#ON WHY HELEN IN TYPICAL AMERICAN IS VERY COOL

[krekdon]

hot take but i think if your feedback on an essay is that its 'excellent' but u grade it in the 'very good' band you shld have to explain urself

[eldritch-something-or-other]

Hello! Remember how I said I'd make more TF2 AUs than the Monster AU? well here's my

TF2 Kids AU

General Info: The whole thing takes place in one neighborhood where everyone lives. Most of the kids that aren't American (or come from a specific place in America) typically moved from there to the neighborhood. I wanted scout and spy to still be related in some way so they're half brothers. how scout doesn't know of this and spy does is because spy only lives with his dad (likely his mother died tragically) and his dad and scouts ma had a thing for a bit, long enough to have scout, then they divorced and while scouts ma has moved on spy's dad just hasn't shut up about it to spy since. its like the comics in that Miss Pauling is collecting each of the mercs but in this case its for the first time

Miss Pauling: so first of all Miss Pauling is the main character for the most part (like in the actual comics) the reason she goes by Miss Pauling is that there were multiple other girls with her name, so her teachers just called her Miss Pauling and it stuck she's Helen's kid. (I was thinking of making admin a kid too, but she works better as a sort of 50 year old mom with a powerful job) the whole mission of Pauling collecting the kids is framed as some grand shady mission given by Helen but in reality it was just her weird convoluted plot to get miss p more friends At the beginning really her only friend is scout

Scout: he's, of course, the youngest of seven other brothers. they dont hate him but they aren't exactly his friend he's friends with Miss Pauling cause he saw her one day (either he or she just moved into town) and he thought she was soo pretty and just started talking to her, only to realize he also liked her as a friend when they first met he just couldn't pronounce her name. 'Pauline? Pooling? Puh-lin?' and eventually she just sighed really heavy and just went 'just call me miss p' and he was just like 'ok!' honestly just shit at pronouncing ANYONES name he doesn't really have any friends other than Miss Pauling He's the type of kid to go up to any adult he considers cool and go 'hey look how fast I can run' and then dash away from them as quickly as possible

Spy: spy is living with his dad who honestly kinda sucks but in like a funny way. like he'd suck to actually be around but funny to read about spy's first name is Francis and he absolutely HATES it because of Francis The Talking France and, because he's French, thats literally the first thing almost anyone says when they hear his name, so he'd very much rather people call him spy. he got the nickname spy cause he's like a creepy kid that watches people in the bushes and other places. he also pickpockets and lies but he mainly does those to adults. he's also got a knife collection that he will infodump/mansplain to anyone he can find about. he's this kid who you expect to be super mega rich and then you get to his house and its like oh. dude the lights dont even turn on. theres like two things in the fridge. its like the most ramshackled house. how the hell does he look like a butler (the answer: Thievery) His meeting starts with the team wondering like oh god where could he be he could be anywhere and then engie's like 'have. have y'all considered just going to his house and knocking on the door' and they're all like '..................................no' so they go to do that and spy stops them just before they can knock and he has somehow got in front of them and he's like 'ohohoho. you dont have to do that.' partly for him to be all mysterious and intimidating and partly because he doesn't want em to see his cringe house, so after they converse for awhile he joins.

Soldier: He was like. raised by five military men/veterans which is why he's Like That at the age of like 10 (he also got that nickname for Obvious Reasons) he probably visits Merasmus (who is still totally a wizard in this) a lot and Merasmus has less of a 'shittiest roommate ever' opinion of him and more of a 'older/adult sibling annoyed by loud child who refuses to leave' opinion of him i feel like the team meets him at Merasmus's place (where demo is also there, cleaning his castle) and miss p is like 'heyyy soldier. i need you for. um. a mission.' and he's like 'A MISSION? I WILL JOIN YOU!' and she asks demo whos like 'hold on hold on ive got to finish cleaning this wizards castle' and the teams like 'well maybe we could help' and Merasmus is like hm ok that would be nice and soldiers like 'I WILL HELP :]' and merasmus is like 'nO YOU WILL NOT HELP' and sollys like 'I WILL NOT HELP :]' cause hes like 11 so the team (minus soldier, who is standing outside patiently) help demo clean the whole castle and set off to find the next merc

Demoman: so demo is like this like 10-12 year old kid with like. three to four jobs cause his mum said he needed em (one job is cleaning merasmus's castle and generally helping with housework) he got the nickname from him trying to explain that both his mom and dad were demomen and like the next time that kid/group of kids saw him they were like 'hey its that demo guy!' so the nickname is usually reserved for like people who dont know him well or people who dont know how to/refuse to pronounce 'tavish' i already told you how they meet him so heres a bit more about him he skips classes somewhat often and his teacher assume hes just being lazy or delinquent but its actually because he has like. four jobs he lost his eye from merasmus's book but he begged merasmus to let him keep working for them saying that he'd start actually following the rules and that he really needed the job and merasmus was eventually like ok FINE.

Engineer: so Engie is like the whole gifted kid thing, but hes also very kind (and has talked several bullies down successfully) the reason hes called engineer is because he's won several school awards for his little (genuinely functional) contraptions and the majority of them were engineering competitions Miss Pauling meets him in his yard working on god knows what, with his dad (Fred, the team fortress classic engineer) reading a news paper on the porch she basically just asks him if he'll come with her for this mission that her mom set her up on and he's just like "yeah sure hold on let me ask my dad- HEY DAD. CAN I HANGOUT WITH THIS RANDOM GIRL WHO SAID HER MOM NEEDS ME FOR A MISSION?" and his dad just takes one look at her then goes back to his newspaper and yells back 'YEAH SURE SON'

Heavy: heavy is gotten just/a bit before medic cause he's medics closest/only friend and the other kids are afraid of the 'doctor' he got the nickname heavy cause well. kids are cruel sometimes he lives with his mother and three sisters, he's quite a bit more reluctant to join as both a. half the team is annoying and b. he has no goddamn idea who these kids are nor what their intentions are. engie is probably the one to convince him both by using his relationship with medic as leverage and because he's like the only one there that is actually good at talking to people. once he's with them for a bit he's like 'hey this isn't as bad as i thought it'd be' although he does still think soldier and scout are annoying as hell. once they get medic he's like 'hey this might actually be a good fun friend group'

