#angel pictor

[rising-in-the-ash]

Did no one ever tell you not to mess with a fallen angel?

[redhotarsenic]

Urgh hidden power machine girl is so good it’s my favorite song in the wlfgrl album I think

[saigatatarica]

Tag ppl you wanna get to know better 🤗

Tagged by @katpaulww1 🎊🐌🍀

Last song listened to: maria - greg mendez

Favorite color: yellow

Currently watching: I have only been watching tennis and UFC lately, also some random stuff on YouTube or reels on Instagram, but haven't had the time to watch a series. Maybe during the summer, I hope.

Last movie you watched: a city of sadness 🇹🇼

Currently reading: the Collège de France Lecture Series of Michel Foucault ☝️🤓 and Borges also

Sweet/spicy/savory: sweet!!!! 🍭

Relationship status: kinda giving up at this point too

Current obsession: comics too!! and cartoons, i got randomly obssesed with the Pink Panter, Hannah-Barbera, Tom & Jerry and also with some cartoons of my childhood like Courage the Cowardly Dog and The Angry Beavers. Ana Frango Eletrico it's for sure my musical obsession of the year and I'm going through a good period of writing again, which makes me really, really happy.

Last thing googled: Queque microondas, el tiempo en Santiago, Charles Oliveira, Aporia y Remedios naturales para la náusea y el dolor estomacal 🤕

Currently working on: be happy and lazy and sad and proactive.

I usually don't participate in these kinds of chains, mostly because I'm lazy, but my desire to respond to my mutual has outweighed my usual laziness. I will tag some people whom I appreciate here; please don't feel pressured to respond. I am likely to forget to mention some mutuals whom I highly value. I attribute this to my fish-like memory, but rest assured, if we are mutuals, we both know. 🧙‍♂️

Tagging @sanasu @crewneck @featheredriver @peplos @iaooa @mudlark101 @skatalite @redbeanbug @waveringheart @geltoothpaste @atholbrose @woolwormontario @museumofcognitiveart @priest-iuput @99vc @angel-official @heartshapedmolcajete @vieilllevague @corvus-pictor @tallyuh

Also i want to say that all of those blogs are really really really great and 🫵u🫵 should follow them quick 🧺🪆🧸

[stellarcharmconstellationbattle]

Story: Battle strategy cards;‘Stellar Charm’ One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill

‘Angel Casablancas’ and their twin sister ‘Cassidy Casablancas’ are the reigning ‘Stellar Charm Card’ champions of the city. Why? From all the students and inhabitants of the city ‘One Tree Hill’ named after the ominous forest from which the entire town surrounds, the mythos and legends surrounding the condemned huaunted forest and tree upon the top of the highest mountain in the city seems to share a grim tale about a series of suicide that concerned the towns ever budding congregation that used to meet weekly for church gatherings at the foot of the ominous tree at the very top of the ecclesiastical tree, now condemned the fellowship now meets else where disbanded and scattered after the horrific events that were the result of students jumping from the top of the building, tree and mountain falling to the their deaths at the bottom of the city beneath the mountain. Walled off and forbidden territory as the signs and gates proclaim on the walls of the forbidden forest students constantly enter in hopes of finding the lost cards of a popular card game that once reigned within the town. ‘Stellar charm cards was a game of unique personal skill and talents that required one to sing, dance and use personal talents to summon your cards constellations the power from which the cards drew from. Unbeknownst to some of the students and card users, some had more than others and the more you possessed the more powerful you were compared to some who only possed two if only even one. The losers of these card games tragically forced if not pushed to end their lives from jumping to their doom amused the congregation leader who sought posses and collect all the cards. But the two twins, secretly would go from card user to card user in private consoling them and confiding within them in order to collect their card in secret, then adding their card to their book of protection, thereby spearing that student or card user from having to suicide. If one didn’t run the Forest deadly maze a deadly obstacle course of doom and make it out alive then there was no way for one to enter the condemned forest in hopes of connecting with one of the ‘stellar sacred tree’s’ one would find in hopes of connecting their soul with a sacred trees constellation of power. Thus, how the card game was born from the now candy factory that would harvest the strange fruits the trees would produce in order to create their sacred foods the town would consume in order to bring forth the unknown power within them. 

