#because most of the art i make is some form of abstract/surreal

[miraclesprinkle]

No memories remain of anything before

Yes, I'm with you in a garden of carnage

In a mayhem of trickster and tricked!

[signiorbenedickofpadua]

AI-generated embroidery

I'm starting to see more and more AI generated pics of "embroidered" art popping up, and somehow that makes me even more disappointed than when I spot fake paintings. Of course, a lot of creativity and effort goes into any given form of art, and they all have their limitations which inform the end result, but one can, in theory, paint almost anything (at least in digital painting) while there are far more tangible, physical limitations to what you can make a piece of thread do. One of the best parts of seeing a gorgeous piece of textile/fiber art is admiring how well the artist has been able to cleverly utilise and transcend the limitations of working with thread/fabric/roving/etc., and realising how much time it must have taken.

To then see AI "embroidery" that looks very impressive at first glance before realising that it couldn't possibly be real because it defies the very laws of physics makes me sad. Not only did someone want to generate a piece of art they couldn't be bothered to make themselves, but they then looked at the image the computer spat out and either wasn't interested enough in the craft itself to be able to tell how impossible it was or decided that it didn't matter because the point was just to get some superficially pretty content to share with a mostly unsuspecting audience. It's just... a whole new level of disrespect for a craft that is already niche and underappreciated as it is.

There have been posts pointing out what to look out for in generated "paintings" and "photos", but I have not seen any for embroidery yet, so here's a couple of points off the top of my head:

Can you see individual threads clearly? Do they look consistent in texture (like they're spun the same way). There are a few different types of embroidery thread which are spun in different ways and from different materials, but if it looks like one type of thread was used and the threads still look inconsistent, that's a tell.

If the piece seems to be mixed media (e.g featuring beads or fabric appliqué etc.), do the added materials look realistic? Can you guess at what they're made of or how they may have been attached without the use of sorcery? I have seen a few examples of what looks like a cluster of beads at first glance, but when looking closer they've turned out to be very surreal in shape and get progressively less realistic and more abstract the smaller they get. Then there have been details which I've tried and utterly failed to imagine what material they could even be made from, like decorative vines/borders that look more like 3D-printed plastic than thread or metal wire or anything you might expect to find in an embroidery, even with creative material choices.

Does the motif look very three-dimensional? There are a number of ways to create 3D embroidery, but they all have to follow the laws of physics. Where are those threads going? Do they just end randomly? Does it look like a bunch of normal embroideries stuck on top of each other with no plausible edges or methods of attachment?

I've seen at least one example where most of the image was trying to look like photorealistic embroidery, but then there were a few details that simply looked photorealistic as in, "Wait, half of that bird looks embroidered, and half of it just looks like a photo of a real bird?"

As in other forms of AI art, look at details which you think you know what they ought to look like - especially in parts of the work that are out of focus or far from the center, those tend to be less realistic. If, at first glance, something in the background looks like a rose, look again and ask yourself, "Is that really what a rose looks like, even stylised? Why does that petal look more like a weird tentacle? These shapes make no sense. Was the artist just clumsy and made a mistake, or was it designed like that by a computer?"

Humans like symmetry. If there's a border or something which looks like it ought to feature repeating patterns but turns out to just be abstract shapes without any sort of pattern to it, then be suspicious. Same thing goes for motifs which look like they're supposed to consist of a perfectly mirrored right and left part but have unexpected inconsistencies (say, a butterfly or a crown, for example).

Finally, as always: is there a source in the caption? Does it say something like, "[Title of the piece/description of the motif] by [artist], embroidery thread and [beads/metal wire/leather appliqué/whatever fun material]"? Is there a caption at all? If not, there's a tiny chance that the artist just posted it themselves without a caption, but it's much more likely that it's either reposted stolen art or AI art that wants to pass under the radar, or even stolen AI art (if, indeed, one can steal something that was created by a computer based on other stolen art to begin with).

Okay, rant over. Go forth and look a bit closer at images of embroidery in future! You'll either discover that it's an AI piece, or you'll get the pleasure of really taking in the cool details and techniques used by a skilled, real-life fiber artist!

[joshithekitsune]

Hehehe... he's so cute. :3c

Also, these are my close besties: @itsavee4117 @bankobuzzy @ilovedimentio @doodmannboi (Her Tumblr doesn't work properly but if you want to know her go find her Instagram, it's Doodmannboi1). ^^

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I'll be posting mainly about;

- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

- Super Paper Mario

- Paper Mario⁶⁴

- Ren & Stimpy

- Kirby Right Back At Ya!

- Rayman

- Other Disney related stuff

I'm sort of a multifandom blog. :/

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Before you go off wondering this blog is 13+ to 16+ depending on the content. It's either suggestive/violent or crude humor. (Perhaps artistic nudity). Some of my art may not be suitable for younger audiences.

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My Discord name is @Joshithefuckedupbitch

My Instagram name @ Joshithekitsune

One thing you should know about me is I am a moderate. You don't have to like me, that's valid!👍🏻

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Before you interact with me, I'm on the spectrum, ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Please be careful to what you say to me. I don't always know what I did or say. I'm doing my best to not be an asshole. And I can be easily paranoid. My sense of humor and swearing may come off as crass and blunt. Be warned.

My other disorders (not fake already been diagnosed): depression, ADD (another form of ADHD), dysgraphia, dyscalcula

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My headcanons, AUs, and opinions maybe different from yours. If you don't have anything positive to say about it, just scroll away.

I do mild critiques on Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, so uh, yeah.

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I do free art requests, (mostly Mario related things but other media is fine, too).

Will draw: fanart, anthro art, simple mechanics, semi realism, surrealism, abstract, suggestive stuff.

Will not draw: straight up NSFW (I will when I'm 18, I promise) fetishes, hyper realism, complicated mechanics, hate art.

Even if the art request is sanitary, I have every right to reject that art request.

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DNI PROSHIPPERS, PEDOPHILES, NECROPHILES, ZOOPHILES, MISOGYNISTS, PRO AI (ART), (TOXIC) LGBTQAI2s+ DISCOURSE AND OTHER BASIC CRITERIA. this doesn't mean I dislike LGBT people, I just don't like people who're extremists. will pull out my rifle if you don't scram. (To put it lightly the block/report button). Most of all do be civil.

This is a welcoming place for LGBT people but don't call me "transphobic" or any type of "phobic" for having a different opinion. I happen to be a bisexual person so don't put your panties in a knot just because I disagree with you. Yep, I'm an old fart! 💨

Also, don't send me any death threats into my ask box. Or you'll be permanently blocked. Sorry folks you can't be anonymous, obviously.

This is VERY important: Gaza and Palestine blogs, DON'T FOLLOW ME OR ASK ME. I refuse to participate in this political movement/trend. Especially the propaganda that has been going on for a while. I'm very neutral from both sides. This doesn't make me a bad person. It's a very tricky subject for me to get into.

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Most importantly, enjoy my bullshit! :P

[hoodssery]

Recommending Video Essays #8

In lieu of any thoughts on video essays I'm gonna recommend an album, but not change the title because I think it's funny to mislead people.

Recommendation: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is an album that I can almost guarantee that you've at least heard of if you've spent enough time on the internet to be a part of the few people to see this post any time in the next six months. It's an album that gained a shocking amount of reverence in the late-aughts and 2010s, and has remained a cultural touch stone for people who's online activity descends, in some form, from boards like /mu/ and websites like RateYourMusic. It's an album that's filled with words that form barley intelligible surreal paintings for your ears. An album, filled with buzzing guitars that push the limits of whatever cheap equipment the album was recorded on. An album that very clearly push the limits of front man Jeff Magnum's vocals for a majority of the track list. An album I would guess most people (myself included) have to listen to at least 10 times before really understanding what it's even about. It's also proof that sometimes the most pretentious, annoying parts of the internet are right.

Listening to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as many times as I have, I have come to the conclusion that you just have to listen to it at least once. So for those who haven't listened to it, I implore you to listen to the album, look at the cover art for the 40 minute run time, and just visualize. If I was reading this right now, I might be turned off by that ask, because assigning homework is a really annoying thing to do when recommending an album that's supposed to be great. But, if you're interested enough to read the rest of this, and you haven't listened to the album before, you should listen to it.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the most fucked up albums I've ever listened to in my life. It is also really hauntingly beautiful. While there are certain ideas about the album, what that idea is used for I think is probably going to be different from person to person. This is usually a down fall of media in my opinion, because what was originally intended gets largely lost in abstraction, thus making that underlying thing that the themes all wrap around, generally unknowable. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is still legible, even where the lyrics of the album suggests it's not.

From my point of view the album is mostly about faith, in the spiritual sense. What drives us as people to have a faith? The conclusion that the album very loosely comes too, is that it's an answer for feeling used. King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1, the first track on the album, explores the start of the cycle that leads to both faith and feeling used. Just as the lyrics point to in the abstract telling of sex, the two characters of the song use each other and “learn what each other's bodies were for,” just as they would “lay and learn” from the unhealthy and abusive relationship their parents left out for their children. This continues further into the next track, King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3, where just as their father dreamed of all the ways to die, they're left waiting for the salvation of Jesus, entirely separated from the world, and using their mother as a guide. I guarantee that after listening to this album, you have a different take on just these two first songs. But if you've been paying attention to the lyrics there are absolute core ideas that translate between your read and my read on the songs. This is what truly makes this album great to me. Managing to make a very thoughtful and human story through absolutely insane abstraction, while making all the potential thoughts of the listener coherent with both the album and other peoples thoughts. And that example I gave is just the first two songs. I'm not even going to take the time to delve into where ideology and faith thematically intersect in Communist Daughter, or where the tackling of the separation between life and death in religion separates the character's own life in Two Headed Boy, or all the other essay length topics present in the album.

The only downside to the album is that you'll probably have to listen to it a lot to get the bigger picture, and fully form your own thoughts and ideas on the entire album. Fortunately, this album boasts incredibly beautiful songs that are still ringing in my head to this day.

In my opinion, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the oh so few albums out there that completely lives up to the hype it's given. There isn't a single down moment or worse song on the album, and each song (excluding the instrumental track The Fool) has enough to chew on for years of listening. Genuinely a modern masterpiece.

[bryan-ke]

Unbelievable

Unbelievable

Unbelievable means not able to be believed, not like it's true. So great or extreme as to be difficult to believe; extraordinary. Unbelievable can sometimes mean that something is so good or amazing that it's unbelievable, but sometimes it can also express that something is so bad that it's unbelievable.

When it means good, I think it might be similar to words like amazing. Because they both need to be good enough for the audience to give an exclamation of admiration.

I searched for paintings that could be called "unbelievable". Firstly, there is the art of illusion. The creator creates an illusion by combining different figures and scenes, for example, the audience can see a face in the picture, but this face may be composed of two character, and the nose of the figure may be a house.

There are also "unbelievable" paintings, which often have a very varied range of colours and don't look like they exist in reality, but more like a dream. The color makes these art become "unbelievable".

I also searched for "unbelievable" statues. This is Damien Hirst's Demon with Bowl, a headless statue holding a bowl in its hand and covered with reefs and coral. The shape looks very strange and mysterious, and really gives people a feeling of "unbelievable".

There are also statues like this. The combination of figures and nature, is similar to the first example I searched for.

Mother Nature, Canada. Picture: Alamy

And then there are the strange statues. Most of these statues are called "unbelievable" and I think it's because they're very creative, they come from the whims of the designers. They are shaped in strange ways, and most of them blend in with the surrounding scenery in a clever way.

In Shanghai, China, there is the Shanghai Tower. It is famous all over the world for its asymmetrical shape. It is also an "unbelievable" building. It is "unbelievable" because it breaks the normal shape of the building. So "unbelievable" may also mean breaking the rules and innovation.

In New Zealand, one of the landscapes that is called "unbelievable" is Lake Tekapo, which is famous for its amazing seasonal Lupinus. Just seeing the pictures is enough to make me marvel. "Unbelievable" needs to be amazing.

New Zealand also has the Moeraki Boulders on the Koekohe beach, these boulders on the beach are formed by nature and are so "perfect" that you can't believe they are nature's work.

This website is a collection of "unbelievable" products. Most of them are cleaning products. Why do cleaning products have anything to do with "unbelievable"? I think most of these products are used to clean things that are hard to clean. People find it difficult to clean these things in their lives without the help of these products. If these products can easily help people to clean these difficult or troublesome items, then it will be "unbelievable". So "unbelievable" can also be something that is uncommon, or something that can be very convenient.

Netflix has a programme called 'amazing interiors', which takes people on a tour of all sorts of 'unbelievable' interiors. Most of them are amazing interiors, and some of them are great uses of space. So I think "unbelievable" can also be a surprisingly reasonable design. In lighting design, I think it can be the combination of colour and timing.

I think these are very similar to mesmerising and surreal and uncanny.