Sniper: He and Miss Pauling were set up in like one of those partner project things cause nobody wanted to be with either of them so they just got stuck together sniper came up with that name himself. he was like "call me... sniper" and then everyone's like 'whatever you say mick' their interaction goes like. as awkwardly as possible. neither of them have any social skills she's just like 'hey um. hey sniper? can you not throw rocks at us i wanna talk' and he's silent for a second and soldier butts in like 'IF YOU THROW ROCKS AT ME I WILL BE PREPARED! I HAVE A HELMET.' only to be knocked over by a stone to the noggin and snipers like in his tree house like 'sorry sorry but he totally was asking for it ' and miss p's like 'no no he really was but um. can you come here my mom said she needed me to get you for a mission' and etc etc sniper joined the party

Medic: He's just as medically experimental and morally bankrupt as he is in adulthood but he doesn't really have any human subjects. he's got like several stitched together hybrid animals that are somehow still alive and now his pets. I can't decide if his parents being too afraid to stop him or them being just as morally bankrupt and extremely supportive would be funnier he got the nickname. well from being generally a mad doctor (Misha specifically calls him doktor as apposed to medic) but there was a specific instance where he stole the majority of the schools medical supplies for his experiments all of the kids, minus like. Misha, dell and soldier were fucking terrified of him before meeting him. he's still scary, but now they know he can be just as chatty as scout at times i think it'd be funny if like they met his scared parents and they were like 'you... you want to see him?' and they're like 'um. yeah' so they go like allllll the way (i'm imagining the house is super tall with like a mad scientist area (medics room) at/near the top) to his room and then the door like creeks and he's all shadowed then he swivels around in his chair and he's just all like 'oh hallo!! :] it is SO next to have guests :3 it gets lonely sometimes :/ who are you btw' and they're all like '. this Cannot be the right guy' and then it is

Pyro: They're this kid living in this house that was abandoned after at least half of it burnt down, presumably killing the family living in it. its in this secluded area of town that no one really goes to, so no one can really see that the windows are boarded up from the inside and there's lights inside the building. pyro got the nickname from. well they're a kid living in a burnt building people are gonna assume they burnt the building i have this whole idea of like miss p walking with the rest of the team like 'Helen said that we should be careful with this one' and they get spy to sneak around the house seeing all these strange things like colorful scribbles on almost every wall, straight up weapons lying around, an entire pile of empty jerry cans in the garage, the fridge half full of rotten food with the sink filled to the brim with dirty dishes, scratches and burns on many walls, the entire place generally being in disrepair. i like to think the first time they encounter pyro, only seeing them from behind one of ems just like 'oh huh the place they live in is weird but who'd be afraid of that' cause like they've got like that unicorn onsie on or somethin similar and then they turn around (still not noticing the team) and they've got that full on gasmask that was clearly made for an adult and they're just like "Oh. Okay" they're all like stumped on how to get them to join until someone (probably engie or admin if they call her for help) is like 'all the food was rotten right? maybe get them something to eat? cause like theres no way they're eating well unless they've got like a hidden fridge somewhere' and so they get like a homemade lunch in like. a ballonicorn lunchbox for them and they tear up from the generosity but Shenanigans happen that makes the other mercs chase em eventually it leads the mercs to the attic and the mercs fall for the classic bucket above the door trick but alas! the bucket is full of gasoline and pyro's got a flamethrower! so engie and a couple others like Miss Pauling and Demo have to talk em down and get em to join the friend group and it works out in the end cause im not writing a group of children getting set on fire

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!

[twh-news]

Loki’s production designer on the Modernist inspiration behind the show’s stunning visuals | The Art Newspaper

By Helen Stoilas

Kasra Farahani explains why the Time Variance Authority waiting room looks so much like the Breuer building, and how the inside of a Fabergé egg became an alien train carriage.

Fans of Modernist design can find a lot to appreciate in Loki, the television series starring Tom Hiddleston recently released by Marvel Studios on the streaming channel Disney+. The stunning production is clearly influenced by Brutalist and Neo-Futurist architecture, as well as Soviet Socialist art and sculpture. Visual references can be seen from the very first episode, in which the magic-wielding god of mischief is apprehended by a universe-spanning police force known as the Time Variance Authority for “crimes against the Sacred Timeline” (stay with us).

One early scene, for example, was filmed on a custom-built set that bears a striking resemblance to the lobby of the Marcel Breuer building in New York which once housed the Whitney Museum—and now houses the Frick—while another was shot on location in the Neo-Futurist Atlanta Marriott Marquis hotel, designed by the architect John C. Portman, Jr (with some monumental statues later edited into the soaring atrium). The Art Newspaper spoke to the series’ production designer, Kasra Farahani, about his inspirations for the look of the show.

The Art Newspaper: Loki's director, Kate Herron has called this series a love letter to sci-fi and you see a lot of visual homages to films like Brazil, A Clockwork Orange and Blade Runner. But there's also a clear influence of Modernist design on the look of the series overall. You studied industrial design early in your career. Were there specific examples of Modernist architecture and design that you were looking at when you started working on the series?

Kasra Farahani: So many, everyone from Frank Lloyd Wright to Breuer, to Mies van der Rohe to Paul Rudolph—you have a shot in the John Portman building—to Oscar Niemeyer. And then a lot of Eastern European, Soviet-influenced Modernism played a big part in it as well. I can honestly tell you that my first and foremost inspiration was Modernism. Part of that is because the TVA (Time Variance Authority) is a bureaucracy and I think, archetypically, so much of what we know a bureaucracy to be is that post-war, highly funded institutional look. And there's a lot of different versions of that, whether it's the Washington, DC version, like the Hoover building, or whether it's what we had in Los Angeles, where I grew up, where there's a huge amount of post-war architecture built for the population boom. Like the elementary school, middle school and high school that I went to were all mid-century Modernist.

