#FUCK OFF. SIR.

[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.

[taterdraws]

the hero of this page is emily taking no shit

[luckyjorabbit]

Obsessed w Doffy’s sunglasses/googles combo so I had to draw somethin with it but then wani too <3

[kookoofufu]

One piece fans are great cause no matter who you are, where you come from, what your age, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status is, 1 of these 4 middle aged men will inevitably become your blorbo. Margaritaville uncle, big titty mob boss, morticia addams, or assigned clown from birth. They're all hot, homeless and obsessed with a teenage boy. The world's worst polycule. Choose wisely.

[butdaddyilovehimmm]

Fellas, is it normal for a boss to get annoyed at their associate for calling another man "Sir"?

[trickstarbrave]

the elder scrolls series ultimately is pro imperialism and colonialism as another post on here said but its also kinda weird how in morrowind the guys of the empire like. totally suck but there is this implicit belief that the empire is still good and full of good guys and you have to side with them morally when you are quite literally coerced into it

the other games dismiss this or downplay it or outright erase it. but morrowind was like. rly weird in that sense. where i cant tell if the person who wrote those things in was aware of how pro-imperialist the game is and was trying to subtly critique it or if they were just clueless and thought it made the empire more badass

for starters you're a prisoner released and pardoned only because the emperor wants to use you as a political pawn to destabilize a country. when you are set free in a hostile country you follow what is familiar to you and what is asked of you, ending up in the service of caius who then implicates you in serious crimes while tasking you with getting information. if you go against your orders the blades have proof you committed a felony going into dwemer ruins. or they could publicly expose you for grave robbing with the explicate purpose of helping someone commit necromancy, a serious crime and social taboo in morrowind that would make every dunmer demand your execution. before he then sends you on increasingly dangerous missions to gather intelligence that could seriously land you dead or imprisoned in the ministry of truth for the rest of your life. and they wont care if you die, they'll just find someone else who doesn't know their parents and was born the same month as you.

it doesn't paint them as particularly noble. it shows that they do not care about you, just furthering their own ends. even caius, the guy giving you orders for a good chunk of the msq, has to leave to deal with the succession crisis and he says he cant stay because he has family back home in cyrodiil they can and will threaten.

and yet, you cant oppose them. in fact it shows powerful people who do oppose the empire's rule as terrible, unjust, and literally crazy. if you have more than a passive annoyance towards the empire you are not a freedom fighter but a deranged cultist.

[j00stkl31n]

Have y’all seen this video cuz omfg

[theworldisalways-ending]

whateva more weekly roll posts because i fw this comic heavily... THIS TIME THEY ARE FROM 2024! AND NOT 2021!! the joy of artistic progress!

i kinda regret giving him the Red and Gold helmet color tbh i've always viewed him as like blue and silver but im Trying to make my drawings more Saturated... (ugh) and it didnt look good with blue and silver

i'll probably paint him as blue and silver at a later date who knows.... we'll see B)

[lifemod17]

Trying (and failing) to be normal about the PEELED NECK

📸: adamross

[balis77]

Incredibly funny missing RWBY scene: Ironwood having to tell Winter, completely serious, that Qrow can turn into a bird.

[welivefast-dieyoung]

Andrew Garfield might need to just, stop talking about how he feels about women altogether. Like me, personally, I might need really him to stop. Wtf does he mean 'it was like seeing this ball of life, this kind of life force, this vital i don’t know, primal energy on screen'. Like??? Idk what's worse that he said it, or that its a PERFECT description of how it feels to watch Flo on screen. I've actually genuinely had enough.

[casualavocados]

That's enough! I can't stand you being this drunk. Fuck. Chen Yi— Get up.

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 09

[dimension-20-every-introduction]

Everyone Introduced in Dimension 20′s Mentopolis episode 1

[vaggieslefteye]

HAZBIN HOTEL (2024): 1x04 - "Masquerade"

[cry-ptidd]

I can’t get over how fucking LONG his hair is this is absurd

[lit-in-thy-heart]

trying to read all of malory and quickly coming to this conclusion:

(ID in alt)