So I guess I could probably summarise these as "abstract". Abstract Art is a style of art in which shapes, designs, textures and colours are represented in a way that may seem unrealistic but emphasises mood or emotion. Abstract art is characterised by the use of geometric lines and shapes and bright, bold colours.

There is also "Amazing". To be unbelievable, it needs to be amazing, in addition to not looking real and being very abstract.

At the same time, I also searched some academic research, and most of these articles with "unbelievable" in the title or content are a "gimmick". The contents of these articles include all kinds of things, including reports of murders, the victory of the underdog team in a football or baseball game, and some experts' predictions about the future of sustainable energy.

So I think "unbelievable" is a very broad adjective with a very broad definition. For this project, my understanding is that "unbelievable" is first and foremost about wowing the audience. The colour palette can be vivid, using yellow, pink and blue if possible, and the Timing needs to be well coordinated, with the right lights in the right places. The dynamics of the lights could be varied, perhaps with a rotating effect. If I can make the audience feel amazing, great, then it is basically "unbelievable".

References

Milian, J. (2018). “It still feels unbelievable”: Vigil held for Riviera man slain in West Palm. Tribune Content Agency LLC.

Khanam, T., Rahman, A., Mola-Yudego, B., Pelkonen, P., Perez, Y., & Pykäläinen, J. (2017). Achievable or unbelievable? Expert perceptions of the European Union targets for emissions, renewables, and efficiency. Energy Research & Social Science, 34, 144–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2017.06.040

Pope, L. (2019). “It feels unbelievable”: Ryan DeVries hits winning homer as Warren tops St. Viator for regional title. Chicago Tribune (Online).

I feel unbelievable. I’ve definitely been blessed.’ ; EDDIE MURRAY: HALL OF FAME: FINAL Edition. (2003). The Sun (Baltimore, Md. : 1837).

[oswald-privileges]

ALL RIGHT BUT YOU ASKED FOR IT

Power of Three as a series is just. full of weaknesses, most of which come down to poor continuity and structure. I'm not gonna try and fix ALL of those, bc that'd be laborious as hell, but I will pick out things that I feel are the most egregious as case studies.

What Po3 does have, tho, is an absolutely shining strength in the concept of its three main characters. After twelve books of Blandly Heroic Protagonist Syndrome, Jayfeather is an absolute godsend. He's angry! He's rude! He's unhappy! He's not nice. I Love Him And He's My Son. Lionblaze has his invincible pride (hah) and emergent bloodlust, and Hollyleaf has her moral absolutism and certainty. These are good starting points for characters. Sadly, the lack of continuity undermines what could have been three really good character arcs.

So! I present to you:

HOW TO MAKE "WARRIORS: THE POWER OF THREE" NOT COMPLETELY SUCK ACCORDING TO MY PERSONAL TASTE; A NON-EXHAUSTIVE, NON-CONSECUTIVE LIST BY ME

ONE

- Have there be a persistant, overarching series threat. Sol is a character with amazing villain potential who does literally nothing except hang around, and do exactly 2 Bad Things completely off-screen. This Is Not Good.

- Instead, have him be present from the second book onwards- initially introduced as a friendly but enigmatic outsider who is slowly revealed across the series to be a complete black hole of a personality, a social parasite quietly rearranging whatever community he's a part of to just-so-happen to benefit him as much as humanly possible. His "preach individualism not starclan" methods are not so much values as one strategy out of many. (to those who know me- yes i have a type. no i will not apologise.)

- Maybe his ultimate goal is to dissolve and centralise the clans or something so that he can live out his life as a political puppetmaster in all the cat-luxury he likes. idk it's hard to imagine overall stakes for this rewrite BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL DOESN'T HAVE ANY

TWO

- For gods sake you don't have a series based on the premise of "the main characters develop super powers" and then only have the second power confirmed by the end of the fourth book. I understand the first book mostly focusing on Jayfeather- his powers are obvious from the start, he's got the strongest personality of the three, he gets access to most of the prophecy plot stuff because of them. But you NEED to have the other two show an interest in something concrete happening to them beyond that, and you need to at least hint towards the other two having something unique to them even if nobody clocks it yet.

- Have Jayfeather tell his siblings about the prophecy by the end of book two at the latest. The amount of time he spends noodling around not sharing it with them is inexcusable. It's not that it's out of character for him to hang onto a secret for a bit, it's just that there's no point and it slows everything down. It would be equally in character for him to go to his siblings and be like "look, i'm SPECIAL. well you as well but ALSO ME". Boy starts off as desperate for recognition, what can I say

THREE

- Have Jayfeather discover that StarClan don't withhold signs or information on purpose for the sake of "building courage and faith" or whatever nonsense. Seeing and communicating the future is metaphysically very difficult, so interpreting signs and messages is a genuine skill, or even an art. The cats of StarClan, however, really are just ghosts, much more similar to living cats than the currently living believe. This is the impotus for Jayfeather's discarding of his reverence for StarClan, which remains consistent throughout the series.

- Have Hollyleaf and Jayfeather both still change their cat careers in the first book, but put place more attention on the fact that they basically switched jobs. Have a scene where they end up yelling at each other, because can't the other see how lucky they have it? The tension breaks when they realise they've both lost something important to them- Jayfeather his chance to prove he's as capable as a sighted cat, and Hollyleaf her path to helping her clan in the way she thinks is best. They commiserate together, and reluctantly promise to do the best they can with their lots, so they don't waste the path the other wishes they'd taken. This closeness is eroded over the series as they disagree more and more on the subject of StarClan and its role in their moral choices and obligations.

FOUR

- Speaking of Hollyleaf! I nearly threw my phone across the room when the first Omen of the Stars book claimed that Hollyleaf "worked so hard to discover her power to help her clan". Where, Ms Erins??? I would have LOVED to have seen that!! Hollyleaf expresses absolutely no concern over the details of what power she has/will develop, and only has a couple of scenes even touching on her ambitions to help her clan. She has some vague ideas about becoming leader and like one scene where she gets to do some leadery things, but that never gets followed up on. What does happen is that the whole "warrior code" thing becomes more and more a part of her personality (for no clear reason) until she snaps.

- Hollyleaf going off the deep end is something I wanted so badly to get into and be moved by, because I could see where it comes from! Her moral certainty is fascinating, especially since it's based in something as abstract as the warrior code- which, when you think about it, isn't really... anything. There's no concrete set of rules that make it up, no traditional wording or cat philosophers, not even any fables. It's a handful of agreed-upon, common sense rules- don't cross boundaries, don't take prey that isn't yours, respect your ancestors, and don't murder. That's it!

- So, combining the above points, I think Hollyleaf not being one of the Three should stay, but both the audience and the characters are given good reason to believe she is. By around the third volume, make it so that Hollyleaf has found that her power is to get cats to "Do The Right Thing"- i.e. what she wants them to do. She sneaks off often to see Sol, who teachs her how to use this power. Her siblings are concerned about this new power, having already gotten a glimpse at what Sol can do, but she's confident that she can only use this power for good. Volume-specific plot happens, Sol manipulates her into causing him to win, she is shocked and horrified, and vows to stick ridgedly to what she knows is right i.e. The Warrior Code

- However, the more fervently she tries to stick to this abstract idea, the less it gives her results, the more her power seems to be failing. Believing that StarClan is taking her power away from her, she becomes caught up in a faith-guilt spiral that puts her in the position to snap at the end of the series. By that point it's clear to her siblings that Hollyleaf has no power- she was just very, very good at persuading people to do what she wanted.

FIVE

- Lionblaze is a girl now because I Said So. This Cat Is Trans And There's Nothing You Can Do About It.

- Her relationship with Heathertail stays the same- childhood sweethearts who are torn apart as they begin to understand the nature of the societal divides that exist between them.

- This can be used to contextualise the whole "half clan/outsider blood" thing as a cultural contradiction. In reality, inter- and outer- clan relationships aren't at all rare. They can't be, otherwise the whole society would be inbred out of existence in like five generations. But if at least one society of humans can spend a good 200 years pretending Sex Is Bad And Sinful Actually then cats can have persistant cat-racism in the face of all logic. Heathertail clocks this contradiction, Lionblaze doesn't.

- Her relationship-to-power arc doesn't need changing all that much either, other than starting much sooner and being more consistent. At first, she's completely overjoyed by her power, since unlike her siblings, it lines up so well with her ambition- become the finest warrior any of the clans have to offer. As the berserker rage aspect becomes more prevelent, she becomes more and more disturbed by the fact that she isn't disturbed by what she can do, and that she doesn't want the escalation of her power to stop.

- Tigerstar still does his thing, but Brambleclaw knows about it. He recognises the signs from when his father used to visit him, and tries to train Lionblaze in his own way. She ends up caught between wanting to be a good warrior, and testing the limits of her power.

SIX

- Jayfeather can stay basically the same because he's my perfect little angy boy and nothing needs to change. His arcs can be strengthened by having a more robust relationship with Yellowfang where they try to out-bitch each other, and coming to terms with his internalised ablism. Maybe he has a chat with Mothwing about faith a couple of times. Him furiously lashing out at being offered help transitions into an acceptence and understanding of his abilities more naturally. He never stops being A Grumpy Old Man.

- All fucking past-lives unexplained time travel goes in the BIN. Doesn't fucking happen. You can have that lore dump sprinkled across the books, or come from going deep into the tunnels and having a surreal meeting. Make it properly eldritch-level scary, shake Jayfeather's confidence in the idea of them being just a bunch of ghosts.

SEVEN

- Have the way Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight present very clearly as parents to the Three be explicitly, textually unusual. One of the things I liked so much about the first series was an almost total lack of emphasis on who was mated with who, and who was related or not. It felt very real to how feral cat colonies form, where raising kittens is a communal job. This gets completely dropped the moment series 2 starts and now the cats have monogamy.

- This emphasis on the family unit and fostering close relationships between parents and kittens is deliberate on the part of both Leafpool and Squirrelflight. Their aim is to cover for Leafpool so she doesn't lose her role as medicine cat- something she already gave up Crowfeather for before she was pregnant.

- In that little bit of backstory, have a robust reason for both Leafpool and Squirrelflight to leave the camp while Leafpool is pregnant and giving birth, possibly one that ties into the present day story in some minor way. I don't know how, it would just make that element of the story a lot more ground than "we left, the kits were born, then we came back and everyone was cool with it"

- When it comes to the "I am Not your mother" reveal, Jayfeather and Lionblaze are confused and hurt that they were lied to, but come to the reasonable conclusion that well, since they were raised mostly by Squirrelflight, saw Leafpool often, and are loved by both, they don't hate her. Lionblaze has something of a crisis over being half-clan, possibly initiating an attempted reunion with Heathertail. Jayfeather is more concerned with how other cats will think it makes him lesser, something he's still sensitive too.

- Hollyleaf, meanwhile, completely fucking snaps at the way her mother Violated Part Of The Code. It's a completely irrational reaction, but expected because she's been growing more and more reliant on The Code for the whole series, and less and less stable in her attempts to aid her clan and train to be its new leader.

- Squirrelflight is the one to murder Ashfur. This is easy to work out while reading- she's literally the only one of the four with a motive who isn't a perspective character. The mystery is less around finding out who did it, and more about why she did it (it's very ambiguous as to whether it was an accident or not). The main tension comes from who finds out when.

- Lionblaze is shocked, awed by how far she'd go to protect the three of them, and reassures her she did the right thing (as a way to salve her own uncertainty over her own longing for violence). Jayfeather makes it all about himself because he's Jayfeather- upset that he didn't know immediately, instead of, you know, figuring it out in a few hours because he can basically read minds. They try their best to hide it from Hollyleaf, who is already rattling around the final volume as a full-on antagonist, but are unsuccessful. This almost costs them something incredibly important- possibly Squirrelflight's life.

EIGHT

- the whole plot with the Tribe Of Rushing Water is a MASSIVE can of worms that could be removed from the series without issue. As it is:

- Characterize the Tribe as uncertain of how to fight other cats, because yes, they haven't had to do this before. DON'T characterise them as pathetic, doing whatever their leader says without thinking, and with ancestors who have Given Up

- Have some of the Tribe be really good at the violence. Worryingly good. Have others be sickened by what they're being asked to do.

- Have some of the clan cats reflect on what they've done. Hollyleaf would be all for introducing this society to jesus The Code, but even she might be horrified at being thanked by a tribe cat who can't wait to get out there and win themselves glory, only to be killed a few hours later

- The Tribe begin a new tradition of marking the walls in the mud they use as camoflage in order to commemorate their battles, and memorialise the fallen. One of the characters reflects on the fact that in a generation or two, the Tribe will feel like it's always been this way. How many of their own traditions- those that feel almost like natural law- started out the same way?

- Have Sol as the leader of the invaders, or maybe having insinuated himself into the tribe as a "mediator" and doing his charismatic cult leader thing.

NINE

- Cinderheart isn't a reincarnation of Cinderpelt. She's just named after her bc Cinderpelt saved her mother from a badger. this is because I think the reincanation thing is stupid and I can't think of a way to make it good.