I was also looking a lot at Brutalism and the Modernism in former Soviet states, that are heavily influenced by Socialism and Soviet architecture, and where scale is such a big driving force of the design.

The size of some of the buildings in the show are kind of overwhelming. I know that some filming was done in the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, with that huge soaring atrium. You just completely get dwarfed by that kind of architecture.

Yeah, that's right. That one we used for the TVA archives because we couldn't justify building a big set, but once I scouted it, I saw that we could bring in these massive Time-Keeper sculptures at the scale you would typically only see in an exterior, which is a fantastical thing. The TVA sets themselves, which were almost entirely full 360-degree sets, were very much designed as an intentional paradox between the stoic, large-scale Brutalism form language, and the surfacing and palette and whimsical patterning, which is very much taken from American mid-century Modern. Those two things create these spaces that feel at once super intimidating and then uncomfortably inviting and warm at the same time.

That’s kind of the irony of a lot of Modernism, Brutalism especially, it had these utopian ideals of creating affordable social housing, but then a lot of the people found it really oppressive to live in.

Yeah. Modernism has been that way the whole time—it was designed to be super cheap and utilitarian and routinely it ends up being the most expensive kind of architecture. Another thing readers may be curious to know about is the TBA expanse, which is essentially the view outside some windows.

That futuristic cityscape you can see….

Yeah. They had very strange and unique parameters to try to design that. The TVA exists outside of the physical world—so there's no weather, there's no roofs, there's no difference between interior and exterior, there's not necessarily even gravity in the way that we know it. But there are these meandering colonnades that we took a lot of inspiration from Brasilia—and obviously a lot of the super cities that were drawn in comics. But also there's some really beautiful conceptual sketches that Frank Lloyd Wright did of a version Los Angeles in the early 20th century that had Roman-like colonnades and plazas and a lot of that fed into what the TVA expanse is.

You mentioned all the sets you built for Loki, especially for the TVA. There's two that where used a lot. The Time Theater, where so much of kind of Loki’s personal story gets told, and looks like its straight out of the Barbican in London, with these huge colour-coded directional numbers on the walls. And then there's the Miss Minutes waiting room with those circular lights that looks almost exactly like the lobby of the Breuer building in New York—to the point where I reached out to the museum to ask if you’d filmed there. You even got the silver-tipped light bulbs right.

We were very inspired by that, but it's different in some very subtle, but for me, very important ways. Number one, the size of the bulbs is much smaller, they were manipulated to create eyeballs, basically. Another important difference is that in the Breuer building, they have these dishes hanging in space, whereas in ours, they're negative space, there's a solid ceiling. It creates a matrix of eyeballs peering down, like the always-watching Time-Keepers. And maybe the most important difference is that the ceiling is slammed down—you know the cheapest apartment you can go into has an eight-foot ceiling, this is six inches shorter than that, and our actor is about six-foot-three. The idea was to create a sort of trash compactor feeling in this claustrophobic space with this matrix of eyes, watching as all of this is happening.

The time theater was for me very inspired by Pier Luigi Nervi.

I liked that waffle coffered ceiling you have in that room.

Thanks. We were very happy with it, and it created this kind of forest of light columns which helps set the neo-noirish, interrogative nature of the space. And the unnecessarily large super graphics that you mentioned are a very Paul Rudolph sort of a thing, he did that in his building too, and I love that.

For me, it’s very important not to reference a set design from other films, that why I reference architecture, painting, photography, these other art forms, more than anything else, because inevitably when you’re working in archetypes, there’s a lot of overlap.

And as Loki goes into different times and locations, you get a completely different design environment in those places. There’s a scene on a train car, that has a very Art Deco look.

That was inspired by the inside of a Fabergé egg, Art Deco meets Alien.

And when you finally meet the Time-Keepers in the most recent episode, it’s like they're in a pre-Colombian pyramid or a ziggurat.

I was looking at Indian stepwells, this almost fractal quality with these descending stairs going into one another—but we imagined them going out every direction, with an Escher-like quality, like they are tessellating themselves to infinity.

I read on Twitter that you literally bought a bowling alley from Omaha and brought it to Atlanta to create Loki's Palace in the Void in the last episode, which is this crazy, surreal, amusement park, junk yard-like place.

We bought the floor of a bowling alley, everything else we built. That was a lot of fun because the script gave us a lot of runway. The proposal was to do this bowling alley because essentially everything in the Void has been discarded from time, and more things fall into it and accumulate and so you end up with these strata. I liked the idea of like a bowling alley that's been smashed over your knee or something. The net effect is when you first enter, you have all these lane lines pointing down at this throne, which was supposed to be stolen from a mall Santa. And then there's these crazy alien plants that are growing through it that have taken parasitic hold of the place. In many ways, I think its a narrative microcosm of the Void itself, which is like a salad bar of these disparate aberrations slammed together. Things like the bowling alley all have these micro-narratives that we in the art department have come up with to help flush out the design and make them specific. For example, there's portraits on the wall of like bowler of the month, and they’re not quite human. It's not in the episode, but those things are important for us in the art department.

At the very end of the most recent episode, we get a glimpse into this city that Loki and Sylvie (played by Sophia Di Martino) are walking into. Can tell us anything about what inspired those scenes, what we're about to see?

You can call me back in a week. All I can say is that the TVA is definitely the visual and narrative anchor of the story, but there's a lot of great worlds to see. And I think what people are responding to is the breadth of the visual variety of the show. And episode six won't be any different. It's really cool, and maybe some of my favorite stuff.