88 Officially Recognized Constellations

Latin Name

English Name or Description

Andromeda

Princess of Ethiopia

Antlia

Air pump

Apus

Bird of Paradise

Aquarius

Water bearer

Aquila

Eagle

Ara

Altar

Aries

Ram

Auriga

Charioteer

Bootes

Herdsman

Caelum

Graving tool

Camelopardalis

Giraffe

Cancer

Crab

Canes Venatici

Hunting dogs

Canis Major

Big dog

Canis Minor

Little dog

Capricornus

Sea goat

Carina

Keel of Argonauts' ship

Cassiopeia

Queen of Ethiopia

Centaurus

Centaur

Cepheus

King of Ethiopia

Cetus

Sea monster (whale)

Chamaeleon

Chameleon

Circinus

Compasses

Columba

Dove

Coma Berenices

Berenice's hair

Corona Australis

Southern crown

Corona Borealis

Northern crown

Corvus

Crow

Crater

Cup

Crux

Cross (southern)

Cygnus

Swan

Delphinus

Porpoise

Dorado

Swordfish

Draco

Dragon

Equuleus

Little horse

Eridanus

River

Fornax

Furnace

Gemini

Twins

Grus

Crane

Hercules

Hercules, son of Zeus

Horologium

Clock

Hydra

Sea serpent

Hydrus

Water snake

Indus

Indian

Lacerta

Lizard

Leo

Lion

Leo Minor

Little lion

Lepus

Hare

Libra

Balance

Lupus

Wolf

Lynx

Lynx

Lyra

Lyre or harp

Mensa

Table mountain

Microscopium

Microscope

Monoceros

Unicorn

Musca

Fly

Norma

Carpenter's Level

Octans

Octant

Ophiuchus

Holder of serpent

Orion

Orion, the hunter

Pavo

Peacock

Pegasus

Pegasus, the winged horse

Perseus

Perseus, hero who saved Andromeda

Phoenix

Phoenix

Pictor

Easel

Pisces

Fishes

Piscis Austrinus

Southern fish

Puppis

Stern of the Argonauts' ship

Pyxis

Compass on the Argonauts' ship

Reticulum

Net

Sagitta

Arrow

Sagittarius

Archer

Scorpius

Scorpion

Sculptor

Sculptor's tools

Scutum

Shield

Serpens

Serpent

Sextans

Sextant

Taurus

Bull

Telescopium

Telescope

Triangulum

Triangle

Triangulum Australe

Southern triangle

Tucana

Toucan

Ursa Major

Big bear

Ursa Minor

Little bear

Vela

Sail of the Argonauts' ship

Virgo

Virgin

Volans

Flying fish

Vulpecula

Fox

Stellar Charm-A card game:

[panic-at-the-dm]

i have recently gotten an influx of followers

i have gone from 3 to 13 so i wanted to say

@sizabledefault is a bot

@obligating-wishbone is a bot

@mounted-rearrangement is a bot

@pictoral-impurity is a bot

@oblivioustuss is a bot

@stainlessfront-runn is a bot

@angelic-cinder63 is a bot

@first-aidow is a bot

@rsbry-beret is very real

@lady-antacobellum is very real

@avocaddy might either be a very advanced bot or is real

[velocidaixxtor]

My beloved bestie @disintegratingeros tagged me, thank u sm 🖤

Shuffle your “on repeat” playlist on spotify & post the first 10 songs and tag 10 people

I will die with my head in flames - Felt

Shrinkwrap - This heat

Fig in leather - Devendra Banhart

Bancate ese defecto - Charly Garcia

Phantom of the opera - Ghost

Los Angeles: city of death - Swans

Cover me - Depeche Mode

Plan B: Anhelo de satisfacción - Catupecu Machu

Telephone and rubber band - Penguin Cafe Orchestra

Peperina - Serú Girán

I’ll tag: @somekeepsakes, @dedicatedfollowerofrock, @halo--hall, @corvus-pictor, @lastflowerss  (no pressure ofc✨)

[liquidstar]

for the ocverse questions!!!

19.) describe the sillies you think about but that dont go in the story.

AND!!!!!

20.) your ocverse just got a movie trilogy a la hunger games style. how have they horribly mangled your message/theme so that the movies are now a showcase of what the original was condemning?

19.) describe the sillies you think about but that dont go in the story.

I think all of them go into the story to some degree but a lot of them really are background characters! They tend to be a bit more simple, more gimmicky, but I also find them really fun to design for that reason! Like, having a “theme” to design a character around is so fun to me lol.

The “side guilds” for sure fit this category, but since there are so many of them I will just give you my favorite from each guild:

Gladatorium: Probably Harriot- I have a big bias for rabbits lol and I had a lot of fun w her design. She’s also, like, the newest to the guild so she’s the most normal actually. 

Pandemonium: Alkes. Simply because I think it’s really funny that in a guild comprised of edgy alt characters, the one dressed in frilly pretty pink is the edgiest and most powerful. They call him a vampire. 

Lunar Flare: I think I’ll have to give it to Pictor- I had the most fun w his design, I liked adding bright colors onto a more muted outfit, and I think the ridiculousness of the giant paintbrush as a thing he’s going to use against people with actual fucking weapons is awesome.

Dragon Tree: Lesath is the coolest one to me. I like flower themes a lot but I like them even more when they’re edgy mode. Her thing is poison and deadly nightshades, she has laced weapons AND wears lace. I had fun with her. 