TEN

- No more using tails as hand gestures like covering people's mouths. Never. None of it. It's expunged from existence.

Disclaimer: I haven't read Omen of the Stars yet, so I can't account for anything that might happen in that series that's grounded in Po3. I'm like... two thirds of the way through the first volume. I'm Not Impressed.

[easthouh]

“The controversial modern art” - an opinion

      While roaming on YouTube in the spring of my free time, I stumbled upon a video from Business Insider. An episode of beloved series “So expensive”, titled “Why Modern Art Is So Expensive”. Allured by an intriguing painting showed in the thumbnail, I decided to spare it a few minutes of my attention. I didn’t expect, at all to become so angry, sad and frustrated. Not at the contents of the video, but at the comments pinned below.      Video had 5.2 mln views, and that one comment had 43K likes. The most liked comment. “I feel bad for all the artists with actual skills and creativity being unnoticed out there”. “The moment you realize that every preschool toddler is an artist with work that can sell for potential millions”. People were hating on the whole genre of art, saying it's not showing a skill, they don't feel anything. It's a waste of someone else's potential, that actual skilled people are doing something else. Said that this art is not beauty (and doesn’t have to be), just money, only made for business (which ofc happens) and thousands of people liked those thickhead comments.      It made me so mad and annoyed. I disagree to believe that it’s thousands of artistically informed people who know their taste. That it’s not because of one eccentric painting they didn't fancy. I don't want to make myself think that. Can't lie to myself that they are not people who, challenged by a Gottlieb painting, declared they hate or not understand modern art.     Modern art branches into impressionism, expressionism, surrealism, abstract art, cubism and many more. Modern art is Van Gogh, Picasso, Salvador Dali, Matisse, Le Corbusier. And “a more demanding for an average consumer, Pollock”, too. It is meant to make an impression, extract a certain set of emotion from the watcher, with putting an emphasis on individual perceptions. This is why modern art is subjective. So many of artists, so different in expression, with artwork so drastically various. With it's many styles, rearranged by hundreds of individuals that create a category of modern art. All passes by, ignored and spit on by a bunch of lazy humans. They make comments about a skill, but ignore the context of the style, history, message, the progression of change an artist went through, the composition, colors, contrasts... So many things, feelings, contents, nuances go by unnoticed after being dumped into a category of “I can’t feel it”. The lack of will to learn, makes a person not have an access to a whole branch of human expression, and that mindset doesn't make space for them to realize that that makes their lives indigent.      People who appreciate art as only worthy, when it’s made with a certain skill to create realistic artwork. In a form of mastery, with pretty, detailed portraits and biblical scenes and other magnificent pieces. It's okay to prefer that, it's great to know this makes you feel the experience, but it's ignorant to say you hate or prefer something when you didn’t ever try to gather the tools to understand the different experience, and you have too little information to make a competent comparison.     I disagree with blind, ignorant denying of a whole spectrum of tools for expressing emotions. I classify style as a form of communication, exactly the same as books are. Because styles in arts are like genres of books. You can't dislike one subgenre, (like vampire-werewolf romance), and declare you don't understand all of the genre (romance). That will make you miss out on “Pride and Prejudice”. Or “Gone With The Wind”. Or “The Notebook”. You block yourself against a wonderful world of art, filled with different sensitivities, various creators. As paintings are like books. And in this artistic modern world, for sure you would find something for yourself. But after being challenged, you resign. That's a lazy habit we are all guilty of, sometimes.     So don’t be an old sponge. Have some mind capability, go read and check, look around, before making an opinion on a non-explored subject. Don’t be a sheep and stay curious. Bitch.

Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak, take something for yourself. btw. Modern art is only a controversial topic because it's misunderstood by a mass of laymen who decided to speak out unasked and uninformed. But, if they want to learn - it’s the best they speak out. Then they shall be informed. Let that sink in. :)

[mikauzoran]

Lukadrien: Your Hands Hold Home: Chapter Ten

@lukadrien-june

Read it on AO3: Your Hands Hold Home: Chapter Ten: Synesthesia

Luka just so happened to be walking by Adrien’s room when, through the open door, he spotted his crush lying on the floor.

“Adrien?! Are you okay?!” he exclaimed as he rushed to Adrien’s side.

Adrien sat up with a jerk, pulling the earbuds out of his ears.

“I’m fine,” he assured, guilt pooling in his gut as he took in the frantic expression on Luka’s face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“No worries,” Luka assured with a sigh of relief, slumping down to the floor beside Adrien. “So long as you’re okay.”

Adrien’s insides twisted into pretzels at the affection shining on Luka’s face.

“What were you up to before I so rudely interrupted?” Luka teased.

“You didn’t interrupt,” Adrien responded hastily.

Luka laughed. “Adrien, I literally did.”

“Well, you weren’t rude about it,” Adrien clarified so that there would be no doubt. “And I was just…”

He bit his lip, squirming as he looked away and lowered his voice. “I was playing a game.”

Luka’s eyebrow arched in interest. “What kind of game?”

Adrien shook his head. “It’s stupid and childish. My father always said—”

Luka reached out and placed his hand on top of Adrien’s.

Adrien looked up in startled surprise.

Luka’s lips spread into a comforting smile. “Don’t talk down about yourself for him while he’s not here to do it. Be nice to yourself, okay?”

Slowly, Adrien began to nod.

“So, what is this game you were playing?” Luka prompted.

Adrien wetted his lips. “When I was little, I used to listen to music and draw the pictures it made me think of. They were lousy drawings, but…”

Luka rolled his eyes. “I’m sure they were fabulous drawings. Anyone who told you otherwise is a jerk.”

That got a laugh of out Adrien. “My father was never very good with children…. I thought it could be fun to play that game again.”

“You’re going to try drawing? That’s a great idea,” Luka encouraged.

“You think?”

Adrien had thought so, but he couldn’t shake the need to get approval and validation from someone. Years of being told that he had nothing to contribute beyond his pretty face had eroded his confidence in himself.

Luka nodded. “Yeah, definitely. Just let me know if you need to go to the art supply store. I’ll go with you and help carry stuff.”

A wide grin stretched across Adrien’s face. “Thank you. I really appreciate you always being so supportive.”

“But of course. You deserve support, and I’m happy to give it…. So, what are you going to draw? What are you listening to?” Luka pressed, trying to draw Adrien out a little more so that he could continue encouraging Adrien’s ideas.

Adrien’s cheeks glowed like morganite as he looked down at the floorboards and mumbled, “I was actually playing a version of the game where I pretend I have synesthesia. I learned about people who see sounds as colours when I was nine, and I was really fascinated by it, so I started to pretend that I had synesthesia,” he explained.

“I did a lot of abstract drawings, and Father hated them because he hates all art done after the 1880’s, but…I had a lot of fun coming up with what colours the songs were, so…that’s what I was doing when you came in,” Adrien continued bashfully, still half afraid that Luka was going to tell him he was being silly. “I was listening to Yoshimatsu Takashi’s And Birds are Still… and pretending to have synesthesia.”

“May I join you?” Luka inquired, seeming completely in earnest.

“You want to?” Adrien blinked in surprise.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind. It sounds like fun,” Luka replied with a shrug.

“I’d be happy to have some company,” Adrien returned with a pleased blush and a smile to match as he got to his feet.

He tipped his head towards his bed. “If it’s okay, I think the bed would be a lot more comfortable than the floor.”

“Sure,” Luka agreed, following Adrien’s lead and lying down beside him.

Adrien offered Luka one of his earbuds and started the song over once they were both settled.

Luka tried not to betray how their location and position was affecting him, but it was difficult when he was in Adrien’s bed where even the sheets smelled like his crush and Adrien was snuggled up shoulder to shoulder with him.

Thankfully, the music provided a welcome distraction.

It started off mellow and fairly static before the strings suddenly began to move and take on a soaring life of their own. Long, graceful passages seemed to evoke birds in flight, moving like a team of synchronized swimmers through the air.

“This song always makes me think of pastel colours,” Adrien whispered. “It’s really subtle and sparse in places, but even the simplicity and occasional scarcity of sound adds to the piece.”

“It’s like a Chinese painting,” Luka mused. “Like those ones done on wall scrolls in black and white. The artists get a lot of milage out of a monochrome palette and simple lines that combine to form impressive landscapes.”

“Yeah,” Adrien hummed, closing his eyes and picturing it. “The empty spaces are just as important as the places there are ink…. This song is like a wall scroll painting of birds in flight…only done in pastel yellows and greens and blues.”

“It’s beautiful,” Luka whispered as the music quietened and returned to the soft, still sounds at the beginning.

“…Want to listen to another one?” Adrien asked hopefully.

Luka was content to lie there with Adrien and listen to music as long as Adrien desired, but he didn’t want to let on how eager he was.

He pretended to be impartial concerning the outcome. “Yeah, if you want, I’m game.”

“Cool…. How about…this one? It’s by Missy Mazzoli. It’s called Vespers for Violin, and I, personally, think it’s really neat. There’s only one violin playing, but it sounds like two because they play the audio from the performer again delayed a second or two, so it’s like the soloist has a musical shadow,” Adrien explained with enthusiasm.

“That’s such a cool idea,” Luka hummed, quickly getting sucked into the music as it started.

“…I think this one is a kind of surreal painting,” Adrien evaluated a minute or two into the piece. “Maybe even abstract.”

“I could see that,” Luka agreed. “Definitely in dark, rich colours. Maybe, like, deep purple and crimson?”

“Yeah,” Adrien chuckled, snuggling closer and resting his head on Luka’s shoulder. “Dark, but not bleak. The sounds are kind of creepy but…sort of…majestic?”

“It reminds me of a crumbling castle out on the Scottish moors with lots of mist or something,” Luka added.

Adrien giggle-snorted. “Yeah. I get that vibe too. Lots of spooky mist. And whales.”

“Whales?” Luka chuckled, caught by surprise.

“Whales,” Adrien confirmed. “My drawing is definitely going to have majestic whales floating around the ruins of an old castle on the Scottish moors in the mist.”

“That could be an album cover,” Luka remarked, suddenly getting ideas. “You’re a genius.”

“Am not,” Adrien laughed.

Luka’s body sang at the vibration.

“You most definitely are,” he pressed.

Adrien turned his head, hiding his face in Luka’s shoulder. “Okay, but I’m only agreeing with you because my self-esteem is really poor, and I need the validation.”

“I’m more than happy to give it to you. You deserve it,” Luka stressed, hoping that Adrien would one day believe him.

“…Thanks,” Adrien whispered, voice brittle and on the edge of tears.

“You’re welcome.” Luka leaned in and gave Adrien’s hair a nuzzle.

They stayed like that in silence until the song came to an end.

“…Would you want to do another one?” Adrien inquired tentatively, not wanting the moment to end.

“Yeah. This is fun,” Luka agreed, thinking much the same thing.

[simprisottowriter]

Helloo again can you write some fugo headcanons ? Some cute and funny like gyros would be very nice UwU

   Wonderful to see you again, UwU anon! Your character choices for headcanons are so lovely! Fugo is multidimensional, well-written with such depth, even if his appearance in the series was short. He deserves more attention and love!! ♡♡ Let's shower this boy with appreciation, with these headcanons! 

°☆ Personality, Private Life & Relationships ☆°

◇ Treasures cute things, like charms or pendants. To him, their monetary value doesn’t matter. Memories are what make him keep anything close to his heart. Hidden in plain sight is his keychain, a small red puppet charm that decorates his keys. Cutesy and delicately worn by time as all the other small trinkets he owns, that remind him of the nicer moments of his childhood.

◇ Might look very unapproachable, but once someone gets close to him, they see a completely different side of him. Thoughtful, tender and sympathetic wouldn’t be the words someone would use to describe Fugo the first time they met him, but would definitely be the first words that come to mind after being near him for a while. In his private life, he would be a bit strict, but very understanding and well-mannered. He is so professional at everything he does, that it is pretty impressive.

◇ Incredibly good at card games, board games and anything that requires strategy. Wins most of the times. He doesn’t even try hard to win anymore, since he only plays with Mista and Narancia, as everyone else in Bruno’s team is too busy. They both just get confused at the game rules and do anything else than play properly, as Fugo just stares deadpan at them till they follow the rules. He can't help but laugh along with them with their antics. Even if he feels like he is babysitting them most of the time, he loves them much.

◇ Acts like he doesn’t find them even a teensy bit funny, but he adores puns and silly jokes! Tries to act serious all the time, that it’s so out of character when he secretly laughs at any ridiculous joke Narancia and Mista say. 

◇ Loves art! In all its forms. But mostly adores painting. You could probably show him a painting, and no matter how famous or not it is, he would recognize the artist solely from the art style. Bruno’s Passione considers it some sort of game to continually show random pictures of art to Fugo to recognize them, till he either gets angry or they get bored. Did I say that he loves abstract art and surrealism?

