sculpting, cooking, very bad attempts at music, sewing for humans, sewing for dolls, so many tutorials, autobiographical junk like this post...

I'm still a kid stuffing a manilla envelope.

I called it a problem in the title, but I don't know! I love having experienced all these different sides to art, even the ones I wasn't any good at. I'm fascinated by Art the Broad Concept more than any particular medium.

If I could improve at limiting scope and increasing focus within a given work, though...yeah, that would probably help.

In unrelated news, I'm writing an entire self-help book for my visual novel. I assure you it is integral to my vision.

#navel gazing #memoir #mad magazine #multimedia #true story #art #art rant #unfocused #is it still lifes or still lives whatever I'm going with my gut

[bm-americas]

Antelope Kachina Doll, 20th century, Brooklyn Museum: Arts of the Americas

Carved and painted figure with cylindrical head, protruding muzzle and partially flexed arms. The face is painted white and the hairline is described by a black, stepped border edged in red. The eyes are black rectangles and the muzzle is black with red lips and white teeth. Black circles are painted on the cheeks. The chest is painted half in brown and half in light blue with white lightning bolts on both sides. Brown and blue bands are painted on arms. The rest of the exposed body at waist and thighs is white with thin brown vertical lines. The kilt is painted brown with a multi-colored stepped star pattern and stripes. The figure wears brown painted boots or leggings. Black yarn ornaments the right wrist and headband. A tuft of feathers springs from the upper left part of the head. These attributes suggest the Hopi antelope kachina (see reference below). Condition is fair. The front of the right foot is missing and there is a structure in its place made with steel pins and resin. The figure is otherwise in tact. The doll presumably held something in the left hand which is now missing. The polychrome is stable but abraded at numerous points in the back. There are red waxy deposits on the back of the skirt. The doll is extremely dirty, especially the yarn and feathers on the head. References: Colton, Harold S., "Hopi Kachina Dolls with a Key to Their Identification (1977), fig. 7 (lower right) History: Formerly in the collection of Allan Chapman. Size: 12 3/4 x 6 x 4 3/4 in. (32.4 x 15.2 x 12.1 cm) Medium: Wood, pigment, yarn, feathers

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4968

#artsoftheamericas #brooklynmuseum #museumarchive

[holidaysat221b]

The 12 Days of Sherlolly are back!

Welcome to The 12 Days of Sherlolly.  From December 26th to January 6th, we will be showcasing your winter or Christmas themed Sherlolly fic and art.

Will our favorite couple cuddle together in front of a roaring fire at 221B?  Are there snowball fights in Mummy and Daddy Holmes’ garden?  Will someone be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future?

Has someone stepped under the mistletoe?  An unexpected blizzard?  Cuddling to stay warm?  Silly, sweet, or smutty—the Fest is open to it all.

Works can be any rating, any length, any genre, and any medium (art, fic, knitted dolls, videos, etc). However, they must be a Sherlolly work with a Christmas or winter theme.  

We will open posting on the 12 Days of Sherlolly collection at Ao3 on December 26th and close it at midnight on January 6th.  Authors/artists will be welcome to post their works to the community at any time while it is open. Any works added to the collection will also be shared and featured on the @holidaysat221b tumblr during that period.

Please make note of the change to Rule #6 below.  It’s a huge change from years past.

Once the fest is over, all works will be added to the Christmas/Winter Masterlist. (http://holidaysat221b.tumblr.com/master_list_christmas)

If you have any questions, feel free to message the mods or submit an ask.  Please have a look at the rules below the Read More.

The Rules:

1) Must be on theme in some way—Winter, Christmas season, any winter holiday

2) Sherlolly must be the main pairing (it does not need to be a romantic pairing), but other ships are welcomed.

3) The collection can be found at http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Twelve_Days_Of_Sherlolly_2020. Please note that this is a subcollection.

4) To add your work to the Ao3 collection: Post your fic to Ao3 as you normally would, but in the “Post to Collections / Challenges” box you need to type Twelve_Days_Of_Sherlolly_2020.

5) Multi-chapter fics are welcome to post over a period of days. It would be lovely if your fic could be complete by January 6th, but we are aware that things don’t always go according to plan.

6) Any fic/art that began posting sometime between December 26th, 2019 and midnight on January 6th, 2020 is eligible for inclusion in this collection.  Let’s do something new for our final year – Any fic that meets the other requirements will be eligible for inclusion or reblogging.  Regardless of when you originally posted it.  If you wrote a winter snowball fight fic in June (for example), and would like to have it featured in this year's 12 Days of Sherlolly, feel free to add it to the collection.  Have a fluffy proposal under the Chrismas tree picture from six years ago, we’d love to see it.  Already on the list from years past?  We can showcase it again if you’d like.  

7) Tag your ships. Improperly tagged fics may be deleted.

8) If you want to post your work on Tumblr, please tag it with ‘12 days of sherlolly’ and/or ‘2020 12 days of sherlolly’ somewhere in the first five tags.

9) If you want to participate but don’t want to post to Ao3, feel free to send a mod a link to your work, wherever it’s at, and we’ll add it to the master list on @holidaysat221b.

10) Unfortunately, fics or artwork meant for the 12 Days of Sherlolly Fest that are not added to the collection or properly tagged on Tumblr or directly submitted to a mod may not be seen and therefore added to the Masterlist or featured on @holidaysat221b.  If you would like your work to be included, you must let us know it exists via submitting to the collection, using the Tumblr tag, or messaging us directly.  

