#when i was literally 10

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[mwagneto]

turn left is literally the most insane episode ever written. yeah the main character would kill himself if he didn't meet his best friend and the UK government is like 2 bad days away from putting all non-english people into labour camps. also all your favourite characters died trying to do what little they could. wouldn't that be crazy? anyway time for the daleks again

[theygender]

The more I learn about judaism the more I wonder where tf christianity got all its bad shit. Why is divorce a sin in christianity when judaism has recognized the right to divorce for nearly a millennia and has codified religious laws for it. Why does christianity consider sex to be dirty (to the point where puritans considered it a sin to enjoy having sex with your own spouse) when in judaism it's considered holy and it's a literal mitzvah to have sex with your spouse on the sabbath. Why does christianity consider it a sign that you're faithless if you question your religion when in judaism that's considered an essential part to developing your faith. I'm probably stating the obvious here but I still can't get over the fact that there's no historical basis to any of this shit before christianity started, it's like christians just said "hey guys what if we took the torah and built a new religion around it but this time it was actively hostile to human life"

[salamispots]

heard it was year of the dragon : 0 also been trying to learn clip studio more

[egophiliac]

(almost) four years in, and I finally had time to draw something for the anniversary! woo! 🎉🎉🎉

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

It’s not that Jason forgot, per se.

But between smuggling a toddler out of the League of Assassins, trekking halfway across the world, and finding a suitable hiding place that’s also child friendly… well, it kind of slipped his mind that he’s supposed to be… dead.

Something that comes back to bite him in the ass when he takes Dami out for some ice cream and just so happens to run into non other than Brucie-fucking-Wayne

[romanovanatalia]

"There is no greater love than to give one's life for friends."

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW (2023) dir. J. A. Bayona

[ruporas]

kiss the pain away

[luneariann]

Quest fulfilled <333

[bruciemilf]

Bitches be like " can't wait for Bruce to die lmao" and then have 10 consecutive panic attacks when Bruce gets sick for longer than a week (Jason Todd, Jason Todd is bitches)

[himehomu]

“Homura can't stand the idea of moving on. So she's isolating madoka from everyone who's ever cared about her.” Are you fucking stupid? She literally rewrote the entire universe so that Madoka could be happy with her parents and her little brother, so that Sayaka could have another chance with Hitomi and Kyoske, so that Kyoko can have a life with Sayaka, she literally revived Mami and Nagisa and gave them a life together. What the fuck do you mean she's “isolating Madoka from everyone who's ever cared about her??”

The only person she's isolating Madoka from is herself because she knows Madoka will regain her godhood sooner ot later and she knows that her desire for Madoka and her friends to be happy will directly rebel against Madokami's rules that require Madoka to die to maintain order to the broken world that traps Magical Girls in their cycle of hope and despair, even if maintaining order means making hard choices and sacrifices, which in this case, is Madoka sacrificing herself again and again not only because she cares so much for others but because she cares so little for herself whilst Homura is the only one who can see that she's so much more than her sacrifice and that she shouldn't reduce herself to a means to an end.

She took Madoka's immortality for herself to spare her of anymore loneliness in Heaven as a trapped Goddess. She literally gave Madoka and the rest of her friends a second chance at life and you people have the audacity to just blatantly fucking lie on her to justify hating her for how she reacts to the psychological torture of having to watch the love of her life and her friends die for 12 years worth of time loops then to live in a world where no one remembers the girl she loves but her. Let something like that happen to you at the age of 14 and then come and talk to me about Homura. Idgaf that she's a fictional character. If y'all continue to treat her like a heartless monster that deserves to be “held accountable for her actions,” then I'll defend her like the traumatized 14 year old child that she actually is. Fuck off and stay away from Madoka Magica. It clearly isn't for you.

[somelazyassartist]

Thistle's backstory is really funny actually. Like the king says "I want an experienced Elven lord-in-waiting because Elves are Cool and I want to be Cool". And everybody else is like hell the fuck no you're absolutely not getting that you will 1000000000% die. Here's an autistic 4 year old we found instead. No we will not elaborate on how or where we got them but they can play the flute and do a silly little dance. And after about 2 minutes of being angry the king immediately switches to "fuck yes free son this is awesome" and still nobody acknowledges literally ever that this is just some random baby with a flute who now lives in their house forever

[xxrat--punkxx]

In light of uh... Recent trigun events on twitter, here's a tihylttw and trigun crossover

[egophiliac]

GRIMS COMING!!! You gonna pull for him??👀👀

I'm gonna try, but...

I have mere hours to decide if I want to make one last attempt at Malleus or save a few to try for Grim...and this is all before the new event reveal on the 16th. truly the most difficult choice of our modern times. the gacha is getting its revenge for all of my Lilias.

[leo-bandito]

#6.

[lesbian-cowpoke]

Jason Todd being Tim's Robin in fanon stems from trying to make sense of the wacky timeline bullshit created by the writers doing their best to entirely erase Jason Todd. It's why Dick is Tim's favorite Robin. Dick was Robin from when Tim was 4-10, the longer amount of time, so he still could have been Tim's favorite Robin regardless, but it's also. The writers really really hated that little boy.