◇ When no one is around, Fugo passes his time like he always used to, by playing the piano. It is one of the most wonderful moments, that his teammates treasure, to listen to the piano playing while unlocking the door, as they return from a difficult mission. Brings the serenity back to their hearts. Makes them forget for a moment about their stressful work. Would also play soft Brahms and Bach music pieces, to ease insomnia and make a sleepless night bearable ♡

◇ More academically skilled than socially skilled, but he is trying his best! Small talk isn’t his greatest thing, but he is the best person to have around for deep conversations or debating. He is knowledgeable about many subjects and could keep the conversation interesting for hours with his facts and ideas.

◇ Loves it when he can share his interests and personal thoughts, without being ignored or belittled. Values trust more than anything.

◇ And once he finds someone he truly trusts, Fugo’s anger and fear will subside. Most notably, this would be easy to recognize not only from Fugo himself, but from Purple Haze. The stand would appear more often, but this time, more controllable, more tame and less dangerous than before, till it is completely harmless on its own. And not only that, but once Fugo manages to fully control Purple Haze, its performance and power would be unmatchable!

◇ Appreciates it with all his heart when someone helps him with his tasks. Even if he won’t admit it or even does all his chores by himself just to prove that he is very independent, he really wants a helping hand. Even if it is just staying by his side. Staying up late to aid his studying or helping him with daily problems of small importance are favors he would definitely return in the future. Acts of service and some fine quality time are a must for Fugo ♡

◇ Cleaning around the house or doing chores might be a hassle for many, but he actually likes them. Once he finds a place that he feels safe enough to settle in, that he can call his own, he is going to take care of it as much as he could.

◇ Gets disappointed in himself when he does absentmindedly a calculation wrong. It has stuck with him that he must excel in everything, and thus criticizes every small mistake he does. He’s a perfectionist to the core. Even if others around him understand and immediately forgive him, his expectations for himself have been raised too high, from all the events that took place in his past. It's difficult for him to loosen up.

◇ Emanates a soft scent of old books, perfume and a flowery aroma of freshly cleaned clothing. Feels just like home.

◇ Knitting and sewing are some of his favorite hobbies. They keep him at ease and make his intense anger disappear. He has a collection of small plushies he made himself. Refuses to show them, since he doesn’t believe they look well-made or worth showing, but in reality they are some of the cutest plushies you've ever seen!

◇ Has collections of worn-out books. With covers discolored and tattered from hours of reading next to the light of the nightstand. Their pages are slightly crumpled all over the edges, and remained as such, even if he constantly tried to straighten them out. Their white color, along with the letters, have been slightly faded and tinted brown. His bookshelves are filled with them. Upon inspection, you can recognize which book he is reading, even if most of them have a bookmark sticking out of them. His current read always has his most favorite handmade bookmark, a special request from a store in Naples.

◇ Won't be the person to approach others, but wait till someone else does the first move. He doesn’t believe he is worth someone's time, thus refuses to start anything. Usually never takes the lead, since every time he made the choice to stand up for himself, it cost him happy times of his life that he couldn't replace.

◇ Needing glasses won't be something he would admit. Even if his eyesight isn't that bad, he has always a pair of white-framed glasses in his pocket when he needs to read something up close. Wears them often when he is reading on his own, and not really in public.

◇ Has learned enough about cooking to be able to live on his own, but he is especially great at brewing tea or coffee. These are his go-to drinks, depending on the time of day or his schedule. Also loves sweets way too much!

◇ Refuses to realize that he deserves love and much, much caring. Really undervalues himself. 

◇ His whole body would probably freeze if someone held his hand. Mainly, he wouldn’t know how to react and would be very embarrassed about it. Though, he is so touch and attention starved that even a small movement that shows care and love would stay in his mind forever. A hug would send him. He wouldn't probably know how to articulate a sentence after that.

◇ Though, he flinches very easily when someone attempts to get close to him or touch him, like with a friendly pat on a back or his head. Not only that, but his speech becomes weaker and faster than before, he keeps looking away and his breath cannot regulate. Repressed memories of painful times flow back again. He cannot realize the person he has in front of him doesn't want to hurt him, and his body instinctively is on guard. The flinching stops when he is fully used to someone's presence, and trusts them with all his heart. He is worth the patience someone could give him, since he is a sweetheart!

◇ You can notice when he is in high spirits, since he hums joyfully the melody of his favorite songs while doing rather mundane tasks. At first it is very unnoticeable, but after you learn his behavior, you understand what makes him happy, even if he doesn't show it. Turns really bashful and tries to hide his embarrassment by looking away and sighing, when someone recognizes which song he is humming. He holds his personal interests (such as his music taste) very close to him and keeps them hidden, so it's a surprise to him to find someone that tries to break the walls he has built up. Oh, and since I mentioned his music taste, he would probably be a fan of rock, but I believe he would like any song that he just likes the vibe of it.

◇ As roughly explained above, a very private person. About his thoughts, past life and his current feelings. Takes a while for him to fully open up to someone. And even if he finds someone he trusts, he has a hard time letting all his emotions out. Knowing himself and how his feelings burden him, he refuses to let others know he truly feels. Repressing all his emotions, just because he doesn't want his loved ones to feel the pain he does. Deeply cares, even if he hides it under layers of anger. Caring and strong, as always.

[doomonfilm]

Ranking : David Lynch (1946-present)

Film is definitely an art, and yet, it seems to be distinct from other forms of visual art such as painting or sculpture.  Perhaps that is what makes David Lynch such a fascinating director, as he has the ability to tap into the surreal stimulus often found in the most famous paintings and transform it into brain-bending moments on film.  Whether it his fear-fueled fascination with fatherhood present in his debut film Eraserhead, his ruminations on Hollywood society present in Inland Empire, or any of the stopping points in-between, it’s safe to say that David Lynch sits in the rarified air of directors like Ingmar Bergman, Alejandro Jodorowsky and the other few who can turn film into something deeper, more visceral and more meaningful.

With one of the most unique collections of films credited to his name, including a couple of curveballs in the early portion of his career, ranking the films of David Lynch is as perplexing as it is entertaining... so, without further ado, we attempt to climb that hill.  I’m not even going to pretend that I can break down all of the symbolism and meanings of these films, but I can give my honest opinion about them.

10. Dune (1984) For a film that is supposed to be such a science-fiction gem, it’s a bit funny that nobody can seem to make a coherent, entertaining version of Dune.  After nearly 15 years in pre-production hell (and three iconic names attached to versions of the production), the film landed in the laps of Dino De Laurentiis and Ridley Scott, but after another extended period delaying production, Scott bowed out, leaving the door open for David Lynch to step in.  For what it’s worth, he did bring a huge list of names to the project, but the fact that the directing credit for Dune belongs to the throwaway pseudonym Alan Smithee should clue in any perceptive viewer that the project may not be one that Lynch cares to stand behind.

9. Inland Empire (2006) David Lynch isn’t the type of director that revisit ground he’s already covered, which is what makes Inland Empire (the seemingly final film from Lynch) such a confusing choice.  Had this film not been released after a five year gap between it and the stellar Mullholland Drive, another film that focuses on the dark underbelly of Hollywood, fame and the tolls of the acting craft, perhaps it would hit a little different to me.  That’s not to say that the film isn’t good, as it is definitely a slight adjustment from the style that Lynch basically trademarked, but when a director like Lynch experiments on what feels like general principle, it makes experiments that feel like a step backward lose impact.

8. Lost Highway (1997) Technically, you could count all of the Lynch “mystery” films as noir in some capacity, but Lost Highway feels like a direct skewing of what we know as the traditional noir structure.  At its core, the film is a simple murder mystery, but it doesn’t take long for the Lynch signatures to begin appearing in every form from a mysterious, unnamed character to our protagonist literally changing into another person with no base explanation provided.  Perhaps the latter choice was a look into split personalities and the disassociated nature that can come with brutal crimes... as I said before, I’m not here to try and decode the David Lynch mystery.  While Lost Highway serves as a good entry point into the David Lynch catalog, it sits on the back half of the rankings due to no fault of its own... it’s more of a situation where the other mysteries are so stellar, that even the strange seems simplistic by comparison.

7. The Straight Story (1999) If you played a game of “one of these things is not like the other” with the films of David Lynch, it would not be difficult to make a winning choice, as The Straight Story is clearly the most accessible and standard of all the Lynch fare.  What the film lacks in oddness and style, however, is more than made up for in terms of heart and performance.  The use of a lawnmower as the main source of travel allows for some beautiful landscape cinematography, and the sheer force of will exhibited by Richard Farnsworth pays off in spades when he is reunited with Harry Dean Stanton.  If you’re looking for something creepy, eclectic and mind-warping from Lynch, there are plenty of other films to choose from, but if you are looking for an excuse to shed a tear or two, this is the film for you.

6. The Elephant Man (1980) It’s funny to think that if not for The Straight Story, the Joseph Merrick biopic The Elephant Man would serve as the most normal film of the Lynch canon.  This sophomore film dialed back on the abstractions present in Eraserhead, but it brought some extraordinary makeup and costuming to the table, not to mention it gifted viewers with a powerfully moving performance from John Hurt.  Though memorable in its own right, the film really made its mark by tying Raging Bull at the 53rd Academy Awards, garnering eight nominations (and sadly losing in all categories, going home empty-handed).  The backlash for the Academy’s lack of giving The Elephant Man special praise for its makeup effects also led to the creation of a Best Makeup award for the Oscars.  It is quite possible that the combination of shock from Eraserhead in tandem with the skill and prowess shown in The Elephant Man opened all of the creative control doors for David Lynch, as not even Dune could derail his career and artistic oddness. 

5. Blue Velvet (1986) While Twin Peaks is where I first heard the name David Lynch, it was Blue Velvet where I first got a taste of why Lynch was held in such high regard.  The suburban paradise presented in the opening credits is immediately shattered by the discovery of a random ear, and the weirdness rabbit-hole gets deeper and deeper from that point on.  The classic look of the film stands in powerfully beautiful contrast to the extreme darkness of the narrative, and Dennis Hopper turned it all the way up to 11 for his performance in the film.  If Lost Highway serves as the best introductory film for those curious about Lynch, then Blue Velvet serves as a good midpoint to determine how much weirdness, abrasiveness and shock you can handle in a Lynch film.

4. Mulholland Drive (2001) I really and truly do not know where to begin with this insane rollercoaster ride of a film.  The first time I watched this film, I thought I had everything figured out, every mystery solved and every bait and switch identified, but upon repeat viewings of Mullholland Drive, I’ve determined that I either had a brief moment of harmonic brilliance or I was fooling myself.  The film makes sense at its root, if really and truly dissected, but when taken at face value and in real time, it’s almost impossible not to get completely lost in the sheer immersive nature of everything thrown at you.  Naomi Watts is brilliant as the viewer guide through the film, and it’s good that she is so powerful in her lead role and guiding task, because Mullholland Drive is not afraid to get downright bonkers on more than one occasion.  While films about the trappings of Hollywood and stardom are nothing new, I’m hard pressed to think of another film that approaches these in a manner even remotely close to that of Mullholland Drive. 

3. Wild at Heart (1990) Quite possibly the most enjoyable of all the David Lynch films, despite some downright brutal moments of celebratory violence sprinkled throughout.  The combination of Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern is nothing short of electric, and the presence of Willem Dafoe as antagonist is the perfect spark to ignite an already volatile mixture of leads.  The energy level of this film starts on ten and only continues to rise as the film progresses.  If/when I ever get the chance to program theater showings, I am putting this film on a double bill with Natural Born Killers immediately.  While I can’t say that Wild at Heart is my favorite David Lynch film, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it’s my favorite Lynch film to gush about with other fans.

2. Eraserhead (1977) More often than not, directors the caliber of David Lynch have stunning debut films to their name, and Lynch certainly exploded onto the scene with a gamebreaker in the form of Eraserhead.  Upon first viewing, there is enough “WTF?!” going on to confuse most people, but for those brave enough to watch the film more than once, it becomes painfully obvious that all of the madness and shocking imagery on display is a clear metaphor for Lynch’s fear of fatherhood.  The simple act of taking a fear that resonates with most humans and turning it into the equivalent of a black and white bad drug trip works perfectly, and Jack Nance’s iconic look and performance are almost recognizable enough to know without knowledge of the film.  Eraserhead is one of those films that leaves you different than you were prior to watching it.

1. Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me (1992) In all honesty, was there every any doubt that Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me wouldn’t be in the top spot?  Of all the properties that the David Lynch name is connected to, none of them have even come remotely close to touching the sheer size of the lore and fandom that has emerged from this modern day masterpiece.  The story of the high school princess with deep, dark secrets to hide is not new territory, but the way that Lynch handles it all with Twin Peaks takes the familiar to all new realms of weirdness, including the creation of iconic places and characters like the Black Lodge, the Log Lady, the production mistake that created the infamous Bob, and the eternally iconic Laura Palmer, and oh yeah, the film’s not half bad either.  I doubt that David Lynch ever had any intention of reaching the heights of fame that Twin Peaks : Fire Walk with Me afforded him, but it would be dumb to think that he isn’t impressed with the magnitude of the world he created based on that single idea for a film.