Owl Tree (Working on this batch rn- not posted yet): Talitha! She’s just cute. She’s just a dorky little girl who wants to be a cool hero, she has a lot of magical girl themes.

Cobalt Heart (Not posted): Hard to pick when I haven’t finished all of them yet, but I think I’l say Otrera? She has sort of an MMA fighter vibe, she’s sort of pissed off all the time which is awesome. Honorable mention to Pip who is a portly child in a sailor uniform with a large lollipop though.

Timber scouts (not posted): Ceres. They get bullied by children all day. I just sort of feel bad for them LOL.

Tartarus (not posted): Pluto. They are the leader of one of the deadliest dark guilds, dangerously competent, fueled by death itself. They are a brutal, cold-hearted, downright ruthless “angel of death.” They are also 5 feet tall. 

20.) your ocverse just got a movie trilogy a la hunger games style. how have they horribly mangled your message/theme so that the movies are now a showcase of what the original was condemning?

This is both really funny and also pains me to think about. I think that whole theme about human connection I went on about in the last post would get dulled down to a more simple “power of friendship” trope without the meat there LOL 

[lostprofile]

THE QUATTROCENTO ANNUNCIATION IV: FRA ANGELICO

Guido da Pietro had been trained as an artist and received documented commissions as early as 1417. In 1423, he entered the Observant Dominican convent of San Domenico in Fiesole, taking the name Fra Giovanni da Fiesole. The early Dominican sources describe him as pictor angelicus. The epithet angelicus invited comparison of the painter to the doctor angelicus of the Dominican order, Thomas Aquinas. Vasari popularized the name Fra Angelico, launching the myth of the devout artist removed from the world. By the 19th century, the “angelic” painter had been transformed, according to Ruskin, “not an artist properly so-called but as an inspired saint."

While a friar at San Domenico, Fra Angelico painted three large panel paintings for the convent’s church—the retable for the high altar depicting the Virgin and Child with Saints; an Annunciation altarpiece for a side chapel (both c. 1425/26) and a Coronation of the Virgin (c. 1430), which was placed on the choir screen. The main altarpiece, which was updated by Lorenzo di Credi in 1501, is still at San Domenico. The Annunciation was sold to the Spanish monarchy in 1611 and taken to Madrid, where it eventually entered the Prado collection. The Coronation of the Virgin was looted by Napoleonic troops and is now in the Louvre.

Prior to his transfer to San Marco in Florence in 1435, Fra Angelico also painted large Annunciation altarpieces for the Observant Dominican friaries in Cortona and San Giovanni in Valdarno. The unified space, perspectival rendering of architecture and rectangular frame used in all three Annunciations reflect Fra Angelico’s awareness of the latest trends in Florentine painting.

The brilliant, jewel-like colors, tapestry-like verdure, and extensive gold leaf ornamentation of the Prado version have led scholars to place it first in the sequence. This early dating would correspond to the presence in Florence of Gentile da Fabriano, whose richly decorative style briefly influenced Fra Angelico.

[famousautomatondreamsrockstar]

Institute Of Tauroidal Sentiments lyrics

Harmony, industry, mastery, novelty,

Slippery, scenery, clarity, tendency,

Flowery, frequency, urgency, eagerly,

Reverie, sorcery, panoply, gallantry.

Mystery, fantasy, melody, cup of tea,

Battery, company, quantity, gravity,

Heavenly, guarantee, directly, luxury,

Specialty, agency, certainty, energy.

Hot sonic, exotic, hypnotic, harmonic,

Euphoric, eccentric, elastic, artistic,

Ecstatic, emphatic, pictoric, photonic,

Eclectic, idyllic, metallic, angelic.

https://soundcloud.com/automatondreams/institute-of-tauroidal-sentiments

https://soundcloud.com/automatondreams/sets/infinity-dance-paradise

https://www.instagram.com/GodAlmighty420/

[365days365movies]

March 11, 2021: The Seventh Seal (1957) (Part One)

Well, I did Cocteau this month already, so...time for another big boi director, I guess.

I’m sorry for me, too, because this one scares me a little more than Cocteau.

Ingmar Bergman. One of the greatest directors of all time, and the only prominent Swedish director that I’ve ever heard of. Also someone whom I’m DEFINITELY not qualified to judge, but here we are anyway.

Best known for Persona, Fanny and Alexander, and...one more movie, Bergman was an EXTREMELY prolific director, and far more influential on global film than you or I know. Seriously, dude influenced everyone from Martin Scorcese to Terry Jones to Peter Hewitt in one way or another. He’s passed away, as of 2007, at the age of 89. And speaking of Death...

There have been a LOT of incarnations of Death in media. Hell, we literally looked at one two movies ago, in Orpheus. You could argue that Ugetsu also revolved around death, but I’m talking about Death, the physical embodiment of the concept.

Now, the most common incarnation seen is the Grim Reaper (pictured above), but there are MANY other well-known versions. Here, have a few different versions, just for taste.