 Please join in the fun!!!

We want to give a HUGE thanks to @mel-loves-all for making the amazing graphic above! 

#sherlolly #2020 12 days of sherlolly #12 days of sherlolly #fest graphic by @mel-loves-all

[customcreatures]

“Behold my wonder!”

#skekgra #skekgra the heretic #the dark crystal #tdc aor #age of resistance #skeksis #multi medium art dolls #my art

[historybetweenthepages]

Blocked to comment this on Anthony Fantano’s video (so I posted it here).

I couldn’t comment a response to this video on YouTube due to censorship so I decided to do it here:

The problem with Paul Joseph Watson is mostly the rational that is used to justify the 'breakdown' of morality through art and culture. The viewpoint that popular culture, within the twenty-first century,' is more "vulgar," "vapid," "self absorbed," "hedonistic," and "dehumanizing" "than any other time in living memory" is a view that is extremely one sided and biased. Any generation of the past could have made this argument about the popular cultural of their day and how it is "farther apart" from the traditional, fundamental values that define a culture or society.

If Watson is going to use the example of Miley Cyrus twerking in front of Robin Thicke as a reason this is no different than the view that parents, or most adults, had during the sixties about rock n' roll. For example, when the Beatles broke up my grandparents (on my fathers side) disparaged the groups period as a band commenting that 'The Mills Brothers' (a barbershop quartet that had a career run of fifty-four years and scored hits with 'You Always Hurt the One You Love,' Paper Doll,' 'Glow Worm,' and 'Up a Lazy River' in the forties and fifties that branded them "The Beatles of the 1940's") had a longer run and that the music, aside from Earl Hines, Marva Josie, and Dinah Washington etc. (musicians who need no introduction), had more 'quality' than the entirety of rock n' roll due to the immoral substance that my grandparents (on my fathers side) believed existed. Although this is not meant to disparage this generational period, as they were not always wrong on what popular culture contained whether it was moral or immoral, it highlights the gap between an older and younger group of people who, in some cases, failed to keep an open mind on what was new and presently modern.

If I was going to provide an example that related to the "classical traditionalism" that is 'mostly' found within Watson's channel, I would counteract this with examples of artists (composers, painters, sculptors, etc.), such as Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Scriabin, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Vincent Van Gogh, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst, or Samuel Beckett. Although these names would invoke a more increased sense of realism to counteract against Watson's belief it would STILL, no matter how logical or understanding, would not be enough to disprove the argument that most, or all, of modern culture is immoral and responsible for the breakdown of "beauty" and "truth" (although these terms are subjective to how they are used within the given context to what people believe is beautiful and true).

Although there are a fair number of examples that have proved how modern society has provided the shift for the decrease of morality, this is still not comprable enough to assert the belief that modern society is the reduction of "everything that is 'moral' or 'positive' " (given the context of a certain subject or topic). If Watson had existed in the different eras of the artists listed above, he would have most likely disparaged what was not explicitly beautiful (hence, if he had existed in the era of Chopin, or Scriabin, he would have denigrated the use of dissonance found within a fair amount of their oeuvre as composers) believing that although these more modern artists are not entirely negative they STILL take away from the reality of "what beauty is."

Although I am four years late (regrettably), and I do not happen to agree with everything Fantano is expressing, he includes some important and relevant points, saying that although the classic, artistic styles of portraits are still relevant, it is essential to have variety and new ideas so these artistic, subject areas do not become static (3:00 - 3:08). With new ideas this allows for newer perspectives on how these traditional concepts can be considered, or 'digested,' from a newer perspective. Fantano also reminds us of the point that not everything in the modern era, especially television, is awash of programs that are unproductive, crude or narcissistic. For anything that can be defined, or misconstrued, as negative, or unproductive, it can be followed up with television programs, art, music, literature, or online articles that are supported with the intent of positively informing or entertaining their readers, listeners, or audience members.

Due to this, it disproves the view that modernism has produced the "diminishment of beauty" to such a high degree that it is a rare, almost nonexistent characteristic within our society. Although I believe that beauty has been subject to various levels of diminishment throughout the different eras of modern history, it STILL is an aspect of life that many people are fighting, protecting, and exemplifying through their work with some examples that include modern artists who are still living or working within the twenty-first century (with videos to prove my point):

Anthony Braxton (American "free jazz" saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and improvisor) 

Barry Harris (jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and teacher) 

(although he is more of traditional modernist, espousing those who came after bebop such as Bill Evans)

Cormac McCarthy (author, novelist, poet, and playwright) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-egB5SzFY

David Dubal (classical pianist, writer, and disc jockey)

David Hockney (painter)

Frederick Buechner (writer, novelist, poet, autobiographer, essayist, preacher, and theologian) (this will only maintain relevance if you are religious)

George Winston (pianist, organist, guitarist, composer, and improvisor)

Keith Jarrett (jazz and classical pianist, composer, bandleader, improvisor, and multi-instrumentalist)

(with five other video examples as well that will be posted in the reblog of this response)

Even if these examples provide a strong,  moderate, or weak validation for my argument they prove my point (I hope) that beauty is STILL a valued characteristic of daily life and defined as essential for the overall growth, of not only those who are subject to the work, but of the society and environment in which they live. Although the examples above are mostly based around music (due to this being a music channel), I have tried to include other aspects of the arts as well to prove that the modern world, whether it is centered around the second half of the twentieth century or the majority of the twenty first century, is capable of deriving beauty from non-traditionalism and that traditionalism is the foundation that supports the ideas that are acted upon in a modern context. Understanding this, it is safe to assume that not everything has to be 'traditional' or 'conservative' to be considered legitimate. Instead, it is more proficient to believe that as long as the various mediums within the arts, or other aspects of our societal culture, exude a pronounced sense of positivity, this will create a more likely heightened sense of awareness for what is considered 'valuable,' or 'essential' for a given society.