[rodpupo2]

Research: Storytelling project

JOCK

Mark Simpson, best known as Jock, is a Scottish comic book artist and illustrator. He began his career in 1999 working on the British comic book publisher 2000 AD (where most of the British artists and writers, began their career, before going to the major leagues like DC and Marvel), and started working with characters like the Judge Dredd.

The artist began his career in the USA with The Losers, at Vertigo (a subdivision of DC comics), and some issues of the Green Arrow.

He also have worked with conceptual arts for various films such as Iron man 3, X-men days of the future past, and Star Wars episode VIII.

I have known Jock for a while, I have seen many of his works in the comics, and he is known for working mainly with covers, where he does extremely surreal works, mixing various types of colors, and always uses a lot of shading, not worrying if the characters are in the correct proportion, because that is not his proposal.

But I know he did some works as a sequential artist, like The Losers, for example, where he makes extremely tight pictures, always focusing on the expressions of the characters, and especially on the hands that he most likes to do.

His storyboards or sketches are very different, because his drawings do not follow the traditional way of being centered on the pictures, many of his characters are jumping over the pictures, to show the size of the action scene that Jock wants to do.

It is worth remembering that he mixes his drawings made with pencil and nanquin, with digital, often taking pictures of different landscapes or scenarios, and drawing over them, and mixing with his drawn character to make an interesting composition.

Despite all this, he has a very peculiar style, which many people complain about the lack of movement and poses that his characters does. That his lines are also very dirty and dark. But Jock says, that this is his way of drawing, that he likes to have a not so commercial style, like many other artists. He likes to play with colors and likes to draw his characters, in a little more simple poses, and glorifying the background.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass was an American graphic designer and filmmaker, he’s known for designing movie posters and title sequences.

For 40th years, he worked with Hollywood greatest filmmakers, such as Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder.

Bass was born in New York in 1920, to a Jewish family, he was all ways drawing when he was a child.He graduated from James Monroe High school in the Bronx. He studied part time at art students league in Manhattan, and moved to Brooklyn College, where he had classes with György Kepes, a famous Hungarian painter and photographer.

He began in Hollywood in the 40’s, designing prints for films like champion (1949), death salesman (1951) and the moon is blue (1953).

He became widely known for creating the title sequence for Otto Preminger’s The man with the golden arm (1955), which’s about a jazz musician, addicted to heroin. Bass decided to create a poster which dialogues with the controversial subject, so he chosed the arm as the central object, as is a image which relates with heroin.

For Alfred Hitchcock, he provided memorable posters, like Vertigo(1958), North by Northwest(1959) and Psycho(1960).

For Martin Scorsese he had done the posters of The Goodfellas(1990), Cape Fear (1991), the Age of innocence (1993) and Casino (1995).

For Stanley Kubrick, he designed Spartacus (1960), and probably the best poster in his career, which is the poster from The Shining (1980).Kubrick, however, wasn’t amused. On the sketches themselves (which were later discovered in his personal affects) he wrote “Looks like science fiction.”Title looks small, looks like the ink didn’t take on the part that goes light,” and “Maze too abstract and too much emphasis on maze,” and, the most scathing of all, “Don’t like artwork.”

More discussions followed, and Bass agreed upon an illustrative approach of a large head peering through the title.As Kubrick instructed, the poster evokes both “terror” and the “supernatural.”

Bass once told,that his main goal for his titles sequences is “try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story".

James Cameron

James Cameron is a famous film director, which is for having two of the greatest box office films of all time, which are Avatar and Titanic. In addition, he is always revolutionizing in special effects, always bringing something new and revolutionary, but it all starts on his drawing desk, with his sketches and storyboards.

James Cameron has always been known for creating extremely interesting worlds, and completely out of the ordinary. Starting with the film Aliens, the sequel to Ridely Scott's film, where he expanded this world by creating an ecosystem for the aliens, in addition to showing futuristic equipment, for the space army that faces the aliens.

He also created concepts, for the Terminator films 1 and 2, where it was an idea never before seen of a robot that travels in time to kill a person. Its detailed perfectly drawn storyboards show one of the most interesting scenes in the film, where the terminator does a self surgery, revealing his true form.

And finally, once again creating a whole world, with a fauna and flora never seen before in the movie Avatar.

Cameron always wanted to create worlds, so he putted everything on a piece of paper when he was a child, where later, he took courses of drawings and did art colleges, to get a clearer idea of ​​how his worlds and characters could be.

Before being a director, he wanted to be a writer and an artist, but he never thought his ideals could be just in a book, he wanted to expand these ideas in a way never seen before.

Perhaps what impresses me most about James Cameron, besides being a creative force, is all the care he takes with his works, he said in an interview, which he always preserves all his storyboards, even from those films that he never made or did not work, and said that almost every day, he sits at his drawing desk and tries to come up with possible scenes for any film he is making. And when he creates an interesting scene, he tries to invent a whole story, to get to that specific scene.

 https://issuu.com/dteditore/docs/spidercameron-screen-eng/1?ff

Glen Keane

Glen Keane was born on April 23, 1954, in the city of Philadelphia, United States. Early on, he became interested in art while watching his cartoonist father Bill Keane draw. After finishing high school, he turned down a scholarship to play football and signed up for CalArts- California Institute of Arts.

Keane signed up for the painting program, he wanted to be a visual artist. However, his application was accidentally sent to the animation department, then Film Graphics. The college vetoed him to change course, so he stayed there.

Glen’s passion for painting helped him tremendously in animation, since the first skill an animator must have is knowing how to draw. Do not simply draw, but really know anatomy and how to give the illusion of weight.

His first work was Bernardo and Bianca in the kangaroo land. In the following years Keane worked on other features such as the Hound and the fox, Oliver and his gang , treasure planet, and the list goes on.

But it’s was at the time called the Disney Renaissance that Keane stood out. He animated Ariel the little mermaid, Beast from the beauty and the beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan, and most recently, was Rapunzel (Tangled).

At the time, Keane and the animators, had to use the traditional animation (by using paper), so him and his crew had to plan, all the scenes and poses, by doing storyboards, and later drawing on the paper frame by frame (the frequency to project a film in the cinema is twenty four frames per second, twenty four drawings in total were needed for each second of animation seen on screen).

There is no professional on the animation field, who does not know the name Glen Keane. He is the reference to all of them. What sets him apart, is his passion for his characters. During the production of the animations, Keane understands them and is thus able to perform better.

[depressedoverdrawings]

Can you hear the tumult of our youth?

KazeKi is the first romance I’ve ever enjoyed, or rather, that I emotionally connected with, as “enjoy” is a funny word choice for a work that made me feel so miserable. Personally, I’ve never enjoyed media that focuses on relationships and love, were they movies, TV, or literature.

But after I discovered KazeKi, I found myself drawn to it, almost involuntarily so. It was as if a spell had been cast. I suppose what superficially drew me in, at first, was the art. It had the charm of retro manga (I absolutely love retro manga/anime looks, IMO they have so much more character than most modern anime and manga), the nostalgic elegance of the idealized upper-class XIX century, and the unrelenting beauty and cuteness of all the boys.

It was mildly surreal and highly entertaining to witness the seed of so many shounen-ai visual tropes: The flower motifs, the flowery poetry, the impossibly pretty boys in dramatic embraces and breathy kisses, the aggressive frenchness of it all. Even it was shocking to me how these elements, instead of striking me as the tired, sappy tropes I saw them as, were now all genuine and beautiful, somehow. Even those silly sparkles around pretty boys seemed fitting. I realized these weren’t tropes back then, but elements of a sincere artistc vision. However, while the art was mesmerizing to me, I came to realize that what drew me in deeper, and kept me anchored to KazeKi, were the themes explored, and the character-based drama, the very stuff I had always avoided.

Without getting far too personal about it, Kaze to Ki no Uta was the first romance that struck something within me, somewhere personal. Now, I certainly have never faced trauma and pain anywhere near to what poor Gilbert and Serge face in their absurdly depressing story, but I definitely wouldn’t call myself emotionally and sexually resolved and healthy, and once upon a time I was a closeted boy in a catholic school, so I guess there’s space for a little bit of self-identification. My coping mechanism to my personal woes had always been to just bottle them up and distract myself with entertainment and art. And that was exactly what I was doing, browsing music on YouTube, when I stumbled upon the KazeKi OVA’s soundtrack.

I found myself listening to this gorgeous arrangement of a Chopin piece, and thought to myself, staring at the angelic figure looking back at me, across the screen: “Gee whilikers, that’s sure is a pretty drawing of a pretty girl”. Then, after reading the comments, I found out that was a boy. As much as the “draw a girl, call it a boy” school of drawing pretty boys makes me groan, I could still feel it, that first hook of interest, stabbing me. As the slideshow enticed me with pictures of Keiko Takemiya’s gorgeous art, I found myself enamoured by it. It was a particular drawing that made KazeKi finally snatch me: that same boy, lounging angelically on some sort of abstract architectural design; in the background, a neoclassical vase flanked by two neoclassical girls, and, above and below, this stunningly beautiful vegetation. So much care, skill, and good taste, concentrated in just one image! I’d have it as a poster, if I could. So, I googled “Kaze to Ki no Uta”, unwittingly throwing myself in a rabbit hole I could not have prepared myself for. Trying to read it was in itself a journey, but, to sum it up: I managed to read it about as well as one can, if they don’t speak japanese and have no access to the spanish and italian translations.

It had been years since I had started feeling emotionally numb. My most extreme displays of emotion came in the form of quiet, teary eyes, reserved for those rare, impactful pieces of art, and those rarer moments of despair-inducing introspection that I couldn’t manage to suppress, but even those lasted little, as I fought to recover my composure. By the end of Kaze to Ki no Uta, I was a sobbing wreck, doing my best (and failing) to contain my ugly crying. Ugly crying, for god’s sake. I was ugly crying, actually sobbing like a kid, because of an yaoi manga. Crying in the shower, even! What kind of weeb had I degenerated into? It hurt. It deeply hurt, in a way I hadn’t been made to hurt in a long, long while. KazeKi had impacted me to the point that I wasn’t just sad, I was scared too, as the waterfall of emotion opened the path for that deeper, personal darkness to come out. And it did.

Now, I admit I’d been a little bit more emotionally fragile than usual right before I read it, due to the effects of the quarantine and the previous consumption of a highly depressing piece of media: Les Amitiés Particulières, which is probably even more depressing than KazeKi as it deals with a much more grounded homophobia-induced tragedy based in real life. Somehow, it didn’t impact me as much as KazeKi, however. Also, it was definitely what influenced my personal YouTube algorithm to recommend me the KazeKi soundtrack, so I wouldn’t know of KazeKi if it weren’t for Amitiés. But even then, it felt unnatural to, well, feel so much. I hadn’t felt this invested in and attached to fictional characters ever since I was a little kid, too young to realize those people in the TV weren’t real. In the following couple of weeks, I was crying over these boys, spending whole days feeling like trash, feeling mild anxiety spikes whenever I remembered about KazeKi, having (even more) difficulty falling asleep, and utterly failing to avoid thinking about my deep-seated intimate issues, all because of these dumb, pretty anime boys. Not even my trusty prayer of “they’re not real people, stop being stupid” worked. In an attempt to stop wallowing in this shounen-ai hell, I decided to consume a whole lot of escapist media while I deliberately avoided any activity related to KazeKi, be it reading the manga, listening to the OVA’s soundtrack, looking at fanart, or even just thinking about it. It “worked” for a month or so, but now I’m back here, wallowing in KazeKi’s painful beauty again, stalking the other seven people in the western world that seem to care about KazeKi, and distilling my thoughts in this bizarre textwall, in an attempt to work it out. If you’re one of those seven people, please don’t refrain from talking to me, if you feel like it! I’ve had just one opportunity to have a conversation about KazeKi, and it was in YouTube comments, for heaven’s sake. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m this afflicted by KazeKi due to its unrelenting, merciless, cruel beauty. Everything about it is presented in this assembly of pure beauty and lost perfection, this painful nostalgia that is present in its aesthetics of an idealized Europe which lives only in its surviving art, that is present in the story which ultimately tells us of the loss of love, and is present in the fact that the whole story is a broken man’s reverie about the past. Tragedy might make me sad, but tragedy with beauty will destroy me. Bittersweetness is just so more cruel than bitterness. And it was this masterpiece of sadistic bittersweetness that permanently broke something in how I deal with my emotions. Kaze to Ki no Uta touched me deeply, to the point of leaving a permanent impression, I’m afraid. I can count in one hand the pieces of art that have punched my soul in the face like KazeKi did. I am honestly flabbergasted over the effect it had over me. At first I felt embarrassed over being emotionally obliterated by a freaking shounen-ai, but I’ve since come to the conclusion that KazeKi is a work of art, a genuine, sincere work of art, deserving of the title. Now I just hope I’m not alone in being emotionally obliterated by this freaking shounen-ai. After everything they went through, the personal fights, the shaky development of their relationship, the undeserved ostracism at Lacombrade, Auguste’s demonic persecution, the escape; how could it be that Gilbert’s life would end in such a horrible way, and that Serge would be left alone to face the full, unbearable weight of his grief! Why?! Keiko Takemiya, you’re a vile sadist. You’re a genius, too, of course. But you’re a vile sadist.