Yeah, that’s a lot. Kudos if you knew all of them! But that last one...I mentioned Peter Hewitt earlier. He directed Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, and in it, the two meet that films version of Death, a Swedish-accented ghoul. And if you’ve ever wondered about that, or about this joke from the opening song of Muppets: Most Wanted:

...Well, keep reading. Like I said, Bergman was influential, and perhaps NONE of his films was quite as influential as The Seventh Seal or Det sjunde ingelet. Welcome to a show about Death.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Recap (1/2)

ONCE AGAIN, The Criterion Collection logo brings us in, followed by the opening credits and music from that should accompany a Dark Souls boss, followed by a quote from Revelation 8:1-6, about the opening of the Seventh Seal. Roll credits?

Well, no. Instead, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, we meet a knight, resting there and praying to God, as his horses drink from the salt water. This is Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), a knight who is resting here with his squire, Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand). As Block takes out his chess set, he is joined by...

ALREADY?

Holy shit, I didn’t expect this scene to happen FOUR MINUTES IN??? Dear Lord, if this is happening now, what the hell is the rest of this movie? I am afraid of that answer now.

Anyway, yes, this is Death (Bengt Ekerot). And yeah, dude is indeed a CREEPY motherfucker. He’s been at Block’s side for a long time, but has now finally come for him, at last.

However, Block, ever clever knight that he is, capitalizes on rumors that he’s heard about the character, and challenges him to a game of chess. They start, with Block playing white and Death playing black.

But as they’re about to begin, we cut to Block and Jöns leaving the beach. Huh. OK then, I guess we’ll get back to that, huh? Jöns speaks of ill omens, and they see a pair of corpses, rotted after a long time dead. As their journey continues, we shift focus from them to a small group of actors in a caravan.

One of these actors - Jof (Nils Poppe) - sees a vision of a woman walking with her infant child, as angelic music plays in the background. He runs back to the caravan, where he wakes the sleeping Mia (Bibi Andersson), his wife. He tells her that this was the Virgin Mary and her baby boy, Jesus. Um...wow. Holy shit, my man.

Mia takes her husband’s vision as his active imagination, while he takes it as pure fact. Apparently, he’s very prone to having these kinds of visions. Mia warns him to tamp those visions down, or people will think him a fool. All of this rouses both fellow actor Jonas Skat (Erik Strandmark), and Jöns and Mia’s infant son Mikael (a cute chubby baby).

The troupe is on their way to Einsmore, performing for a group of priests. They will perform in a play about Death, once again making me think about Beetlejuice the Musical, which is really need to watch.

Block and Jöns arrive at a church, where real-world painter Albertus Pictor (Gunnar Olsson) is painting a Danse Macabre. Jöns asks why paint something so...well, macabre, and Pictor notes that it’s not a bad thing to remind people that they will die. This is especially as the Black Plague sweeps across Europe. YUP. IT’S THAT TIME PERIOD.

The two speak more on the absolute HORROR of the Bubonic Plague, a topic that clearly bothers Jöns. Meanwhile, Block goes to pray in a confessional, where he reveals that he doesn’t truly understand the point of prayer in this world. He’s clearly struggling with his faith, which must be HELL for a knight. And he delivers these confessions to his ever-present companion: Death.

Block wants God to speak to him directly, and questions whether or not God truly exists. He wants to do one last, meaningful thing before he meets his inevitable end. Block hasn’t yet realized that he’s speaking with Death, and openly talks about the chess game they began that morning. Death replies that they will continue their game in a nearby inn. This is how Block intends to prolong his own life.

He goes back out to meet Jöns, who’s still speaking with the painter, and the two leave the church. Directly outside, a woman is in the stocks, and is preparing to be burnt at the stake for learning carnal knowledge of Satan. She’s also being blamed for being the cause of the Black Plague itself. Just gotta say, big if true, goddamn. Black wants to know if she’s met the Devil himself, but she’s not quite all there.

Block and Jöns continue their journey, making their way from farmlands. Jöns goes into one of the barns in a village, where a dead body lies. He then hides as another man enters, and steals jewelry from the woman’s corpse. This is Raval (Bertil Anderberg), and he’s quickly caught in the act by a mute woman (Gunnel Lindblom).

However, before he can do anything to this poor girl, he’s stopped by Jöns, who recognizes him from the seminary, ten years prior. He tells him to shove off, and offers the mute woman a place as his housekeeper. And, uh...yeah, Jöns is kind of a dick, but more of a cad, y’know? He’s not likeable, but he also isn’t hateable.