In summary, if Miley Cyrus and Marilyn Manson have profited off an existence that is viewed by a majority as being immoral this does not define the entirety of the modern world. Overt sexualization, the diminishment of beauty, and the "pretentious works of art" found at TATE Modern (using Marcel Duchamp's readymade sculpture, 'Fountain' (1917) as an example) is not the "top defining example" of modernism. Instead, they represent examples of variance that Fantano views as "shit posting before shit posting," even though I disagree with this viewing it as the development of a new artistic style and philosophy (what was known during Duchamp's life as 'DADA'). These newer styles separate art from aspects that are "static," "boring," or "plain" (depending on how these works are viewed) with Fantano using Lou Reed's 'Metal Music' as a relevant example for musical, modern ideas.

The "take down" (depending on how you define this in the context of how it is used) of traditional, conservative values do not define the majority of what is observed throughout the lens of modernism. Instead, it is artists, writers, composers, etc. taking risks on how they can combine traditional aspect of their medium, or style, and subject them to new ideas that are experimental, or improvisational, in their nature. even if an artist’s ideas had no connection to any aspect of traditionalism would this make it bad? In my opinion, not really.

Even if Watson makes a fair number of points that, hypothetically, could be agreed upon (with most that I do not agree with) this does not account for how flawed this view is. It is not healthy, or viable, for someone to look at the modern world with blinders on and continue to move forward. This does not assert change. This does not introduce newer ideas. This does not move traditional aspect of art, or culture, past their classical, conservative stages of infancy. If you want to move forward in the truest sense of a philosophy (give or take what that may consist of) you have to be open to incorporating newer ideas, even if it exists outside of your own personal worldview. You do not have to agree with it but to close yourself off entirely from a new experience that could benefit you personally is wrong.

The logic of "I disagree with certain characteristics of this so I am going to reject it entirely" is WRONG and should NOT be exemplified by anyone at any time. If you happen to disagree entirely with something that is your prerogative and should be respected (as long as it logically based off of facts that can be proven and sourced). Regardless of how right or wrong Watson is (although it may be apparent which view people have taken), it does not set aside the hatred that is transparent when choosing to believe in this philosophy. There are certain facts that define life and although it may be obvious that general "players" within the current culture are immoral and act in contrary ways, (opposed to the moral and values that once, in greater ways, defined our culture), this does not mean that those aspects of modernism that you personally disagree with, aside from what can be factually proven, are wrong, nor are they "the problem" (as Watson would say).

Yes, society has become more contradictory.

Yes, society has become more immoral.

Yes, society has become less centered around a factual or moral truth.

That is just the reality. But is it appropriate to hate what does not measure up with "moral" examples of the past? No.

Of course Mark Rothko is going to be different from Michael Angelo or Jackson Pollock from Claude Monet. That is just the way it is.

But to throw away what you cannot see personal value with may be realistic, and understandable, but in the end is ignorant.

So overall, anything that can be viewed as negative in the modern era can ALWAYS be paired alongside that which is positive. This has been true for the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, while still remaining currently true.

If Watson has to be given examples of positive aspects of modernism within the arts and culture, I suggest that he do more research. But then again, he is probably incapable of finding real, hard data, or credible sources, when he only exists on a surface level (and I know this from personal experience, I used to be a subscriber)

P.S.

And NO, I would not say that this is a realistic portrayal of conservatism because what exists on the surface is usually not a summary for the entirety of people who exist within a political or social group/philosophy. Regardless, Fantano makes a great logical point while still remaining relevant while providing examples are spot on in making his point. Overall, this is a good video that deflates most of what Watson is saying as flawed and illogical while disproving him in a factual way.

Rating: B+

 NOTE:

I may edit this comment so expect changes. If I do not than it is here to stay. I hope that you have enjoyed what I have written and find it to be a good contribution to Fantano's response.

#essay #commentary #youtube #paul joseph watson #anthony fantano #video #writing #modernism #culture #society #politics #barry harris #jazz #modern jazz #anthony braxton #composer #composing #nea jazz #improvisor #pianist #piano #keith jarrett #david dubal #classical music #george winston #instrumental music #theneedledrop

[caves-to-canvas]

First post!

Hey all! This is caves-to-canvas, a blog started for the sole purpose of a final assignment. As a first post, I figured I would just do a quick article I found browsing reddit!

Ceramic Mayan Figures Found at El Perú-Waka, Guatemala

The 23 figures from the site, photo © Ricky Lopez

The figures, seen above, date back to 600-650 CE. While not what most of us would consider lithic (Stone Age) art, given how late complex societies emerged in the Americas (The first known being the Olmecs, who emerged ~1500 BCE, and while still being a hunter-gatherer society), very few societies in the Americas were able to use metals in tool production pre-Columbian. This places the vast majority of Native American cultures in their Stone Age. What should be kept in mind, is that their tools being stone-based is no reason to doubt their intrinsic humanity.