I knew that a happy ending wasn’t going to happen. The horrible ending was a pretty early spoiler, really. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t stop myself from reading on anyway, and I couldn’t stop myself from having an inkling of illogical hope. Even if my logical self knew a happy ending wasn’t gonna happen, it couldn’t prepare me for just how tragically their love would end, and how awful it all would feel, once I knew their full story.

It’s all the more bitter because of how close Serge came to saving him, too. Having escaped together to a place where they could’ve built the nearest thing to a normal life a gay couple could have, back then. But in the end, not even Serge’s love could mend Gilbert’s mutilated soul. Those boys deserved so much better, especially Serge. Serge, you sweet angel! You were created to suffer.

KazeKi really is a masterpiece in how it explores its extremely heavy themes and the minds of its characters, and how it flawlessly meshes that with perfect art. There are many moments in KazeKi that haunt me: Serge letting that bird go, Serge’s vision of Gilbert at the Lacombrade grounds, Gilbert running into the carriage, angel wings behind him; Serge laying alone on the bed in Room 17. I cannot look at those pages without tearing up and feeling this horrible feeling in my heart, and this feeling is literal: My heart actually feels heavy and constricted when I think about it, it can’t be healthy. Up until now, I thought “cri evrytiem” was just a meme. KazeKi has woken me up to the fact that bottling up one’s own personal issues will inevitably end with them exploding out, leading to something much, much worse. I am scared by the prospect of facing my personal issues. To me, they are horribly strong, and seem incredibly hard to solve, if they’re even solvable at all. I’m horrified by the prospect of facing them, working to solve them. I’m so scared, that simply thinking about it, right now, gives me this awful weight in my chest, and makes me want to cry, again. But I know now that I have no choice in this matter, as the only alternative is that abyss I dare not speak of, and one cannot return from. Melodramatic? Yes. But I did just read Kaze to Ki no Uta.

Thank you for getting this far, whoever you are.

I’m forever haunted by Serge’s words to his long-gone Gilbert, right at the beginning:

“Gilbert Cocteau, you were the greatest flower to ever bloom in my life. In the faraway dreams of youth, you were a bright red flame, blazing so fiercely… You were the wind that stirred my branches. Can you hear the poem of the wind and trees? Can you hear the tumult of our youth? Oh, there must be others who so remember their own days of youth…”

[creativeprocesssophielindsay]

ANDRE MASSON

Andre Masson, Automatic Drawing, 1924

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/38201?artist_id=3821&page=1&sov_referrer=artist

Andre Masson, In the Tower of Sleep, 1938

https://art5308.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/magritte-book.pdf 

Andre Masson, The Metamorphosis of the Lovers, 1938

https://robdigitalimage.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/concepts/

Andre Masson, The Metamorphosis of the Lovers, 1938

https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/surrealism/andre-masson/gradiva/masson-gradiva-1939/

Childhood

André-Aimé-René Masson was born on January 4, 1896, in the small town of Balagny (Oise), north of Paris. He was the eldest of three children in a family of modest means. Growing up in the country, he felt a former connection with nature and the world.

Masson's childhood encouraged unconventional thought. In particular, his mother was a French teacher who promoted unusual texts that would later become important to the Surrealists and were considered scandalous. While his father was more conservative in his beliefs, he did not interfere with Masson's artistic ambitions.

Early Training and Work

Through the efforts of his mother and the quality of his drawings, Masson was admitted to the Brussels Académie des Beaux-Arts at age eleven, which was much younger than usual. He studied under the Belgian painter and sculptor Constant Montald, whose method of mixing glue with water and pigment proved very influential for Masson's later technique. He also took a side job making embroidery designs, which meant his days were filled with study and work.

In his limited free time, Masson read insatiably. He was fascinated by the Quattrocento and the work of the Renaissance masters, along with fin-de-siècle artists like Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne. He saw a continuum between the two, remarking when he first James Ensor's Christ in the Midst of the Storm, that "contemporary painting could be as extraordinary as the old masters!"

His interests continued to include the modern (he was shocked by Cubism when he first encountered the works of Picasso and Braque) and the traditional (he traveled to northern Italy in 1914 to study fresco painting). Masson also traveled to Switzerland and became fascinated with the philosophical writings of Frederich Nietzsche, which profoundly affected his personal life.

He returned to Paris in 1915 and joined the French army, enduring the violence, trauma and death of World War I trench warfare. He was discharged in 1917 after suffering a severe chest injury; he spent months recovering in military hospitals and spent time in a psychiatric facility. While the experience of being at war was not something Masson often explicitly spoke about, it was the root of the very violent imagery in his work and remained with him for his entire life. After his discharge, he met his wife, Odette Cabalé, and the two relocated to Paris.

Mature Period

In Paris, Masson began making pottery at a studio center for veterans with disabilities. He also took up work with the Journal Officiel. His work from these postwar years featured erotic, sometimes pornographic content that varied widely in style and technique. The founder of the Surrealist movement, André Breton, would later call this Masson's 'erotic period' and believed it to be key to understanding his entire oeuvre.

According to the writer Malcolm Haslam, Masson hosted regular gatherings in his Paris studio at 45 rue Blomet. Here, along with Antonin Artaud, Michel Leiris, Joan Miró, Georges Bataille, Jean Dubuffet, and Georges Malkine, the group experimented with altered states of consciousness, smoking hashish and opium added to wine and music, discussing writers central to the developing Surrealist movement: Nietzsche, Arthur Rimbaud, Comte de Lautréamont, and even the Marquis de Sade.

While vast and divergent in many ways, this group of works shared themes of deep uncertainty and humanity's coexistence with nothingness, ideas drawn from Nietzsche. This philosophy also featured themes of metamorphosis and argued for the changeable nature of organic existence, ideas that would become increasingly important to Masson's art.

In 1921, Masson met fellow artist Joan Miró through their mutual friend, Max Jacobs. Masson and Miró immediately began a friendship that would be influential to both of their careers. The group of artists often met at a studio on the rue Blomet that became a place of intellectual and artistic knowledge, discussion and exploration. Visitors included Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and the playwright Armand Salacrou, who were some of the first buyers of Masson's work.

In 1923, Masson was offered a contract by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, a notable art dealer. Although it was not (yet) highly paid, this opportunity allowed Masson to focus solely on his art career. The following years, which encompassed both the Dada movement and the birth of Surrealism, proved some of the most exciting and successful of Masson's career. His style was changeable, and he began to experiment with automatic methods of working, often incorporating motifs from ancient Greek and Roman mythology.

During the 1930s, Masson's work grew increasingly violent and disturbing. His 1930s series of slaughterhouse paintings, built on the art historical legacy of Chaim Soutine's Carcass of Beef (early 1920s) and Rembrandt's Slaughtered Ox (1655), but brought new brutality and sexual associations to the depictions of flesh and meat. It is speculated that this may have been due to his turbulent personal life at the time. Following a 1929 divorce, he met his second wife, Rose, broke with the Surrealist group and moved out of Paris to establish a more solitary life in St-Jean-de-Grasse. He then relocated to Spain, only returning to France in 1936 after witnessing atrocities in the years prior to the Spanish Civil War. Once back in France, he reconciled with Breton and the Surrealists.

In 1941, Masson and his family sought and secured political asylum in the United States, as did many of the Surrealists. Masson's time in America transformed and revitalized his work, introducing new variety in subject matter, style and motifs. He began to focus more on abstractions from nature, alongside his fascination with metamorphosis and cosmic unity. In 1943, Masson underwent his final split from Breton, however he continued to experiment with Surrealism as a style.

Late Period

At the end of World War II, Masson and his family were able to return to France in 1945. During a trip to the south of France, Masson became highly interested in southeastern Asian art and Taoism. His work became increasingly existential, conveying a sense of universal fusion through abstractions of natural landscapes. He remained based in Paris but traveled back and forth to a country house in Aix. In 1965, he was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Odéon-Théâtre de France and although he was thrilled to complete the project; it proved to be taxing for the aging artist and it was his last major work. This large circular installation, featuring classical figures like Agamemnon and Shakespearean characters like Falstaff, was celebrated as a triumph. The actor Jean-Louis Barrault was said to have declared, "At last we have a sun over our heads." His later career included a series of landscape themes and non-objective paintings. Masson died at his home in Paris in 1987.

  The Legacy of André Masson

Masson tackled many of the concepts central to Surrealism and established new ways of representing traditional themes trauma, angst, violence, sex, and death with modern imagery. The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre credited him with "retracing a whole mythology of metamorphoses: (transforming) the domain of the mineral, the domain of the vegetable and the domain of the animal into the domain of the human."

Masson's work influenced numerous 20th-century artists, the most prolific being Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Pollock's Action Painting in particular drew on Masson's experimental use of the automatic technique. Additionally, his use of block coloration and abstraction of form also strongly influenced other artists within the New York School. The practice of automatism has continued to resurface and remains an influence on contemporary art.

Masson's work was also of importance because of its eclectic and multifaceted nature. He experimented with different styles and techniques, so that although he is primarily associated with Surrealism, his work advanced perspectival elements found in Cubism and popularized the use of automatic methods of mark-making that channeled unconscious impulses into visual images. His long career included tremendous range, but featured deeply emotional transparency that allowed viewers to understand the emotional effects of war trauma.

[arecomicsevengood]

Self-Released Comics from 2020

A bunch of zines came out this year that I liked but haven’t written anything about because I’ve been working under the assumption that my liking the artists involved is unsurprising. But I might as well, I like them more than much of what’s offered by larger publishers and they’re probably doomed to some degree of obscurity. I should excerpt images but don’t feel like doing that. All of these would be in consideration for a theoretical “best of the year” list, but I generally get conservative with those and limit it to five books that are widely available as a concession to an imagined general audience.

Gonzales, by Matthew Thurber and Ric Royer, available through Matthew’s online shop

The parties involved in this comic’s creation would probably prefer I not mention that Ric, the writer, was “cancelled” and made a pariah in Baltimore (and I believe Providence too) due to his behavior in relationships, which had a marked pattern of manipulation and psychological abuse. I don’t know how many people outside these places, in the broader comics community, are aware of such things, but certainly some people are probably buying this comic not knowing anything about it who would be uncomfortable with the concept if they knew. I support Matthew’s willingness to support his friend as an artist by collaborating with him in a context where it’s unlikely women would come into his orbit (this isn’t to imply there aren’t women in comics, only that there aren’t festivals happening right now) but not so much so I can look the other way entirely. If I had to have hand-wringing conversations with Baltimore friends, you have to have them in your head: Heads up for those who don’t like it when authors are creeps.

The comic itself is pretty good! It’s a satire about the Satanic Panic of the 1980s that basically works as a kid’s comic, where a superhero named Gonzales teaches kids to overcome their parents’ fears. Thurber’s a great cartoonist, and I don’t think he loses too much working from a script here. There’s less improvisatory surrealism and more general storytelling economy.

Everglide by Carlos Gonzalez, available through Wasp Video Roadhouse

This kinda feels like Carlos’ eXistenZ, by which I mean it’s about humans “jacking in” to video game worlds where they can run around. Also I think eXistenZ is the best Cronenberg movie, and who knows how good this comic will turn out? I like the serialized minicomic format. I do feel like the ideal format for this would be typical comic proportions, sold in retail stores monthly, and Carlos’ thin line that delineates the shape of a figure but none of its weight or texture could confront readers with its seeming amateurism. But alas! No one can afford to put out black and white genre comics in stores regularly these days. As a minicomic with so many pages in each issue, the focus on the narrative, and each issue feels satisfying on those grounds, building out its world.

Detective Double Digest by Drew Lerman and Pete Faecke, available at The Stink Hole

Drew Lerman takes his Snake Creek characters out for a detective caper with gags about pissing and a plot about cryogenic freezing. Pete Faecke, who I’m unfamiliar with, but is in the new Bubbles writing about the horse sequence in Jimbo Adventures In Paradise, does a comic where multiple people huff gasoline. It’s great. There’s plenty of jokes, an interesting tone, but also a good deal of narrative space being covered in a short amount of pages. The contrast between art styles works to the advantage of each, with Faecke sort of approximating a stiff “golden age” style while Lerman works in a scribblier cartoonier form, closer to a comic strip like Barney Google. Faecke also did a similar format split with A.T. Pratt of western comics that looks pretty good too.