In town, the actors’ troupe is performing, and the leader of the troupe - Skat - is seduced by a woman during the performance, and they have sex in the bushes behind the stage. As all of this is happening, the performance is interrupted by a group of flagellants, extremist priests that whip themselves and parade through the town, showing their extreme devotion to their faith. Fuckin’ yikes, this is a thing that ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

And as these people, devoted in their faith and pain, march through the town, the townspeople are moved to tears by this act. And this act has real blood, sweat, and tears poured into it. The head priest of the parade then gives a fatalist sermon to the townsfolk, noting that death will come for them all with the plague, and berating them for their seeming ignorance of their fate.

And dude is MEAN. He mocks people’s appearance, and screams to all of them that they’re doomed, and will die painful deaths. Watching on is not only the actors’ troupe, but also Block, Jöns, and the mute girl (yeah, she never gets a name, goddamn it). The pain parade moves on, singing their solemn hymns all the way. And I’m not gonna lie...it’s intense. Especially knowing that this shit actually HAPPENED? Damn.

Once they pass, Jöns notes his disbelief at this display, never believing how far people will go, or the stories that they’ll tell. He’s interrupted by blacksmith Plog (Åke Fridell), who’s looking for his wife. Meanwhile, inside, a group of townspeople talk about the spreading plague, and wonder if this is the end times indeed. Plog comes in and asks Jof where his wife is. He also doesn’t know, but it’s revealed that this is the woman that Skat ran off with in the bushes. The conversation is joined by thief Raval, who outs Jof as an actor, and a friend of Skat.

Raval and Plog both threaten him for information on Skat and Lisa’s whereabouts, and humiliate him in front of the entire tavern. It’s actually quite hard to watch as well. This poor, poor guy, who seems like a nice enough dude, is essentally tortured for the transgressions of his asshole friend. But it’s interrupted by Jöns, who stops Raval in his tracks, and slashes his face, which he said he’d do if he ever saw him again.

Excellent spot for Part 2, I think! See you there!

[rising-in-the-ash]

A Pictor painting I’m really happy with where I played with the idea of him being a biblically accurate angel. And yes, his tears are canonically gold!

[apenitentialprayer]

Christian Themes in Mughal Art: Allegory

Not all European pictures received equal attention. The patrons of the painters obviously had their priorities, and I suggest five themes to be considered: [Mary, Angels, Saints, the Jesuit Fathers…] 5. ALLEGORICAL paintings were very common in Renaissance art, which favoured pictoral modes of antique Greece and Rome. Very often antique goddesses like Venus or Minerva reentered Renaissance Italy -in antique robes- as allegories of virtues. Christian virtues like Faith, Hope, Charity, Mercy, Justice, Truth, Fortitude, Temperance, etc., were made visible by personalizing them. Personifications made abstract notions vivid: Mercy would be exemplified by depicting the seven works of mercy (clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, nursing the sick, sheltering strangers, visiting prisoners, burying the dead). Charity would be depicted as a woman caring for and feeding children. Each of the divine virtues had typical attributes. Faith (Fides) would carry a cross and a chalice [...]; Hope (Spes) looks into the radiant sun; Truth (Veritas) is portrayed as a victorious goddess [...]. Allegories of direct political symbolism were the frequently depicted animals: The lion is in the company of sheep and cows, animals at peace with each other as living symbols of peaceful rulership and good governance under the ideal emperor.

- Franz-Joseph Vollmer (Angels and Madonnas in Islam: Mughal and Other Oriental Miniatures in the Vollmer Collection, pages 9, 11-12)

[drrubinspomade]

#pictor?

YES, YES, YAS. GREETINGS FROM LOS ANGELES. We found these photos  whilst traveling the interwebs. if you like what you see, we urge you to further investigate the creator/subject(s) of the above work and fan them, follow them, hire them.

If you’d like us to remove, or you know who made this so that we can credit, shoot us a holler.

www.DrRubins.com

Gracias.

[vamytas]

A (Very Rough & Ready) Guide to Alex’s Tattoos

I’ve been putting this off for a LONG time because I like to be meticulous especially with character visuals but with the amount of tattoos Alex has, especially on his expansive canvas of a 6 foot body, trying to find a pictoral example for EVERY bit of ink is... YEAH lmfao.

* As a guiding note, the indicating ‘left’ & ‘right’ etc. is from HIS left and right. All heart designs are typical cartoon shape unless stated as (anatomical).

NECK //

Underneath his ear lobe, on the left side of his neck is a hand holding a needle -- designed to look as if it’s pierced through his skin. At the top of the needle is a red thread which curves semi-loosely around the back of his neck and wraps around a red heart below his right earlobe.This can only be seen if you lift (or pull) up his hair since he never, if rarely ever, ties it back high enough. 