[ravenclaw-craftsgirl]

~IDENTITY (AS OF 6TH YEAR)~

Name: Lilian Marie Le’Reau

Gender: Female

Age: 17

Birth Date: February 23, 1973

Species: Human

Blood Status: Muggleborn

Sexuality: Gay

Alignment: Neutral

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Nationality: French/English (dual citizenship)

Residence: London, England

Myer Briggs Personality Type: INFJ-T The Advocate

1st Wand: 

Alder Wood 12 3/4 Slightly springy flexibility Unicorn Hair core Alder is an unyielding wood, yet often its ideal owner is not stubborn or obstinate, rather helpful, considerate and most likable. Whereas most wand woods seek similarity in the characters of those they will best serve, alder is unusual in that it seems to desire a nature that is, if not precisely opposite to its own, then certainly of a markedly different type. When an alder wand is happily placed, it becomes a magnificent, loyal helpmate. Of all wand types, alder is best suited to non-verbal spell work, whence comes its reputation for being suitable only for the most advanced witches and wizards.

2nd Wand:

Acacia Wood 13 Supple flexibility Horned Serpent Horn core A very unusual wand wood, which I have found creates tricky wands that often refuse to produce magic for any but their owner, and also withhold their best effects from all but those most gifted. This sensitivity renders them difficult to place, and I keep only a small stock for those witches or wizards of sufficient subtlety, for acacia is not suited to what is commonly known as ‘bangs-and-smells’ magic. When well-matched, an acacia wand matches any for power, though it is often underrated due to the peculiarity of its temperament.

Animagus: Black Ragdoll with curved white marks under the eyes and on the paws

Misc Magical Abilities: Naturally adept at most forms of transfiguration and animation charms, wandless spell casting, silent spell casting

Boggart Form: Death Eater from her past

Riddikulus Form: Darth Vader saying “Lilian, I am your father”

Amortentia (others): A kitchen cooking a full meal; generally steak, green beans, baked potatoes, buttered rolls and brownies

Amortentia (Lilian): (before dating) Machine shop oil, the smell of grease and degreaser (after dating/ married) The smell of an old book and the fragrance of Merula’s perfume

Patronus: Multiple Wolves (average 2-3, more depending on the need)

Patronus Memory: The memory of all her friends, family and loved ones attending the unveiling of her first golem

Mirror of Erised: Herself, living life without fear of persecution by muggles or pureblood wizards.

Specialized/Favourite Spells: 

Piertotum Locomotor

Baubillious (for offense and creation)

Permanent Sticking Charm (It’s easier than weeks of welding)

Aguamenti (you wouldn’t believe how many fires are started near Lilian)

Incendio (speaking of fire…)

Engorgio

Reducio

~APPEARANCE~

In game

Height: 6’3” (190.5 cm)

Weight: 170 lbs (77 kg)

Physique: Toned/ Lean build

Eye Colour: Purple/ Amethyst

Hair Colour: Snow White (originally chestnut)

Skin Tone: Porcelain

Body Modifications: Single Purple streak of Dyed hair

Scarring: After the battle of Hogwarts in the second wizarding war, Lilian loses her left arm and right leg below the joints. She later develops prosthetics nearly identical to her original limbs, but stronger than steel

Inventory: On her person she will have a charm bracelet of several shrunken items including:

-a table -a cooler -a medical cabinet (with everything inside secured) -three Tiny Golems (for easy transport when not in use)

As well as a satchel with several books, pencils and sketch pads for when she has an idea or observes something inspiring. She owns a car and a Thunderbolt broomstick.

Fashion: Lilian normally dresses in black slacks, a white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a black vest over the white shirt. She also owns several pairs of boots, most in the style of buckle up platforms with steel toes.  She will also wear various dresses to accentuate her figure, muscles or the dresses design as well as several pop culture t-shirts (her favorites are often science fiction based such as Star Wars and Halo)

~ALLEGIANCES~

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Affiliations/Organizations:

The Order of the Phoenix

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The Constitutional Republic of France

The Royal Crown of England

Professions:

Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office (consultant)

Department of Magical Equipment Control 

Freelance Craftswoman (magical prosthetics)

Freelance Craftswoman (miscellaneous items)

Freelance Craftswoman (Animated Objects)

~HOGWARTS INFORMATION~

Class Proficiencies:

Astronomy: ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (E) Charms: ★★★★★★★★★★ (O) DADA: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (O) Flying: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (A) Herbology: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ (E) History of Magic: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (A) Potions: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ (O) Transfiguration: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (O)

Electives:  Study of Ancient Runes Ancient Runes Alchemy Arithmancy Advanced Arithmancy

Extra Curricular: 

Dungeons and Dragons club Potions Club Magic TheoryAncient Runes Club Education of Muggle Items Group (unofficial president)

Favourite Professors: 

Professor McGonagall: While not typically the first choice of Ravenclaws, Lilian respects Professor McGonagall for her cool and decisive temperament, her rational thought processes and her ability to make the correct call in stressful situations. She is also partial due to the shared Animagus attribute as well as the professor’s forgiving nature towards Lilian’s Experimentation with magical creations.

Least Favourite Professors:

Professor Trelawney:  While Lilian respects every form of knowledge, she never understood why this class was a core requirement and not an elective. Surely if someone was that desperate to know their ‘future’ they could use their own time instead of forcing an entire class to follow suit. Lilian is a firm believer in ‘you make your own fate’ and views Professor Trelawney as overly superstitious, even by wizarding world standards.

~RELATIONSHIPS~

Father: Daniel Le’Reau Muggle English Professor Attended University of Cambridge, England Short, Chestnut brown hair with matching Goatee. Tall, slightly scrawny 38 years old.

Daniel is soft-spoken and amicable, often seeking the least confrontational methods. Polite and poised, as expected of a respected University professor

Upper Middle Class 

Professor of Literature and English Studies at the University of Cambridge 

Daniel is a very well known professor, often sited in many English studies papers for his ideas on early literature such as Shakespeare and Anglo-Saxton ballads, noting their implications in modern art and culture as well as their historic significance. He is also known to be quite supportive of his students, often treating them like family members and helping them achieve their dreams. 

Known the McKinley family since Lilian was 5 (the day she was almost kidnapped)

Mother: Amelie Nicole Le’Reau Muggle Long straight Black hair, Amethyst eyes, Average height, toned muscles, rugged beauty. Mechanic (military contracted) 37 years old.

Amelie is an outspoken, avid thinker who spends just as much time as her husband educating people.