Whisnant by Max Huffman, available at Motion Goods

I loved reading this comic as pages would pop up on Max’s social media feed. Honestly considered buying a page of the original art to finance the printing of the minicomic version. Improvised goofball comedy, tells a story, interrupts that story, then comes back to it, the way the gags and callbacks work is insane in this. I kinda hope he continues with it but maybe it won’t work if it attempted to function like an ongoing comic and not just a stream of consciousness thing that’s disinterested in resolution. On any given page, it feels either like Huffman is going for some weird gag or he’s exploring the form and abstracted geometry of page layout and shape. The amount of panels per page is generally pretty low, so it makes for a breezy minicomic, but reading it online a page at a time I always imagined it at classic comic book size, feeling like part of the point was the subversion of expectations of a classic “teen” comic like Archie.

Hubert by Elijah Brubaker, available at his Patreon

Elijah put up a few issues of this for free as PDFs somewhere but that might’ve been a limited time thing, and it’s worth tossing him some small amount of money to get these. They’re comedies about being an obnoxious dumbass who’s dumb and horny, sorta sitcom-y, sorta weird indie movie vibe, but with a cartoon’s sense of freedom from consequences. Strange and likable, uncontrived, honest to its world of slackers. Would be a good alt-comic in the tradition of Hate or any number of forgotten Slave Labor comics. Hubert the character’s abstracted cartoon shape is kinda like Ben Jones’ Alfe but he ends up in a house full of women and there’s a flirtatious chemistry in his interactions as opposed to Jones’ sexless goofball shenanigans. Since Brubaker’s I think most known for his Wilhelm Reich bio-comic and is currently working on a Charles Manson thing, this feels more “accessible” to a certain alienated pandemic brain looking to live vicariously through fiction while maybe the other stuff is more saleable to libraries. That may sound more cynical than I intend, I mean this comic is fun and it would be nice to encounter it on someone’s coffee table when you’re at the house getting drunk and stoned in a different era. The artist is unemployed and currently only making money from his Patreon, he deserves people kicking in donations for this thing.

Dog Biscuits by Alex Graham, viewable at Instagram for the time being

For a fictionalized document of the pandemic times we’re living in, currently being serialized on Instagram, running in sequences of panels you click through, I like this better than Crisis Zone. It seems close to wrapping up, at which point Alex will collect it into a self-published book I think will make a worthwhile purchase. As time has gone on, and the strip’s moved away from discussing protests and the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone overtly, settling in with the romantic drama of its small cast as they try to find their way in a world where it feels like every stupid asshole might have exposed themselves to COVID already and now thinks nothing of exposing you as well feels fraught as any editorial cartooning, a sense of desperation to find joy underlies a multipage XXX sequence of characters boning. The Instagram comments are lit up with people seemingly familiar with only reading YA getting really emotionally invested and being extremely judgmental of the characters, with maybe the weirdest moment from my vantage point was someone asking the author what a character’s astrological breakdown was. These reactions do bring home how thought out, alive, and well-observed these characters feel.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | IN SESSION WITH ROB SATO

From vibrant rainbows to familiar yet alien landscapes occupied by strange beings, LA based artist Rob Sato’s works are filled with creative energy in a loose minimalistic style. From watercolor, digital medium to acrylics and oil, Rob’s artworks and illustrations have been shown in various galleries from Giant Robot 2 to the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, where recently his original paintings for a comic called 442 were exhibited. We’re excited to chat with Rob about his work, his various collaborations and what he’s got coming up for the rest of the year.  Take the Leap!

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself Hello, my name is Rob Sato. I’m an artist, illustrator, and writer. Something people might not know about me is that I was a kid I was so fanatical about the Oakland A’s that when they lost in the World Series I threw a tantrum so big that I destroyed my bedroom and after that I felt so stupid I quit following baseball. Also, I’m told I have maybe one of the great poop stories of the world. It can only be related in person, so ask me about it sometime if we ever meet.

How would you describe your work and style? Eclectic? Kaleidoscopic? I’ve never had a concise answer to this question. I tend not to pin myself down because I think if I did, I’d stop making things. 

Art is my outlet for the cryptic and obscure as well as the gushing spillover of foolish idealism and wild fantasy. It’s the only place I’ve ever found where you can healthily play with unhealthy thoughts, where you can explore undefined emotions, things that lurk out in the corners of consciousness that may be embarrassing or uncontrollable.

I love to make entertainment and decorative work, things that tend to be obvious, that communicate very clearly and reveal all their cards, but I also love to make work that hides things, that actively resists easy understanding or recognition and risks being super personal or unrelatable and strange. This can make things difficult, especially in the ongoing deterioration of attention spans, but I can’t help but pursue things outside of a pop sensibility and logical thought. I have to be, much of the time, in mental wildernesses. It’s hard to get there, hard to be there, and hard to come back, but it keeps me going.

Tell us about how you really started getting into art, and how that turned into what you do now? Was it something you always intended to pursue? I’ve drawn every single day for as long as I can remember. I never really thought about it. It just seems to be what I do. It’s how I have fun, how I solve problems, how I think. I’ve wanted to pursue other things like make movies or write books, but I always find myself drawing. Before I know it, it’s time for bed again.

When you are working on a new piece or upcoming exhibition or show? What’s your process like? What themes do you find yourself taking on? I explode. I used to plan things in a very directed way, but lately I’ve just let my brains spill out everywhere. I make a ton of drawings and paintings, and try my best to be fearless and open. Most of it produces failure after failure, but it shows me what might be worth building on, plus many exciting surprises reveal themselves in the process. As a show nears I start seeing what things fit together, what needs to be edited out, and how it all might form a cohesive exhibition. Sometimes the subject matter is the glue that makes everything stick, other times it’s the aesthetics. Alongside the explosion I usually have 2 or 3 pieces going at any given time that I’ve had long term plans for. These pieces can take take months or even years. 

Thematically I’m all over the place. War and peace, realism and surrealism, grim realities and escapism, sober observations and dumb jokes.

What are some of your go-to art making materials? Are there mediums you want to explore that you’ve yet to get your hands on? I feel pretty comfortable with anything you can use to make a mark on a piece of paper. I’ve mainly used watercolor and various drawing tools for the past several years. I’m been having fun with acrylics and oils again, and I’ve started to play around with photography a little. I’ve had ideas for sculpture and film for years that I’d really like to finally get to. What I really want to get my hands on is more time.

Where do you find inspiration? What kind of things or people inspire what you make? Watching someone pick their nose listening to headphones and singing softly to themselves in line at the grocery store. Just watching my cat live her weird life. Even though the final artwork may not really show it, these places are usually where my ideas originate. Art has also been a place where I can put memories that have some abstract need to be recorded.

I made this series of drawings called “Bad Hands”, which started out with me laughing at these dumb hands I was drawing with academically incorrect anatomy. Abandoning correctness felt so good. In the process it triggered a memory from High School. I had been forbidden from drawing in one of my classes, so I was contorting my hands into different shapes at my desk to amuse myself. There was a hysteria over gang activity in the school at the time and the teacher freaked out thinking I was throwing gang signs and I ended up getting sent to detention. 

At detention I was talking with a friend and made fun of the teacher for her mistake. A kid who was in a gang overheard and then HE misunderstood and thought I was making fun of gangs or something. On my way home from school he and a couple dudes punched and kicked me for a bit while I tried and failed to explain. I think it’s funny. 

So embedded in that piece is this tumbling series of misunderstandings, these multiple layers of hands being perceived as bad, speaking in an absurd language that communicates different things to different people. I know people aren’t going to see all those layers in the final piece, but that’s where it comes from and I hope it at least sparks some thoughts about talking with our hands, and where else can you follow this kind of train of thought except in art?

I get inspired by artists who seem to approach art as an intuitive discovery process rather than a  pursuit of mastery, that play is one of the more important aspects of making things. My wife, Ako, has been a huge influence on me in this respect. She’s continuously playing with various materials around her at any given time and finding out what she can do with them. Everywhere she goes she abandons a nest made of fresh creations she’s manifested out of mud, string, packaging, plants, uneaten rice, her used drinking straw, lint and whatever else was within her reach

You’ve done a lot of collaborations with companies, museums and art galleries. Do you have a favorite collaboration, and what about the collaboration do you enjoy the most? I’ve recently been collaborating with Tiny Splendor, an indie publisher and printer who have studios in LA and Oakland. It’s been really great working with them, Cynthia Navarro in LA on risographs, and with Max Stadnik, who runs the print shop in Oakland. 

Max has been returning to lithography, my favorite traditional printing medium, and he printed a piece of mine inspired by mushrooms called “Growerings". It’s a full 5 color print, which means it took five separate plates and each print had to go through the press 5 times. It turned out more beautifully than I could have hoped for. Litho is a super difficult but also very fun process and the results are so rich. 

I think I particularly love this collaboration because the image fits the medium so well, and the combination of the two elevates the final piece of work, When it works, the artwork and the print become more than just an image on a piece of paper. It’s more alive in some undefinable way.

Since we’re called Art School, we always ask the artists to give us their favorite art tip? Never force the thing you think you want, you’ll probably miss out on the really interesting thing that’s happening. Also, don’t drink too much coffee. I have trouble taking both of these pieces of my own advice every day.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making stuff? How do you chill out? I read and run. I love coffee and I love gossip and talking nonsense with friends. Also, I cannot stop watching Terrace House.

What is the last art show that you went to? What artists should folks keep an eye out for? I recently went to the Velveteria in LA’s Chinatown, which is one man’s collection of paintings on velvet. A very entertaining and very fucked up experience. I went to a life drawing session at Subliminal Projects and got to draw surrounded by Chad Kouri’s fun abstracts. I’m actually typing this interview inside an art show right now. 

I’m here at my wife, Ako Castuera’s, show “Soil” at the Weingart Gallery at Occidental College. We’re here feeding worms. She sculpted this beautiful ceramic vermiculture composter for the show. It’s a grand temple for worms. The show is an act of gratitude for the exchange we have with the soil which provides the clay for ceramics, and for the worms who turn decay into healthy earth to grow new life in. 

She sculpted a menagerie of creatures out of the worm poop that also populate the show. Super fun. Speaking of Ako and Subliminal, her show there with Hellen Jo and Kris Chau this past December was one of those once-in-a-lifetime powerhouse gathering of forces. That may have been the best show I’ve ever seen.

What advice would you give someone thinking about following in your footsteps? What’s something you learned that you want to pass along to art making newbies. Don’t listen to advice if it is extremely quotable. Pay no attention to it especially if it accompanies a photo of a famous artist and fits perfectly into an instagram post. If it’s easy to remember then it’s probably empty, crap inspiration. Those things are entertainments and not words to live by.

 If you’re interested in making art you’ll keep making it. It takes day in, day out patience and exploration and mutation to discover how you really work, not some idea of how an artist works. 

Sometimes it will be very hard, sometimes it will be so breathtakingly easy you think that your problems have been solved forever. Neither situation ever lasts, but cultivate and nurture your curiosity and what you love, and you’ll find ways to make it through the rough times and keep on making things one way or another.

Who are some of your favorite artists to follow and/or see in a show? Lately I’ve been really enjoying the work of Nathaniel Russell whose work makes this great space where funny, grounded matter-of-factness and sweet nothingness sit comfortably together. His drawing also reminds me of Ben Shahn, my all-time favorite drawer. 

I really like Amy Bennet’s oils, these intimate studies of isolation in suburbia where mundanity overlaps with quiet drama and melancholy. Her work obliquely reminds me of Edwin Ushiro’s work, though his stuff is the opposite of melancholic. He captures almost incidental but haunted moments from growing up in Hawaii and infuses them with warmth, and it’s in a style influenced in a super personal way by animation. It reminds me of Satoshi Kon’s movies in its well observed, slice-of-life elements. Edwin’s sketchbooks are a treasure too.  Esther Pearl Watson’s recent autobiographical paintings, Hellen Jo’s latest badass watercolors, Amber Wellman’s funny, playful oil paintings, and Matthew Palladino’s watercolors are also favorites. 

Megan Whitmarsh’s work is some of my favorite to see in person. Her installation with Jade Gordon at the Hammer’s “Made In LA “ show was maybe the funnest work I’ve ever seen and interacted with. I went to see the Ai Wei Wei show at the Marciano Foundation, which I thought was impressive in scale and execution but still somehow lame, but I stumbled on a Mike Kelley installation/ video piece I’d never seen before in the upstairs collection and loved it so much, but I can’t remember the name of it at the moment. 

It’s 2 videos shown side by side of the same guy wearing a cape singing almost the same song simultaneously, but each version has different words at different points. It’s a love song but one version is more bitter and mean and one is sickly sweet. Anyway, highly recommended!