Significance of the figures

The figures were most likely made to depict what ritual life for the Maya people. One figure depicts a dead king, with a magical deer that guides him through the underworld until he reincarnates.

Other figures depict living rulers of the Maya, a king and queen, adorned in clothing with vivid colors and multi-layered textiles, Dancers, Scribes, and an Heir to the throne, all joined by a female shaman depicted mid-howl.

The most important figure to this blog though, is one of a dwarf boxer equipped with a conch shell trumpet, to both play music and open a path to the underworld.

photo © Ricky Lopez

Of particular interest to this blog is how this figure has a removable helmet, effectively functioning as an accessory similar to modern dolls and action figures. While this figure and the others found at El Perú-Waka likely hold a greater significance than today’s toys, the idea to have a noticeable part of a figure designed to be easily removable and replaceable goes to show how human innovation never really changes, just the tools available and the medium used.

Source: https://unframed.lacma.org/2017/09/21/archaeology-el-ú-waka’-maya-ritual-resurrection-scene-broader-perspective

#archaeology #maya #art #mesoamerica

[jlf23tumble]

Top 10 Niche Interests

Fixations? Obsessions? This is incredibly hard because I have wayyyy too many niche interests, so instead of stressing about it, I tried to channel the 10 things that immediately speak to me and maybe aren't so obvious from what I post here, like how much I'm obsessed with wigs, doll furniture, incredibly specific blogs, all forms of clothing with pockets, swimming pools, whimsical bus stops, over-the-top bathrooms, etc. etc Instead, I opted for some specifics that feel a little more evergreen and long tailed, like, so LIFE-long tailed that it's tough to nail down when or how they became part of the national psyche. I thank @alienfuckeronmain​ for the initial tag, and I'm tagging her AGAIN for round two because I know she has a billion additional niche things, and she'll post them, and I'll scream because it'll trigger five other things I neglected to post here, and I'll probably post my own round two, arggggh, insert aggressive sighing. Anyway, I tag ANYONE who wants to do it, just tag me so I can see! 

1. Indoor Trees

I have no idea why this concept PULLS so hard because houseplants are kind of meh to me, but you want to plant an entire-ass TREE indoors, in the place where you live? Me, too, and I'd add a conversation pit plus a combo gold/red bathroom, among other things, and, bam, we're in my imaginary dream home, which I have literally, constantly ALWAYS mentally constructed from the time I was about six or so. (If you're curious, it has multiple themed rooms, and the closest I've seen to it recently is the outstanding Dita von Teese AD feature, but Amy Sedaris’s apartment comes close, too). There are two (2) 1960s houses in Long Beach with magnificent indoor trees, but I can't find them online, so have this modern interpretation and cry with me about how I can't visit the multi-story fake tree inside Clifton's Cafeteria for a good long while:

2. Conventions of Fans of Any Kind

One thing that I don't think I'll ever lose is how much I *love* people who are fans of SOMETHING, people who have a passion and create something about it or cosplay it or simply gather to celebrate it and connect to other people through it. The Internet provides in all kinds of ways, but I'm talking specifically about IRL conventions and the way my heart pitter pats when I first walk in those doors, SWOON! And it doesn’t matter how big the convention is or how random, I've been to smaller events like CatCon and the My Little Pony convention all the way up to biggies like WonderCon and Comic Con, and I have yet to be disappointed. I might know jack shit about what I'm walking into, but I want to see the merch, hear about the panels, and check out the people who are fucking PUMPED to be there. Sadly, I think it's gonna be a lonnnnng time until these come back, but I can live vicariously through my old photos, sigh:

3. Dutch Wax Fabrics and African Fashion

I'm not the snazziest of dressers, but textiles, colors, and patterns have been an obsession that has soothed my visual soul for as long as I can literally remember. Wax fabric marries all three of those touchpoints, plus throws in a healthy dose of style, and I count myself lucky to have seen two big exhibits on the subject (this was one of them), oh, how I wish there were more! For sure, there's a fucked up underlying colonial/imperialist history here, but there's also humor and color and vibrancy, a reclamation of sorts, and multiple levels of fashion that take my breath away. I cannot do the different patterns justice at all, but the fan motif is one of my faves:

4. Hearst Castle vs. Madonna inn

These two fall into my #home tag because they're where I'm from, and they speak to me as equally sublime and ridiculous, camp and kitsch writ large and small, different (yet similar!) versions of Xanadu that two rich white men built as shrines to their own personal "taste." And the irony is that a lot of people shit on Alex Madonna for being tacky (the Madonna Inn is...uh, something else), yet praise WR Hearst for all the high-class art and architecture, most of which is fully lifted from desperate churches between and after world and yet they're both more or less the same concept (lodging for weary travelers, self-aggrandizement, questionable taste-mixing). Hearst Castle edges out slightly for me because it's bigger and has spectacular scenery and history, plus it gives me doses of LA noir thanks to the way Hearst killed a guy in a jealous Charlie Chaplin-related rage and Hedda Hopper covered it up, all kinds of old Hollywood shenanigans happened up there, etc. But I'm low-key an expert on both houses of the holy, I'm OBSESSED with both, and we can leave it at that. I mean, come on:

5. Snow Globes

I had to cull my personal collection slightly just to fit it all on the dedicated shelf in my bathroom, and I seriously need to refill all the water lines, but nothing beats a snow globe in terms of memorable souvenir, especially when you put it in a bathroom. The majesty!!! The jewel of my collection is the one from Sherwood Forest because WHY NOT celebrate a historic place and moment in the basic way?? He robbed from the rich to give to the poor, and the gift shop about 100 feet from the tree he hid in does the same! The circle of life! The irony of all the watermarks on this blessed image...protect:

6. Highly Specific Museums

Look, we can all agree that the more venerated museums in the world are a form of garbage in terms of what they represent, what they've done, and who runs them, but I'm here for the museums that collect and celebrate things that tend to get overlooked. There are too many to list that I love that are still thriving, so I'm going to say goodbye to four recently departed faves. RIP to the Pez museum, I'm so glad I saw you and purchased your stale candy souvenirs. RIP to the museum of terrible food, you were a pop up when Phoenix and I saw you, and I will forever think about the worker describing people literally vomiting during their visits. RIP to the currywurst museum in Berlin, I've had currywurst exactly once and it was not for me, but I respect the Journey you took me on, including obscure east German TV shows that helped make you so popular (??). Finally, RIP to the velvet painting museum, there's no way to mince words, the person who owned you was crazy AS FUCK and had zero clue how to run a business, but I'm so glad I saw you multiple times and purchased my own velvet treasure (not this exact one, but remarkably similar):

7. Liminal Spaces: Grocery Store Edition

Confession time for those who don't know me all that well, I'm a big time voyeur, and nothing fills my heart with joy like a walk at 7 or 8 pm, the witching hour when people haven't pulled the curtains, and I can scope out their decorations/furnishings without it being "weird." Another confession is how much I unabashedly adore grocery stores in other countries and will spend at least an hour wandering aisle by aisle, falling in love with how much everything is different yet completely the same:

8. Agatha Christie Novels:

As a child, I was a fairly compliant reader--I had to read something for school? Okay! For my mom? Sounds good! But the books that sparked the initial fire for me to read something purely for myself were second-hand (probably fourth- or fifth-hand, judging by cover art) Agatha Christie short story anthologies, which were the gateway drug to full Agatha Christie novels, then other mystery novels, and so on. But getting back to Agatha, I obviously loved all the stories, but every decade spawned incredibly good cover art (like, exceptionally good), and this particular artist's are right up near the top for me (I go back and forth on a lot of the '50s and '60s ones):

9. Scopitones

I link my obsession with scopitones both to my love of music videos in general and a shop in Austin, TX, that sold DVD compilations of them in particular, but either way, they're underappreciated and kitschy all in one! Francoise Hardy and the rest of the ye-ye's are my forever girls for this medium, but seemingly every country cranked them out, both actual set videos and "live" performances? If you don't know what they are, scopitones were machines that played music videos in French cafes in the '60s (??), so it was sort of your proto-MTV way to see your faves sing and dance. Oh, Francoise...so moderne!!

10. Cover Songs

I have so much patience and love for cover songs of any stripe, the more genre-bending and/or surprising, the better! My only minor beef is the trend in slooooooooowing down songs to make a point, but even those ones have a special place in my heart if they're effective. Live Lounge feeds my hunger the best, but my meta fave for representing this concept is Pulp's Bad Cover Version, which was already lyrically INSPIRED, a song about bad cover versions in terms of relationships, but then they did a video that was a visual "bad" cover version, with actors lip synching over an audio "bad" cover version, and all of it just worked? The cover for the single is someone in the band as a boy, making his own bad cover version of a Bowie album cover, it's meta meta meta, and I love love love, here's the video, if you're curious. In the more sublime cover category, I'm absolutely addicted to all of Orville Peck's covers, I truly hope he officially releases them sometime soon, but I wholeheartedly support any artist who does it:

#tag games #niche interests #god i have a few

[creativeprocesssophielindsay]

CINDY SHERMAN

Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #13 (1978)

https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/cindy-sherman-louis-vuitton-fondation

Cindy Sherman Untitled Film Still #21 (1978)

https://drnorth.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/picture-of-the-week-77-cindy-shermans-film-stills/#jp-carousel-7513

Cindy Sherman Untitled #92, "Disasters and Fairy Tales" Series (1985)

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1038

Cindy Sherman Untitled #209, "History Portrait" Series (1989)

http://juliettebuck.blogspot.com/2012/04/cindy-sherman.html

Biography of Cindy Sherman

Childhood Cindy Sherman was born January 19, 1954 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey (virtually a suburb of New York City). Shortly after Cindy's birth, the family moved to Huntington, Long Island, where Cindy grew up as the youngest of five children. Although her parents shared a general disinterest in the arts-her father was an engineer and her mother a reading teacher-Sherman chose to study art in college, enrolling at the State University of New York, at Buffalo, in the early 1970s. Early Training

Sherman studied in Buffalo from 1972-76; she began as a painter, but she quickly found herself frustrated by what she considered certain limitations of the medium. The 1970s was an eclectic era for painters working in the aftermath of Minimalism, and feeling as though "there was nothing more to say [through painting]," Sherman shifted her attention to photography. Although initially failing a required photography class, she later elected to repeat the course, which ignited her passion for the subject. During her studies, Sherman met fellow artists Robert Longo and Charles Clough, with whom she co-founded Hallwalls Center for Contemporary Art in 1974 (it continues to function to the present day as a dynamic, multi-arts "hub"). Longo and Sherman dated until 1979. During her studies, Sherman was exposed to Conceptual art and other progressive art movements and media under the widely influential art instructor, Barbara Jo Revelle.