Amelie originally served in the Royal Engineering Corps in her early years until she met and fell in love with a rather awkward yet lovable man named Daniel. Shortly before her Exit date, she married him and had Lilian. Since then, she’s been a military contractor for the Royal Engineering Corps. Assisting with various mechanical jobs from basic transportation to armored troop transports to Tanks and Mobile Weapons Systems.

Nearly traumatized when a dark wizard kidnapped Lilian after killing several bystanders with magic and curses. Almost forbade Lilian from attending Hogwarts when she received the acceptance letter. Remains in good standing with Shamus McKinley.

Love Interest: Merula

While they only officially started dating during the Sixth year, their relationship started in the Fourth year.

During the Celestial ball, Lilian noticed that Merula didn’t have anyone to dance with and offered to dance with her.  After the Celestial Ball, Merula’s Attitude softened to a degree. While Lilian was still being teased about how tall she was, she was no  longer harassed for being a muggle, nor was she mocked for her passions. While Merula wouldn’t outright ask for help from Lilian, She would never deny Lilian helping her.

Generally the attitude of the two was always Lilian genuinely trying to learn about Merula while Merula made an effort to understand Lilian and where she was from. Eventually Mistrust and Resentment would make way to curiosity and intrigue. 

Only when Lilian had saved Merula’s life from Dementors had she finally figured out her mixed feelings for Lilian, realizing that she had fallen in love with the quiet muggle born witch, eccentricities and all.

Best Friends:

Rowan Hubei Khanna (Female Khanna) Rowan Harrow Khanna (Male Khanna) Ben Copper Penny Haywood Badeea Ali Ismelda Murk Rival: None

Enemy:

Patricia Rakepick

R

Dormmates: 

Rowan Hubei Khanna Badeea Ali Tulip Karasu

Pets:

Eleanor is an american shorthair that Lilian rescued from the street during her trip to Diagon Alley. Eleanor had been a kitten at the time, thus Lilian was given special permission to have her familiar with her during all classes to make sure she didn’t go hungry.

Due to outstanding Circumstance, Lilian has also (legally) adopted an Acromantula that refers to himself as Cain. While technically intelligent enough to take care of himself, he does allow her to give pets and scratch his carapace in the right areas. In exchange, Lilian is given a supply of webbing to refine into silk as she needs.

Closest Canon Friends:

Ismelda Murk Rowan Hubei Khanna

Closest MC Friends:

Helene Adler @heleneplays​

Skylar Morningstar @angrynar​

Ada Corcoran @ask-bincopper-archive​

Neon Welkin @neonbluewaves​

Ethren Whitecross @hogwartsmysterystory​

~BACKGROUND/HISTORY~

[The following is an excerpt from the book The Craftswoman, a biography on the Life and Philosophies of Lilian Le’Reau]

Interviewer: What do you know of Mrs. Le’Reau? Headmistress Rowan Hubei Khanna: Lilian? Wow, where do I begin… She was always quiet. It was almost as if she were watching everything that happened for the sake of safety and precautions. Like she was always expecting the worst to happen to her no matter what. But given her history I wouldn’t put it past her. 

I: Could you please elaborate on that? Headmistress Khanna: Well, I suppose so. When Lilian was around the age of five, she and her mother were attacked by a rogue Death Eater, one of the remnants of the first wizarding war. A lot of people died that day, several more had to have their memory erased. 

I: With the Memory Erasing Charm, yes. The report of ‘The Market Massacre’ were in the papers for weeks after the incident, if I recall. Headmistress Khanna: Right. Well, This death eater had a particular goal in mind. I was told that he kept on rambling about how he was gonna make  new army, one to combat the remnants of the Order of Phoenix. He had planned on kidnapping Children with magical talent in order to build this order. 

I: Fortunately, the Auror Shamus McKinley was nearby to save her. He not only saved her, but dispatched the dark wizard as well, yes? Headmistress Khanna: While this is true, it still had its ramifications. No one goes through that sort of experience the same. Lilian didn’t like to talk about where she came from or about her childhood.

I: Well, how about her years alongside you at Hogwarts? How would you describe that? Headmistress Khana: Our time at Hogwarts was actually rather mundane compared to the adventures of our other classmates. Lilian and I were generally the part of the plan that collected information and helped solve the riddles of the vaults, rather than actually fighting any of the curses there. Otherwise, much of her time was spent studying, trying to figure out new ways to apply spells and context of said spells, and honing her own personal abilities.  Like I said, a rather average Hogwarts tenure for the both of us.

I: Alright. How about during the battle of Hogwarts? Or perhaps anything during then and your graduation of Hogwarts? Headmistress Khanna: The time before the battle of Hogwarts, I can't testify for. For a while, most of us fell out of contact as we moved on with our lives, trying to make a name for ourselves in our own fields. But… 

I: It’s okay if you would like to avoid this subject. Headmistress Khanna: No no, it needs to be said. During the battle of Hogwarts, a lot of us were scared. None of us had been in this sort of conflict before, and those of us that had weren't ready for what we faced. Yet there Lilian was, setting up perimeters and directing people to the best suited jobs to help defend. She even brought in nearly a dozen golems to assist in the defense. We were lucky too, since those were the only things stopping the main host of trolls from climbing up the bridge. The battle itself is a blur, but when the dust settled, we all saw Lilian slumped against a wall, babbling on about equations and how many litres of blood she felt she had lost. She was missing her arm and leg, surrounded by a dozen or so dark wizards. 

I: Thank you, Headmistress. I think that’ll be all for now. Headmistress Khanna: I appreciate the need to document Lilian’s life. She’d be too busy to actually sit down and write it herself, believe it or not.

~PERSONALITY~

Lilian is a very open minded individual. Creative and Intelligent, She will always see projects through to the end, even if she already knows that the result will be failure. Despite the innumerable amount of failures that she’s had, Lilian always finds a way to take joy from any situation. While she mainly focuses on her work, she is a rather quiet and shy woman despite her imposing stature and very apparent abilities. She doesn’t like to brag, nor is she prone to any outwardly negative emotions. 