LEFT ARM // 

FINGERS: Simplified red rose gradually blooming from little to index finger, from bud to full bloom. This is just below the top of his knuckles, below them (closer to his nails) on each finger is a stem with thorns.  HAND: Bull face, directed towards viewer -- lineart with minimal black shading. FOREARM: Basically a flash tattoo / pork-chop sheet mixture (see here & here  -- middle pic). Omitting anything explicitly religious (apart from a cross or two) and culturally appropriative. Includes a range of panthers, snakes, skulls, hummingbird with beak in flower, handcuffs, full figure Betty Boop, inkwell and heart wrapped in barbed wire. All interspersed with Felix the Cat faces and little stars to fill blank spaces. Very clear linework and simple shading, only using bright colours: red, green, blue and yellow. Some of these are done by Alex himself, his first tattoo on his own body being an ouroboros snake.  UPPER ARM: Much of the same as above, except with the addition of a Sailor Jerry style pin-up with blonde hair in a corset and heels. Also a chain band just below his shoulder. SHOULDER: Lucifer from Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights. First tattoo with complex colour-shading, done by his first employer in London who he worked with as apprentice. 

RIGHT ARM //

FINGERS: Skeleton anatomy on the full-length of his middle finger and knuckles, the rest of his fingers (near nails) and his thumb are blocked with plain black. HAND: Continues with skeleton anatomy. Entire design is clearly inked style shading (as in nothing that looks anatomically realistic) like this. FOREARM: Contemporary & post-modern designs. Inner forearm is covered with praying mule from And the Ass Saw the Angel book cover. Outer forearm is design pictured on the left here, picture was taken at an exhibition which I have the guide to and artist credit but .. whoever edited it  helpfully didn’t align credit with the picture so I need to manually look up each artist listed to HOPEFULLY find the one who did it.  UPPER ARM / SHOULDER:  Literally cannot describe but is piece by Jef Palumbo. Due to technique being incredibly skilled, I am taking full advantage of fictionality and tattooist with these mad skillz existing in early nineties for Alex’s sake... let him have this ..

CHEST / TORSO //

The largest / most expansive singular piece on his body. His chest and torso are fully covered with a design I lifted off a Jean Paul Gaultier add and tried editing onto his bawdy for promo graphic a while ago -- unlike graphic, the tattoo would still be in the same colour as Gaultier ad, but yellow of skull would be red instead -- less tribal texture and more lined mark-making like the skull featured in me blog background to the left of Alex’s head (I can’t find the pic in my folder..)

BACK //

UPPER BACK: This is where a little imagination is required as I’ll just be listing a bunch of images but they’re all collaged in a cohesive/overlapping way like Duncan X’s back -- pic taken by Liam Sparkes. So;  Saint Sebastian by Myles Karr down Alex’s spine. On the left: text from this photo by Tish Murtha complete with exposed brick effect -- in black and white. On the right: text from this, including a stencilised Pauline Boty rendered in Lichtenstein-ish comic print style, with matching Lichtenstein bright colour scheme. These three images together and with a certain scaling form an arc shape across his upper back, and the thread mentioned earlier on the back of his neck hangs an inch above the Saint Sebastian’s hands. Spaces in between filled by Jemma Jones style flash tattoos. LOWER BACK: I’m getting lazy so again, just imagine in style of Sparkes tattoos summat like this mixed with this on the left and again more flash tattoos imposed between and over blank spaces.

HIPS //

Handprints on each harr harr.

ASS // 

🙊 Only his partners know ... unless you attend classes where he poses for life drawing

LEFT LEG // 

THIGH (FRONT): Entire leg is surrealist/dadaist themed. Whole front of thigh is coverd by this collage by Otto D’Ambra. THIGH (BACK): Under his butt: Eliott Lane. Under that, another Otto D’Ambra. Around them, these (1, 2) by Caleb Kilby, and top middle illustration by Kathryn Kirk. KNEE: Left eye of Siouxsie Sioux, (right eye on his right knee). I’m imagining these are also embellished around the edges by a circular labyrinth symbol pattern to fit the shape of his knee joint.  SHIN: Fish-head man by Kerry-Anne Richardson, black and white. CALF: Hannah Hoch collage, but in black and white -- rendered much like D’Ambra tattoo on the front of his thigh (semi-realistic pointilism shading for woman’s face, simplified basic outline for images surrounding it). ANKLE: Smoking bunny by Sarah Whitehouse. * Spaces between these main pieces are filled by flash tattoos in style of Liam Sparkes. Entire leg is only black ink.

RIGHT LEG // 

THIGH (FRONT): Entire leg mirrors left arm in a mixture of classic tattoo designs/styles with pop-culture & illustrative character leanings. Multi-eyed devil (??) piece by Kerry-Anne Richardson. Full colour. Fishnet leggies by Just Jen on inside of thigh. THIGH (BACK): Skull emerging from chrysanthemum by Ben Shaw, underneath that: crescent moon by Kerry-Anne Richardson. KNEE: Aforementioned Siouxsie Sioux eye in labyrinth. SHIN: Wolf in sheep’s clothing by Iain Sellar.  CALF: THIS!!!!!!!! by Charissa Gregson. He hasn’t got a name yet.. suggestions welcome. Below him, more Iain Sellar stuff. ANKLE: Peachy-keen, piece by Holly Ashby. * Spaces in between main pieces on thigh are filled by Dennis the Menace & Peanuts panel. Out of sheer self-indulgence I’m adding this lady. Every other blank space refers back to Sparkes and Jemma Jones flash tattoos.