Upon graduation, Sherman moved to New York City to pursue her artistic career. In 1977, with her downtown residential and studio loft as her primary backdrop, Sherman began taking a series of photographs of herself, a project she would eventually refer to as the Untitled Film Stills. In this series, Sherman embodies the character of "Everywoman." Re-fashioning herself repeatedly into the guise of various female archetypes, Sherman played the girly pin-up, the film noir siren, the housewife, the prostitute, and the noble damsel in distress. The black-and-white series occupied her for about three years, so that by 1980 Sherman had virtually exhausted a myriad of seemingly timeless clichés referring to the "feminine."

Mature Period

With the debut of Untitled Film Stills, Sherman secured her position in the New York art world, leading to her first solo show at the non-profit exhibition space, The Kitchen. Shortly after, she was commissioned to create a centrefold image for Artform magazine. Photos of a pink-robe-clad Sherman were ultimately deemed too racy by editor Ingrid Sischy and rejected. There is no knowing whether a subsequent series shot from 1985 to 1989, Disasters and Fairy Tales, was in some sense a response to that act of rejection, but, notably, it is a much darker endeavour than its prettified predecessor. Its gloomy palette and scenes strewn with vomit and mould challenged viewers to find beauty in the ugly and the unqualified grotesque.

Sherman's next series took on the hallowed subject of the art tableau. History Portraits again presented Sherman-as-model, but this time she assumed the air of European art history's most famous "leading ladies." Living in Europe at the time of its creation, Sherman drew inspiration from the West's great museums. That interlude gave way, in 1992, to Sherman's Sex Pictures, a project taken up in response to the censorship of the art of Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. In the Sex Pictures, Sherman substituted her own figure for that of a doll. Intending to shock and scandalize the public, the images present close-ups of doll-on-doll sex scenes and prosthetic genitalia. Shortly after she began work on this series, Sherman received a MacArthur Fellowship.

In 1997, Sherman crossed over from still art photography to motion pictures, aided in part by her husband at that time, film director Michel Auder (the two divorced in 1999). She made her directorial debut with the thriller, Office Killer, starring Molly Ringwald and Jeanne Tripplehorn. A year later, Sherman played herself in John Waters's 1998 comedy, Pecker.

Over the last decade, Sherman done clown's make-up in a series of still photography (2003) and, even more recently, she explored carefully staged female "suburban" identities in a solo show at Metro Pictures, NY (2008). In the latter series, Sherman photographed herself in various states of awkward make-up, superimposing stodgy, highly self-conscious portraits over contrived domestic and faux-monumental backdrops. In 2006, Sherman was honoured by a retrospective of her work at the Jeu de Paume Museum, in Paris. Sherman continues to live and work in New York City, where she is dating David Byrne, of the band, "Talking Heads." She celebrated a solo exhibition at MoMA in early 2012.

  The Legacy of Cindy Sherman

The ultimate participant-critic of mass consumer culture, one perpetually partaking of its daily realities while nonetheless challenging its underlying assumptions, Cindy Sherman epitomizes the 1980s technique of "image-scavengering," and "appropriation" by artists seeking to question the so-called truth potential of mass imagery and its seductive hold on our individual and collective psyches. Sherman's depersonalized approach to portrait photography has suggested a new, socially critical capacity for a medium that was once presumed a tool of documentary realism (or aesthetic pleasure). This "readymade" quality of the critically applied photograph, whereby a pre-existing image or convention is appropriated intact by the artist and subtly turned into something more conceptually problematic, if not psychologically disturbing, has come to characterize much work of a new generation defying easy categorization.

In addition, Sherman's work has been specifically cited as opening onto a new, "expanded field" of photography since the late 1990s, in much work characterized by a "fusion of narrative and stasis," such as in the photography of Jeff Wall, Anna Gaskell, Justine Kurland, Jenny Gage, and Sharon Lockhart. Such artists extend Sherman's anti-narrative approach to the medium and its subject matter, in work that frequently suggests unresolved stories and scenarios wrenched from contexts both common and disturbingly mysterious.

[skitzo-kero]

Tagged by the awesome @ja-crispea !!!! You're a doll

Tagging my normal Picrew crew: @multi-lefaiye @peter-purrker @yewphoriaa @deputy-janai

Tagged to make myself in this picrew (below) and list 5-7 facts about myself!!! PS this is as close as I could get in this picrew given my hair is recently dyed a new color and they dont have shaved heads but this is how i wear my hair for work.

1- I'm the youngest of three siblings and was my mother's last attempt of having a child (hence my name being Chancie)

2- I used to want to go into the criminology field but I learned that it was more of a hobby than a passion. However if for some reason art doesnt work out I want to go into forensic psychology!

3- I'm allergic to either hay or horses we're not sure which it actually is. Makes my eyes swell up.

4- I am arachnophobic due to a prank my brothers pulled on me when I was a small child.

5- At one point I owned 7 dogs at the same time.

6- I dye my hair quite regularly, I probably change it every few months. My natural hair color is a medium-dark brown with some greys from stress.

7- My eyes are considered hazel! I got super recessive hazel eyes from my paternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather. It causes my eyes to look like they change color as I have green, grey, and 1 or 2 shades of blue on my eyes!

#about me

[ask-de-writer]

DARING DO and the ADVENTURE of the X'IBIAN VASE! : MLP Fan Fiction : Part 19 of 21

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Daring Do

and the Adventure of the X'ibian Vase!