She does have several flaws though, first and foremost being her inability to cope with overly strong negative stimuli as well as a tendency to hyper fixate on a project at hand, often forgetting to eat and rest until her body physically forces her to sustain itself. (most common being her collapsing from exhaustion and sleep deprivation.)

MISC

Lives in the muggle world (London specifically)

Has family in both France and England

While not typically a fighter, Lilian has mastered the Patronus charm to astonishing success, manifesting three or more Wolf patroni with one casting.

While she is missing her left arm and right leg from the joints down, Lilian has since made prosthetic arms that are not only nearly identical to the previous limbs, they are far stronger than steel and well crafted enough to fool Muggles unless they closely inspect the hand in question.

Lilian married Merula nearly a year after the Battle of Hogwarts

In order to maintain hold of her tools while working and simultaneously casting spells, Lilian has mastered both the art of wandless and silent spellcasting.

Lilian owns a machine shop in London, making both Muggle and Magical items for multiple clients. She is allowed to do this through the employment of Squibs. This also allows her to take Auror Interns, teaching them how muggle technology works.

Lilian attempts to pioneer Golemancy, even attempting to have it recognized as an official practice of magic.

After Much convincing and reassuring, Lilian managed to get Merula to move to the Muggle world. Even then, this was only after several charms had been cast to help hide their magical nature from Ordinary Muggles. (Merula is particularly keen on cell phones.)

After several letters, Lilian agrees to teach several Magic Theory classes at Beauxbatons, much to the joy of several students and faculty. Lilian even demonstrates the magic and technology behind her prosthetics, inspiring the next generation of magic craftsmen and women.

[ryanmeyerart]

Grace Hartigan’s “Barbie”

This essay was written in 2012

Opinion alert — Jackson Pollock is the most famous Abstract Expressionist painter. Fact alert — it was in New York City that Pollock and the other artists associated with this new movement blossomed. The “Irascibles,’ as they were dubbed, began to shake up the art world with their new philosophy and aesthetic. The novelty of Abstract Expressionism was powerful enough from the beginning to draw in a younger group of artists. Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis, and Grace Hartigan are a few of the artists known as the second generation New York School. Despite her young age, Hartigan was deep in the Cedar Tavern circle and was considered a friend by Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Kline, etc. Curious and observant, Hartigan looked outward at her surrounding physical, social, and political world for inspiration. She began to paint a combination of what she saw and what she felt. Her commentary on daily life is the leading characteristic of her work. Her paintings such as Barbie have been interpreted as feminist precursors to pop art, but in reality, Hartigan did not ally herself with either feminism or pop art. For Barbie the output is a statement about the contemporary ‘60’s society. This painting and the great majority of her other works are musings on life and should be viewed the same way one reads poetry. A complete interpretation can only be accurately made by considering her own words as well as clues from her life’s story.

Hartigan was born on March 28, 1922 in New Jersey. She was greatly influenced by her aunt, an english schoolteacher who piqued her interest in writing and theatre which lasted all through high school. She married at age 18 and ended up in California after she and her husband ran out of money on their way to Alaska. They lived there several years with their newborn son until World War II broke out. They decided to move back east where he was then drafted. She began to take night classes to learn drawing and painting and got a job as a draftsman. She fell in love with Matisse after being introduced to book of his work and immediately began seeking out a way to paint like him. She then began to study under Ike Muse and moved to New York with him after she and her husband split. Not much time passed before she and Muse split also and she began to support herself with a “life of total poverty but meeting all marvelous, exciting people.”1 This is a reference to the collection of artists and writers who patronized the Cedar Tavern in the 40’s and 50’s. She visited Pollock’s and de Kooning’s studios and began the journey headfirst into pure Abstract Expressionism which solidified her status in the group as well as Clement Greenberg’s approval. Her first few works in ’49 and ’50 were very gestural and resembled the flat, all over composition of Pollock’s work. This only lasted a couple years before she began to slowly introduce representational elements that are very similar to the figures in de Kooning’s Woman paintings. A key factor in this change was her growing relationship with the poet Frank O’Hara. Hartigan’s childhood love for literature re-blossomed vicariously through O’Hara who dedicated several poems to her. In 1952 O’Hara gave a series of twelve poems called Oranges, Sweet, a Dozen to Hartigan who then turned them into her Orange paintings. This rebellion against Greenberg allowed her to extend her boundaries and begin to develop her own identity as a painter. Her first step was to look back at the Masters like Velasquez, Goya, and Rubens all the while keeping Matisse and the Abstract Expressionist aesthetic in mind. She then began to look outward in the exploration of her world, New York City. For several decades she painted shopping malls, billboards, vendors, shop windows, and anything else that caught her eye and stimulated her mind. Hartigan was overflowing with material that she felt compelled to paint. Throughout the ‘60’s she pulled out all the stops and painted everything from mythical creatures and gods, Marilyn Monroe, lily ponds, human emotions, and Barbie dolls. The only reoccurring visual elements are the gestural forms that came from her Abstract Expressionist background and the bold use of color drawn from her love for Fauvism. This inconsistency of subject matter is the first clue as to Hartigan’s thought processes.

The mistake that critics and historians too often make is the lack of attention paid to Hartigan’s body of work as a whole. When they step back and get the big picture view, they consider it for a couple of minutes and quickly conclude that, “She has reached for new ideas so often that she has no signature style.”2 Naturally at this conclusion, they are forced to focus on individual paintings or small series of them. Unsurprisingly, the interpretations of Hartigan’s Barbie paintings are straightforward and superficial.