What do you have coming up the rest of the year that you can share with us?  For just a few more days there’s a show up at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center with a bunch of my original paintings for a comic I illustrated about the 442, the Japanese American Army unit of World War II. Plus it has some personal work about Japanese American Incarceration and images from my family’s experience in the concentration camps. My grandfather was incarcerated in the Arkansas camps, and he was a soldier in the 442. 

Next up, I’m in a slew of group shows all happening within a few weeks of each other this month. Poor scheduling on my part as usual, but it’s nice to be invited to so many. I just sent off my piece to the “Seeing Red” show curated by Jeff Hamada of the BOOOOOOOM art and culture blog. That show will be at Thinkspace in LA. Giant Robot has been kind enough to host another solo show for me in September. 

I’ve been busy experimenting with some more 3d stuff that pushes the more narrative side of my work which I hope to show there. We’ll see how the experiments turn out. I’ve also been working on a ton of prints and ideas for books. This year I want to focus on working in print, making zines and comics, and writing a lot more. 

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[zenithlux]

Cadence - END

Well ya’ll... it’s finally here. The last chapter of Cadence. I spent a little extra time on it (especially because of Tendrils), but I’m really excited to finally have it out to all of you. I really hope you enjoy. I’ll have a writing update within the next week for all future projects I’m working on, so please look forward to that. 

Hope you enjoy this chapter and see you all soon :)

Catch up on AO3 Here!

So honey now Take me into your loving arms Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars Place your head on my beating heart I’m thinking out loud Maybe we found love right where we are

Thinking out Loud - Ed Sheeran

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Three Months Later

The art gala was bustling, and Vergil was lucky that Roxy had no intention of leaving his side. “Too many people,” She said to his hum of agreement. She was clearly nervous, far more than Vergil thought she should be. But he kept his cool, guiding her through the crowds and glaring down anyone that got in the way. And the building was massive. Three stories, all filled wall to wall with paintings of all kinds. Roxy made an effort to at least glance at most of them and, occasionally, talk to the artist if she knew them already.

But they had yet to find her own. 

It didn’t help that Vergil had no idea which pieces she had actually sent off. She’d been very secretive, banning him from her art room for the last few weeks for the sake of “working in silence”. A foolish notion, as Vergil was probably the quietest person in existence. But he’d kept to her wishes, doing other things during her art time. Things even Roxy wasn’t yet privy to. 

She’d find out soon enough.

“I’m sure they’re around here somewhere,” She said dismissively as they made their way around the second floor. “I’m not worried.”

“You're certain they’ve been displayed?”

“Yep,” She said. “Even Bryson can’t mess with that.” Vergil raised an eyebrow and she chuckled awkwardly. “He just sends out the invites. He’s not responsible for the paintings when they do show up.” Her eyes lit up as they reached the stairs. “I bet they’re up here.” She tugged at him, but he didn’t budge. She scowled at him. “Please?”

“I suppose,” he said. Roxy rolled her eyes and he let her drag him up the stairs. The paintings up there were more interesting than the ones below; less nature and more abstract. There were science fiction scenes, fantasy creatures, and odd characters he’d never seen before. 

“There it is!” Roxy said. And when Vergil saw the painting, he couldn’t help but stare. The background was entirely composed of the white, unpainted, canvas. In the center was a woman who looked suspiciously like Roxy, reaching her hand out not to Kuro, but to him. His demon form, standing proud and tall as he watched her. Every detail was exquisite. His scales were shimmering, and the details of his face were striking, with a beautifully sculpted set of horns and flames that looked almost life-like. Even his tail looked lively, as she had drawn it wrapped around her; long and glorious. And Vergil was even more surprised at the number of people around it, some whispering praises, others questioning how she’d come up with something so surreal. 

A Girl and Her Dragon. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” She whispered as she squeezed his hand. “But I wanted it to be a surprise.”

“It’s very realistic,” he said. “I’m impressed you remembered so much detail.”

She blushed as she pulled out her phone. “I had some help.” She clicked a few buttons, then handed it to him. On it were pictures of him in his trigger. He swiped through dozens of different angles, poses, and even a close-up shot that he was shocked he missed. Then he remembered the occasional blur of red during their fights and looked back up at her. 

“Dante.”

“Well it sure wasn’t me,” She said with a laugh. 

“You could have asked.”

“Surprise, remember?” She said as she took her phone back. “I’m more surprised you never saw him holding the phone.”

“I was a bit preoccupied.”

She laughed. “True but…” She trailed off as a tall blonde man made his way over. “Bryson,” She said, her tone stiff. Vergil’s eyes narrowed, but the man didn’t even look at him. 

“It’s been a while,” Bryson said. 

“Not long enough,” Roxy said.

“Good to see you too,” Bryson said. His eyes flickered to Vergil and back to her. “Who’s the new boy toy?”

Roxy’s jaw set as she crossed her arms. But it was Vergil who spoke. “Why are you wasting your time with this scum ?”

Bryson was taken aback. “Has she pulled the whole “can’t walk anymore” stunt on you yet? If not, get ready for the surprise of your life.”

“We’ve already dealt with that.”

Bryson scoffed. “And you’re still with the lying bitch?”

If Vergil could impale a human and get away with it, he would. “Unlike yourself, I was more than capable of seeing to Roxanna’s needs.” He said cooly, stepping between Roxy and the other man. “You may continue making whatever excuses you need to account for your inadequacy.” 

Bryson’s mouth dropped open. “What did you- How dare you!”

Vergil really didn’t have time for this, nor did he care to speak to this degenerate. But it was clear he wasn’t going away anytime soon. “Let’s go, Roxanna.”

“I can’t believe they put your art in the top slots,” Bryson said, shaking his head. “It’s nowhere near as impressive as the other pieces here.”

“Just because you’re a bitter jackass doesn’t mean your opinion’s right,” Roxy said. 

“That piece?” Bryson jutted his hand out behind him. “It’s garb-”

“Roxy!”

An elderly man stepped up to them, nearly knocking Bryson over. “I’m so glad you could make it!” He took her hand into his with a smile. 

“Mr. Henlack,” Roxy said. Vergil recognized that name; one of her long time clients and one of the few Vergil actually had respect for. He’d always been fair with Roxy, even paying more as a “tip”. She never thought she deserved it, of course. 

“Your art truly makes the world a better place,” Mr. Henlack said. Then, he lowered his voice and said, “And if you need this gentleman kicked out, I have friends in high places.”

Roxy laughed as Bryson flinched, taking a long step back. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She said, grinning. “But I’m sure he can play nice, isn’t that right Bryson?”

And just as Bryson was about to speak, Vergil swept Roxy into his arms with a smirk in the ex-boyfriend’s direction. For the second time that evening, Bryson’s mouth dropped, but Mr. Henlack just grinned. “Take good care of her,” He said. 

“I always do,” Vergil said. 

Roxy laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck as they descended the stairs. “Vergil!” She said as more people began to stare. He didn’t care in the slightest, and would have just teleported away if it wouldn’t have made a scene. Eventually, he took her to a back alley away from prying eyes “I think you’ve made your point.”

“Why waste your time with a degenerate like him?” He said as he shifted her into one arm. He clicked Yamato out of its sheath and opened a portal. “We’ve seen all we wanted to.”

Roxy gasped as they stepped through, her eyes wide. Vergil smiled, returning Yamato to its place and setting her down. The Fortuna apartment was an open plan and filled with sunlight from the large windows on the left. Nero and Kyrie had helped pick out the furniture, choosing a mix of beige and blue accents. He hadn’t been able to paint the walls - the landlord had been very strict on that front - but he had moved most of Roxy’s paintings for some much-needed color. 

“Go on,” He said, nudging her toward the back hallway. She moved on command, her eyes darting around the room as she tried to take everything in. Vergil followed as she opened the door to a bedroom, modeled almost entirely after hers, but with few blue sheets and furniture. He had brought her old bookcase, and purchased a second one to match, combining his growing pile of books with her large collection. This room, too, had a large window with a small alcove to sit in, just like he knew she liked. 

“It’s beautiful,” She breathed turning toward him. But he nudged her to the left where a small set of stairs led to a second floor. 

“One more,” He assured her as she eagerly climbed. She froze at the top of the stairs and Vergil swore he saw tears in her eyes. 

“You remade my art room,” she said, shifting so he could follow her. 

“I couldn’t replicate your painting,” Vergil said gently. “But I bargained with the landlord for it, if you want.” He pointed to the empty white wall on the far right. “We get one special wall as long as it can be painted over if we leave.”

“We,” She echoed. “You mean…” 

“I would like to share it,” He said. “If that’s alright with you.”

Roxy laughed, nearly knocking him over as she went for a hug. “Of course, silly!” She said as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I would love that.” She looked up at him, eyes glistening with tears that had yet to fall. He gently ran his thumb under her eye, catching a few. “It’s wonderful, Vergil. I love it.” She practically hopped to kiss his cheek, then spun around to face the room. “I could even make office space for you.”

Vergil raised an eyebrow. “And what would I use it for?”

“I don’t know,” She said playfully. “Maybe you finally get to learn how to use a computer.”

Vergil rolled his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her. She squeaked as he pulled her close, resting his chin on her head. “And who would teach me that.”

“I’m sure Nero would jump at the chance,” She said. “Or maybe Nico.” She hummed, stifling a laugh. “I suppose I could if you asked nicely.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“How long until the party?”

Vergil’s eyes drifted closed. He hadn’t forgotten about Nero’s party, per se. It was more that he still felt uneasy about going. While things had gotten better between him and the rest of the family, he still felt a bit like an outsider, watching everyone else from a window somewhere. But Roxy was insistent, just like the rest of his family. And Vergil had agreed to go, even though everything had been postponed. “About six hours from now,” He said. 

“Then we have time to go shopping!” She said. 

“Shopping?” He said. “For what?”

“Clothes. Books. Art Supplies.” She spun in his grip and looked up at him with a pleading stare. “I gotta restock everything after all, and it’ll be a cinch with Yamato!”

Vergil watched her for a moment. Then, he sighed in defeat and reached for his katana. “Where to first?”

Roxy practically cheered as she hopped back down the stairs. “Depends,” She yelled back. “Do you want the easy stuff first or last?”

“Last,” He said. 

“Then the mall it is.”

“How does that put the easy stuff last?”

“Clothes first,” She said. “Finding stuff for you is going to be near impossible.” She appeared at the bottom of the stairs again. “And don’t think you’re getting out of it. You can’t wear that coat forever.”

“I’ve managed it so far,” He said.

“Nope!” She said, wagging her finger. “You’re going to be comfortable and that’s that.”

Then she left, humming a song Vergil didn’t recognize and happier than she had been in a long time. It made his heart swell in his chest as he glanced at the empty wall. Thank you, Kuro, He thought. For saving her life. 

He could almost imagine the dragon laughing. You had better care for her well, Spawn of Sparda. 

I will. 

“Vergil?”

He glanced down the stairs where Roxy was waiting. But she had a different kind of look on her face, and her eyes were almost hazy. “What is it?” He said.

“We could also go shopping tomorrow instead...”

He raised an eyebrow as she climbed up the stairs to meet him with a shy smile. Ah. “But you sounded so excited,” He said with a smirk as she wrapped her hands around his waist and looked up at him. 

“I’m just excited to be with you,” She said, standing on her tip-toes to kiss him. Without hesitation, Vergil picked her up, hands under her legs as he pressed her against the wall for better leverage. She squeaked in surprise, earning a small chuckle as he tilted his head. She kissed him, laughing against his lips. He silenced her with his tongue and the two mingled in quiet harmony. He nearly lost his composure when her fingers found the nape of his neck and ran up through his hair. He squeezed her thighs, pressing up tighter against the wall and smirking when he earned a quiet groan.

How much time had they had alone together? Very little. There had always been someone around since the incident. Something to do. Somewhere to be.  But here… it was their own little space. Their own little world that Vergil was certain no one else would intrude on. Maybe that had just occurred to her. Not that it mattered to him. He didn’t mind the alone time. He didn’t mind any extra time with her. Maybe they could finally…

His cellphone rang. Both stopped short, staring at each other for a moment before Vergil looked down at his pocket. It could be Nero. With the party so close Vergil wouldn’t be surprised if they’d want something from him. But it could also be Dante or Nico, neither of which he was too keen on speaking to at the moment. But he couldn’t just ignore it, as much as he wanted to. He sighed, looking back up at Roxy. “I think…”

She reached past him, straining just a bit before waving his phone in front of his face. She flipped it open, “Hello?” She said, glancing at her fingers. Vergil rolled his eyes but stayed quiet as Dante started speaking. 

“Hey, Rox can you…”

“Is this urgent?”

“Well no…”

She snapped the phone closed and tossed it over Vergil’s shoulder. “He can wait,” She said with a grin before she kissed him again. The second time the phone rang, Vergil shot a summoned sword at it. Roxy grinned, face flushed. “He can pay for that later too.”

Vergil hummed in agreement and she laughed as he carried her away, determined to see that beautiful smile every day for the rest of his life.