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

And

Carmen Pondiego

Cover Art by

Doctor Dimension

52630 words

© 2015 by Glen Ten-Eyck

Writing begun 08/26/15

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions, provided that such things are done without charge.  I will allow those who do commission art works to charge for their images.  

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fictions is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

Sharp bronze blades shot out from the wall!  One sliced lightly across the skin of Tyranny’s neck and cut the top of his extended foreleg, causing him to squall in pain!

“I can’t get away from this!  Somepony help me!”

A little further down the causeway, Daring Do was struggling!  A blade driven through, high up, lifting her from the pave!

~~ ~~ ~~

In the deeply hidden control room of VILE’s floating island headquarters, Carmen was shaking Marehem like he was a rag doll!  Dropping him, she pointed to the Mirror of Distant Sight where Daring Do could be seen struggling, supported by the antique bronze blade.

“I told you to KEEP HER SAFE!  Do you call that SAFE?”

Marehem picked himself up and studied the image showing in the Mirror. Nodding in his cheerfully annoying way, he snarked back, “Yes!”

Carmen stopped like she’d hit a brick wall.  “How?”

Pointing carefully, Marehem suggested, “Take a CLOSE look.”

Carmen examined the scene carefully and nodded slowly.  The scene in the mirror shifted to the darkened interior of a vault.  “Let’s see, the Ruby Rose of the West is guarded by …”

The notes for her next heist, er, exploit, grew.

~~ ~~ ~~

While the others were still staring in shock at the apparent disaster that Tyranny had triggered, Jeremy called out, “Stay still, Doctor Do!  I am on my way!”

Daring Do ceased her struggles, hanging limply from the extended blade of the trap.  Jeremy took a grapnel from his saddle pack and twirled the multi pronged hook, letting it fly expertly to the top of the wall that concealed the deadly mechanism.  After assuring himself that it was securely hooked, Jeremy pulled himself up and traversed the blades by carefully stepping on them.  At the end of the trap, he let himself down to the pave.  He gave the grapnel rope a flip that freed the hook.

Coiling the rope, he asked Daring Do, “Do you know how to reset this trap?  If the blade can simply pull back into the wall, that will be the safest way to get it out of your pack.”

Daring Do pointed to a tall stone.  “I think that hides the reset for the blade mechanism.”

Nodding, Jeremy checked the stone over with care.  There was a quiet click and it pulled open like a cabinet, revealing a long lever.  He cautiously pulled it back.  As he did, the blades slid silently back into the wall, hidden as before.  The blade carrying Daring Do retreated into the ancient stone, sliding out of her pack, as it went into the wall to await its next victim.

She leaned against the wall and asked in a shaken voice, “How did it go off?  I thought that I marked all the triggers with the chalk dust.  Did I miss one?”

Grimly Sang He pointed to Tyranny, who was trying to stanch the blood from his cut foreleg.  “That one.  He deliberately hit one of the triggers.  The only reason that he lives is that the one called Robber tried to stop his idiocy by pulling him back.”

`Robber literally sat on Tyranny and said gently but with absolute conviction, “You asked how likely it was that such ancient traps could work.  You have your answer.  If you do one more thing that you are not supposed to do, I will push you off this causeway myself.  I want to stay alive. That is even more important than any ritual, no matter what reward it may give.”

He got up and left Tyranny to limp to his feet.  “At least bandage up my cuts!”

Overthrow responded, “No.  The pain and occasional bleeding will remind you that you are in a very dangerous place and MUST do exactly as told.

”Sehang Shu suggested with a grin, “That unworthy dung beetle has showed us his talent!  Let him go ahead of us down the causeway.  He is sure to set off EVERY trap, greatly simplifying our task of getting to the bottom safely!  Of course, after the next one that he springs, we will have to roll his corpse the rest of the way down.”

Sang He, joining in, suggested, “Perhaps we should not do that.  If something hit his head a valuable antique could be seriously damaged!”

Daring Do was inventorying her damaged pack.  She sadly examined her shredded notes and drawings.  Jeremy leaned over her shoulder to see.  “I believe that I can fix those, Doctor Do.  Will you let me try?”

She looked up at him.  “Jeremy, I thought that your talent lay in restoring antiquities.”

Glancing over at Robber, Overthrow and Tyranny, Jeremy nodded, “That is primarily what it is good for, Doctor Do.  It can also restore that which is damaged, if it has to do with antiques.  That is what all of your notes here are about.”

To be sure that no breeze stole any precious fragment, Daring Do gave Jeremy her whole pack.  To the displeasure of Tyranny, Jeremy sat where he could shield the contents of the pack and set to work, sorting torn and sliced parts.  As fast as he found any two that fit together, he ran a skilled hoof across the fitted edges.  Each page that he did it to was restored as if it had never had an ancient bronze blade driven forcefully through it.

Without a word, he handed the entire batch of repaired notes and drawings back to Daring Do, both the precious papers and her pack were perfectly restored.

Daring Do shouldered her pack with a smile of thanks to Jeremy.  She worked her way slowly down the the causeway, her loosely woven bag of fine chalk dust leaving many marked stones on both the road and the cliff wall!

They came to one place where she stopped cold. Very carefully, watching each foot placement, she slowly backed away.

She was almost back to the others when there was the tiniest of clicking sounds.  Sang He lunged forward, hitting the pave with her body spreadeagled.  Kanya Ama and Sehang Shu leaped forward and grabbed their herd leader’s hind legs as Sang He wrapped Daring Do in a solid grip. The paving under both of them fell away!