The Barbie doll made her debut in 1959 and it was not long before Mattel, Inc. began receiving criticism for the doll’s negative body image. The doll has often been used as a symbol for the unacceptable image of women portrayed in pop-culture. When Hartigan painted Barbie in the heat of the controversy, many people, both feminists and non-feminists, assumed that she was making a feminist statement. The well-informed researcher might also argue his/her point with evidence that Hartigan originally signed her paintings as “George Hartigan” for her first few shows. This has been taken as a statement of the difficulty for women artists to succeed in the world of Abstract Expressionism. However, both of these arguments can be easily refuted by Hartigan’s own words. She has repeatedly denied having any feminist sentiments and even supported Pollock by saying, “The myth I find most infuriating is the one of Jackson Pollock as brawling, woman-hating, drunk and macho. The man was tender, suffering- an inarticulate, shy genius, but people don’t want to hear that about Jackson.”3 When asked why she signed her work “George Hartigan” she replied, “Because I identified with George Sand and George Eliot — they were my heroes. The real story is I had gay friends who all had female names amongst themselves and I thought it would be fun to have a man’s name.”4

The argument that Hartigan’s work is a precursor to Pop art has greater merit, but still doesn’t go much deeper than the paint on the canvas. Nevertheless, Hartigan did paint an abstract work titled, Billboard which can be compared to James Rosenquist’s work, and a couple of paintings of Marilyn Monroe which invariably conjures Warhol’s ghost. These images in addition to the Barbie doll are unquestionable pop culture icons. One can easily imagine Barbie as the subject of a Warhol painting and should not be surprised that he did indeed use the child’s toy in a series of prints. Warhol’s Barbie is very different from Hartigan’s however. In her essay, which analyzes Hartigan’s work, Melody Davis points out that, “Pop art is typically hard-edged, cool, acrylic-painted, repetitive and de-personalized.”5 This is the antithesis to Hartigan’s work. In response to this new aesthetic, she made an unapologetic statement in the 60’s saying, “Pop art is not painting, because painting must have content and emotion.”6 Similar to the contrast between the quality of a hand crafted table that exudes warmth from the carpenter’s personal touch and the mass-produced particle board piece made by machines and sold in an IKEA store, so is the unfriendly relationship of Hartigan and Pop art. It is not uncommon to see the subject of Barbie in everyday life, but just as Dutch genre painting is not Pop art, neither is Hartigan’s work.

Instead, the individual work is one of social commentary. Referring to the Barbie doll, Hartigan made this statement, “I’m very interested in dolls of all cultures, because a doll is an essence, really, of what society thinks you should present to your little girls, about what they’re supposed to plan for, how they’re supposed to think about themselves. And if you’re supposed to think about yourself as a bride that deserves a $100 dress and you only cost $15 and your husband is a castrated man, boy, that tells you something about American morals!”7 Hartigan painted what she saw around her. When she walked throughout New York City she painted vendors and shop windows. When she studied the masters at the MET she painted the scenes and figures that excited her. When she noticed a changing country she painted a doll that symbolized a part of it. Hartigan was not supporting or criticizing mass production, mass marketing, or mass media. She was taking input, processing it, and then giving output. Hartigan explains, “I try to declaw the terribleness of popular culture and turn it into beauty or meaning.”8 Now a motive fueling her creative machine becomes apparent. By zooming out and viewing the entirety of her life and work, we see that Hartigan takes both the ugly and mundane as well as the beautiful and exciting and gives them a poetic quality. This should not be a surprise, given her love for literature as a child, her very close relationships with the poets who patronized the Cedar Tavern (O’Hara in particular), and her “heroes,” the novelists Eliot and Sand. For the final piece of evidence let’s again consider Hartigan’s own words, “As most painting moves closer to sculpture and architecture, my own work moves nearer poetry…It increasingly must be ‘read’ in terms of meaning and metaphor.”9 Hartigan’s bold colors, gestural brushwork, and expression through abstraction are some of the tools she employs to give emotional life to the content that she chooses to paint. The successful viewer is the one who does indeed “read” her paintings. Poetry and Hartigan’s work are musings on life.

With a creative career that lasted over half a century, Hartigan produced a large body of paintings and prints. She did not stray far from her aesthetic, yet changes throughout the decades are visible and tell her life’s story like rings in a tree. Her experiences at the Cedar Tavern were truly invaluable and would cause envy in any historian. Unfortunately, she has been misunderstood a great deal too much. Barbie should be read as a poem, and not as Pop art or feminist art. Only then can one fully appreciate the creative mind of Grace Hartigan.

Bibliography

Diggory, Terence. “Questions of identity in Oranges by Frank O’Hara and Grace Hartigan.” Art Journal 52, no. 4 (Winter93 1993): 41.Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 9, 2012).

Gibson, Ann Eden. Abstract expressionism: other politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.

Hartigan, Grace, interview by Julie Haifley. May 10, 1979.

Hartigan, Grace, interview by Jonathan VanDyke. February 12, 2000.

Hobbs, Robert. 1995. “Grace Hartigan: A Painter’s World by Robert Saltonstall Mattison: Reviewed by Robert Hobbs.” Woman’s Art Journal , Vol. 16, №2 (Autumn, 1995 — Winter, 1996), pp. 42–44. JSTOR (accessed October 18, 2012).

Jachec, Nancy. The Philosophy and Politics of Abstract Expressionism: 1940–1960. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ., 2000.

Kunitz, Daniel. “Gallery chronicle.” New Criterion 20, no. 3 (November 2001): 51–54. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 19, 2012).

Landau, Ellen G… Reading abstract expressionism. New Haven: Yale, 2005.

Lavazzi, Thomas. 2000. “Lucky Pierre Gets into Finger Paint: Grace Hartigan and Frank O’Hara’s Oranges.” Aurora: The Journal Of The History Of Art 1, 122–137. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 18, 2012).

Lord, M. G.. Forever Barbie: the unauthorized biography of a real doll. New York: Morrow and Co., 1994.

Princenthal, Nancy. 2009. “Grace Hartigan 1922–2008.” Art In America 97, no. 10: 142. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed October 18, 2012).

Robert Saltonstall Mattison. “Hartigan, Grace.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed October 18, 2012,http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T036782.