He doesn’t have any on his feet because he’s ticklish there..

[riting]

A Pictoral Essay by Laura Stinger on Sylvan Oswald’s Trainers

with additional text by Sylvan.

                                 Laura Stinger sent me an envelope in the mail. 

They had spent parts of 2018 tracking the development of my performance text Trainers. Their role was to become embedded in the process and to respond through the kind of criticism that this website is fostering here in LA: artist-driven. Artful. Ritual upon ritual.

So I was expecting something. But I couldn’t have imagined this. Laura had sent me their creative-critical response in five pages of pictoral-essay.

I had to sit down. Breathless. I had to take a breath.

Then I realized something alarming: these pages were almost lost.

...

FROM SYLVAN TO LAURA

...

...

Trainers is a performance text about a writer who falls in with a group of depressed queer revolutionaries. I have been writing it for the last two years, informed by developmental work with performers and directors. Laura signed on in 2018 as I prepared for and completed a workshop with director Mikaal Sulaiman. In one prior workshop, I played the speaker. But I am not that comfortable performing. For this workshop, we would test the idea of multiple performers at varying levels of experience sharing the role. What would be the effect?

...

...

...

Laura’s response reminds me of Donald Judd’s idea libraries. At his property The Block in Marfa, Texas, three studios house a set of his early sculptures (or, in his term, “specific objects”), although none of them were built there – or by his own hands. 

Entering one studio, I felt my own creative-spiritual charge ricochet in search of the room’s identity. This is the playwright in me: what can happen here? The studio was something between a gallery, a chapel, a factory, and a performance space. A bare yet activated space – an architecture of contemplation. Bricks and beams and places to recline. Objects as source. Suspension in the “room grid,” – like that paper Laura uses. I didn’t know such paper existed.

I order room grids online. They will ship to my sublet. I will use them to get students to imagine theater. Or to blow rooms up. Because one-point is not enough perspective.

...

Performers Pilar Gallegos [L] and JC Zepeda [R]. Photo by Jennie Liu.

...

The document responds across (trans) forms.

     Strokes are parts.

          Wholes are conundrums.

Bodies are separations.

               Turned back as ocean view.

     Horse as another theater.

...

from Trainers

...

...

Laura’s document singles out the trans body (mine) and reflects on everyone’s capacity for multiplicity of identity.

Do you think about this in private?

The document is a span of time, yet it reveals criticism as an act of collage. This criticism, its process laid bare, provokes in me as much empathy as character.

...

.

Trainers has been developed at The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep and at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television. Collaborators Jess Barbagallo, D’Lo, LaShea Delaney, Eric Hoff, Pilar Gallego, Aubree Lynn, Sarah McCarron, Mikaal Sulaiman, Meiyin Wang, and JC Zepeda have all contributed dramaturgically, as has a class with teacher Chris Wells. Work has been supported by UCLA through a Faculty Career Development Award, a grant from the Council on Research, and from the Hellman Fellowship program. Research on queer zines was supported by a Rosati Fellowship from Duke University’s Rubinstein Library. A residency with Sundance/Ucross provided time to revise. Trainers will receive its world premiere at the Gate Theatre in London in March, 2020.

Sylvan Oswald is an interdisciplinary artist who creates plays, texts, publications, and video. Trained as a playwright, he uses metatheatricality and formal irreverence to explore the ways we construct our identities. Sylvan’s plays include A Kind of Weather (Diversionary Theater, San Diego 2020), Sun Ra (Joe’s Pub), Profanity (Undermain Theater, Dallas), Nightlands (New Georges), Pony (About Face Theater, Chicago), and Vendetta Chrome (Clubbed Thumb). Other projects include Trainers, a theatrical essay; Play A Journal of Plays (2003-2011); Outtakes, a web series; and High Winds, a live performance based on his artist’s book of the same name (X Artists’ Books, 2017). Honors include a 2019 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Thom Thomas Award for Playwriting from the Dramatists’ Guild Fund, a Hellman Fellowship from UCLA, the Rosati Fellowship from the Rubinstein Library at Duke University, the Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellowship from Soho Rep, a Jerome Fellowship from The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis, as well as residencies at Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, and Sundance/Ucross. He is an assistant professor of playwriting at UCLA and an alumnus of New Dramatists. 