With Daring Do held securely in her grip, Sang He lay bent down at the waist, kept from falling by her two herdmates.  The rest of the herd moved almost as one to lower ropes and secure them about their friends.  The sheer power and strength of the dromedaries was easily apparent as they heaved, lifting the two to the relative safety of the causeway with its known traps!

Soree, knowing exactly what was expected of her, also leaped forward and stared down into the trap.  She began to sketch rapidly, concentrating on her work.  Soon, done with her drawing, she made swift notes in her native Saddle Arabian.

Jeremy asked the still shaking Daring Do, “Is it safe to use the grapnel in that iron loop up there on the wall about half way across?”

It was Sehang Shu who answered, “No, Jeremy.  That is, as you suspected, just another way land on those spikes, one hundred meters down there at the bottom.”

He nodded, “It has been used enough that I noticed that there are movement marks under it.  I was not sure, though.  This is my first expedition into the field.”

Soree held out her sketchbook and pointed.  “These four of the eighteen skeletons down there tried to swing across.  They all landed in that one place, indicating that they were all released at the exact same point in their swing.”

Robber joined them quietly and respectfully asked, “How do you know that those four tried to swing across?  For that matter, how do you know that there are eighteen of them down there?  I only see a big tangled mass of bones.”

Jeremy, still examining Soree’s excellent sketch, replied, “Those four, all landing in the same place, are a simple trajectory solution.

“For the total, if you look at the drawing, she counted the skulls.  Those are big enough to see and unique to each single individual.”

“I see.  Thank you.”  Robber returned to the others, watching his steps with care.

Jeremy swung his grapnel and released it with precision.  The hook sailed up over the top of the old stonework and clattered on the opposite side. He gave several experimental tugs on the line.

Turning to Sehang Shu, he gave her a hug.  “I will see you on the other side, Shu.”

With some humor, she replied, “Of the trap, Jeremy.  Not the other Other Side!”

Jeremy wrapped the line securely about his hoof and swung out, over the yawning abyss.

He had to lift his hooves some to clear the stones on the other edge of the ancient trap.  Expertly, he set his hooves and caught himself. Searching about a little, he found a loose stone that had dropped to the causeway surface sometime in the last three thousand years.

Knotting the stone into a secure cage of rope, Jeremy swung it back across the abyss.  Daring Do caught the pendulum of rope and stone.  She gave a tug to be sure that it was still secure and, with the confidence of long experience, she leaped out over the yawning pit of death.

Her landing was assisted by Jeremy.  Soree came next, calling, “Whee!” as if the rope swing was a fair thrill ride!

Sang He caught the swinging stone and called across the gap, “Jeremy, will this be safe for us of herd?”

He called back, “Yes!  It has working load of three tonnes.  That is with a safety factor of two.”  

The big dromedary simply nodded, secured her grip and leaped.  The rest of the herd followed, one by one.  Finally, all that were left was Robber, Overthrow and Tyranny.

Tyranny petulantly demanded, “I want a safety line in case this one breaks!”

Sang He called back derisively, “What?  You weigh over three tonnes?  The way that you eat, I could almost believe that!”

Sehang Shu grinned as she pointed out, “Even if your whole brain was igneous stone, and I am not sure that it is not, you would not weigh that much. Perhaps it is your fear that you cannot grip the rope properly?  It will not be a loss to us if you do fall!”

Robber had been watching how the other ponies and the dromedaries had wrapped the rope about their forelegs.  He grabbed Tyranny by the foreleg and cast two quick overlapping loops about it.  Tyranny was about to shake off the rope when Robber and Overthrow shoved him forcefully off the safety of stone.

Screaming, Tyranny swung out over the spikes at the pit’s bottom!

The whole herd stood back aloof and offered no assistance.  Daring Do and Jeremy caught his flailing hind legs and pulled Tyranny to safety.

Robber showed Overthrow how the loops were properly done.  With some trepidation, he swung across to safety, assisted in his landing by Daring Do and Jeremy.

As Robber made his swing, Sehang Shu led Kanya Ama in helping to catch him.  As she set him safely onto solid stone, Sehang Shu said, “You keep poor company but have earned our respect. YOU have welcome in our camp.”

Robber bowed the bow of an inferior to a person of importance and replied, “This one is most grateful for your respect.  I shall try to uphold your good opinion.”

Tyranny, looking back saw the impossible.  The causeway was fully intact again. He pointed and exclaimed, “We had no need of that deadly risk!  All we had to do was wait!”

Daring Do actually rolled on the stone, laughing.  When she got herself under control, she said, “It would have stayed down as long as we were there!  It is a trap operated by magic!”

Tyranny scoffed, “True magic dies with the pony that cast it!  This is thousands of years old!”

Wearing the most condescending expression possible, Sehang Shu crouched to his level to look Tyranny in the eye.  Patting him on the top of he head, she said, “Dung Beetle, trivial pony cast magic, it is true, dies with the pony.  This was cast by OUR ancestors.  It appears to have slipped your notice that WE ARE NOT PONIES.  Our magic WORKS.”

Chuckling, she turned her back on the fuming Tyranny.

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#DARING DO AND THE ADVENTURE OF THE X'IBIAN VASE #Part 19 of 21 #MLP Fan Fiction #Written by De Writer and Carmen Pondiego