Shapiro, David, and Cecile Shapiro.Abstract expressionism: a critical record. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

[inquiringquilter]

Spring Quilt Market 2017 - Day 1 ½

So much happened at Quilt Market 2017 in St. Louis during Day 1 that it took two Fultons to cover it all.  The first Schoolhouse session I saw on Friday was hosted by Martingale, featuring Carol Hopkins.  Along with Linda Koenig, Carol co-authored 4” x 5” Quilt Book Anthology, published just last March.

This book’s history starts with a group of friends challenging each other to design and produce unique 4x5, rotary-cut blocks, including some with appliqué.  After finishing several quilts, they decided that maybe their work was worth publishing in a book.  Then they realized that the fabrics Carol had used for her quilts would be hard to obtain for most folks.

So they petitioned Marcus Fabrics for a fabric line that would match the quilt they’d chosen for their cover: mostly 1880s reproductions.  Then everyone in the group created her own quilt using this Marcus line, each setting her blocks in different ways.

Martingale offers an online gallery of all of the 4x5 quilts in this challenge [PDF], which shows you various ways to set your blocks.  They remind me of a Dear Jane quilt from the Civil War.

Marcus offers this by-special-request fabric line for sale if you wish to reproduce the exact look of the cover quilt.

Carol [pictured left, above] said Martingale is also offering shop owners a special packet, giving them each opportunities to do block-of-the-month programs, with original ideas for meetings, games, suggestions for party foods – all based on the theme of a 4x5 rectangle.

Sadly, Linda Koenig passed away last October, though a collection of her quilts will be on display until July 22 at the Quilters’ Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana.

Next, Helen Stubbings [above] from Tasmania-based Hugs ‘n’ Kisses came all the way to St. Louis to show everyone her line of appliqué paper.  What makes it unique is that it’s 50% water-soluble, acting like a lightweight fusible.

To use the product in, say, English paper piecing or appliqué, you lay your templates onto the paper and use a small bit of glue to turn under the edges.

Then you set the English paper-pieced hexagons, diamonds, or appliqué pieces onto your quilt, and stitch them down as you normally would, leaving the paper in.  So you wash your quilt, and it becomes so soft that you can’t really feel it.

You can also use this paper for foundation paper piecing, simply leaving the pieces in.

It was exciting to hear that Cotton + Steel Fabrics is partnering with Sulky Thread to produce a unique line of 50-weight cotton thread that’s 55% rayon, 45% cotton.  In a video, Sulky representatives explained how their Egyptian cotton thread is spun, dyed, then checked for quality.

This new thread is two-ply, long staple, Egyptian cotton, dyed in Italy.

What’s cool and fun about Sulky’s thread collection – besides its quality, of course – is that its spools not only come in a unique variety of colors that match its fabric line, but each spool has its own designer look, with labels on the top and bottom that make for a resplendent display in your sewing room.

Cotton + Steel also showed off its Scout machine embroidery collection.  With this embroidery packet, you can design your own original patches that remind me of Girl Scout patches.  You can use them to adorn and label things like purses, totes, and garments, as well as quilts.  By combining designs, Scout patches give you an opportunity to create your own personalized patch look.

There was more thread news going on across the aisle, as my husband, Scott, reports:

Calgary, Alberta-based WonderFil Specialty Threads unveiled its new, general-purpose thread line.  Called Ultima, it promises to be a durable, “bread-and-butter” thread, especially for long-armers and machine quilters who need a less linty thread that doesn’t weave holes in their pocketbooks.

“When you have a finer thread in your bobbin, your tug-of-war is a lot easier,” explained WonderFil’s Joanne Flamond.  “You want that bobbin thread to come up with the stitch; you want it to come up in the middle layer of your batting; and when you’re looking down on your quilt sandwich, I like to see that little nub of bobbin thread peeking through.”

Time was, Flamond continued, if you could see your bobbin thread, your tension must be off, especially when you’re using a domestic machine.  On a long-arm frame, however, when you can see that nub of thread and you take it off your frame, the quilt relaxes, and the stitch pulls into the middle layer as it should.  Ultima is designed, she said, to behave more like this.

Now, I’m not a quilter by trade, but I’m fairly experienced with advertising, and I remember the era of Chrysler’s “fine Corinthian leather.”  So I wanted to know whether there was any real value behind WonderFil’s claim of “Egyptian cotton.”

“Egyptian cotton is really good in terms of its color absorption,” WonderFil engineer Andrew Ngai explained to me.  “In the textile industry, we always care about how saturated, how nice the color really is. . . It carries slightly more sheen, and it absorbs color more evenly.”

Joanne added that, with the longer staple, you typically get less lint.  But Andrew actually pointed out, each fiber is actually not that long – just over an inch.  Spun Egyptian cotton, he said, is actually very linty.  So it has to be treated in one of two ways.  One involves gassing, which burns off the surface lint.

The other involves a chemical bath that acts as a glue.  That glue certainly makes the thread less linty, but as Andrew told me, it makes the thread less soft, the same way a hair gel makes your hair feel stiffer.  “That’s why we tend not to use that method,” he said.  WonderFil prefers a two-stage gassing method, even though it’s costlier than the chemical bath.

That’s what’s happening in threads, gasses, and glues this week.  Now back to Jennifer.

My next session was with Tula Pink, which introduced her latest fabric line, “Spirit Animal.”  Tula did address a recent controversy involving her native American motifs, saying she’s pulling ideas from her own history, and exploring who she is as an artist.  Her father is native American.

Rather than become embroiled in this controversy over her right to include native America images, Tula said she decided to drop one of the motifs from her line.  She didn’t want quilters using her fabrics to have to fight her battles for her.

The Spirit Animal line enables three colorways, all of which are designed to be complementary with each other.

Her Wayfinder pattern [above], which invokes both flying geese and arrows, will be sold in shops as a kit, featuring the fabrics and pattern – and this will be the only way to get the pattern (as is usually the case with Tula Pink kits).

Tula also showed off some other designers’ products who have incorporated her fabrics into tote bags, appliquéd jackets, and purses.

Would you believe there’s a lot more from Quilt Market in St. Louis still ahead?  Stay tuned!

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Tell me... What qualities do you look for in the threads you use in your quilting work every day?