Laura Stinger makes work in Los Angeles. Working within the realms of research, performance, video and sculpture, their work seeks to channel and trouble the feminized body and enter viewers into a non-rational space within themselves. Laura uses text, objects, and improvised choreographies grounded in the body's internal logic systems to push into new queer forms of embodiment. In performative installations, “subconscious” movement looks to problematize notions of identity in capitalism and create a space for being chaotically present with other performers, nature, objects and viewers. The being as presence becomes a counterweight to the mediated, surveilled and branded body. Laura’s most recent work explores the axis between performance and sculpture by fashioning wearable ceramic pieces that function as appendage, restriction, and modification. They allow for an agency in the creation of identity, while their restrictive nature force certain compromises. Laura has a BFA from Tisch, NYU and an MS from Pratt. Laura has presented work at Dixon Place, NYC; PS122, NYC; the New Museum, NYC; Pieter Space, Los Angeles; PAM residencies, Los Angeles; Coaxial Gallery, Los Angeles; Elephant Gallery, Los Angeles; Ace Hotel, Los Angeles; and Patravadi Theater, Bangkok, Thailand among other venues

[stephaniemarlowftw]

XENO & OAKLANDER BRING PSYCHEDELIA TO THE CELESTIAL WITH VIDEO FOR “INSOMNIA”

The song appears on the Hypnos LP, out today from Dais Records. // Catch Xeno & Oaklander on tour this April and May.

"Xeno and Oaklander, New York’s proclaimed 'electro-minimalists' are really quite maximal in terms of musical magnificence." - Flaunt

Electronic duo Xeno & Oaklander are most comfortable in the indecipherable and indescribable. With a curious video for the sultry dance track “Insomnia,” which was directed and edited by vocalist Liz Wendelbo, Xeno & Oaklander tread deeper into the unknown. "Insomnia" is the second single from the twosome’s sixth album Hypnos, out today from Dais Records.  

Watch Xeno & Oaklander’s journey into the supernatural realm via Self-Titled Magazine (or directly on YouTube).

“Between waking and dreaming, ‘Insomnia’ explores that very moment when the mind slips into the surreal,” Wendelbo says of the song’s inspiration. “In this sci-fi inspired video, we see Xeno of Xeno & Oaklander roam around the grounds of an abandoned mansion by the sea. Using a dead tree branch as a shamanistic communication device she is summoned into outer space by alien life-forms in the shape of vintage perfume bottles.”

Hypnos, yet another triumph in Xeno & Oaklander’s catalog of melodic minimalism, is as infectious as it is evocative. Blurring the lines between ‘60s French Pop, ‘80s new wave and contemporary modular synth pop, Hypnos unfolds as a dreamlike journey through dense harmonies and complex polyphonic compositions. Anchored by vocalist Liz Wendelbo’s whispy soprano and pictoral lyrics,Hypnos is a feat in both world building and melody making.

Catch Xeno & Oaklander live along the U.S. and Europe this Spring — tour dates are below.  

Hypnos — Track Listing: 

1. Fire And Smoke

2. Hypnos

3. Angélique

4. Insomnia

5. The Light, The Whisper

6. Altamira 

7. A World Without Sun

8. Athena

Xeno & Oaklander — On Tour: 

April 1  Boot & Saddle, Philadelphia, PA +  *

April 4  Elsewhere Zone One, Brooklyn, NY + 

April 5  La Sala Rossa, Montreal, QC ^ 

April 6  Le Pantoum, Quebec, QC 

April 7  The Garrison, Toronto, ON +

April 9  UFO Factory, Detroit, MI +

April 10  Mahall’s, Cleveland, OH +

April 11  The Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL %

April 12  Rozz-Tox, Rock Island, IL +  

April 13  Nomad World Pub, Minneapolis, MN 

April 15  East Room, Nashville, TN +

April 16  Ace Of Cups, Columbus, OH + 

April 24  Charlie’s American Café, Norfolk, VA  

April 26  Las Rosas, Miami, FL  

April 29  529, Atlanta, GA +

April 30  Santos, New Orleans, LA +

May 2  Regal Room, Dallas, TX + 

May 3  Mohawk, Austin, TX +

May 4  Love Buzz, El Paso, TX +

May 8  The Rebel Lounge, Phoenix, AZ +

May 9  Club Congress, Tucson, AZ +

May 11  The Casbah, San Diego, CA

May 12  The Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA

May 16  BE Bruxelles Le Brass *

May 17  DE Lohr Umsont Und Drinnen *

May 18  FR Lille La Malterie *

May 19  UK Bristol The Crofters Rights *

May 21  UK London Moth Club *

May 24  FR Nantes WNWH fest 

May 25  FR Paris Petit Bain *   ^ 

May 26  BE Antwerp De Kleine Hedonist

May 29  SE Stockholm Slakthuset *

May 31  DK Copenhagen Stengade *

June 1  DE Berlin Urban Spree *

June 5  HUN Budapest Dürer Kert 

June 7  PL Krakow Green ZOO

June 8  CZ Prague Altenburg 1964 *

+ Plastic Ivy

* Void Vision

^ Automelodi

% Odonis Odonis

Artist photo by: Albrecht Fuchs