Malus

Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of Della and I finding five newborn kittens (including Snowapple here) in our yard. In the twelve months that followed, we’d find about twenty more because we were living on the mouth of a kitten portal. When we moved from the Bay Area to the desert, the portal followed us and cats continued to happen. It's still happening to us in New England. We have consistently lived with double digit cats since 2016.

I wrote about it last year here on cohost and mentioned how finding the cats truly altered the course of our lives and the more I think about it that's such a fucking understatement.

For example, I can draw a direct line between my 2018 cat twitter thread to becoming close friends (she's the cat's godmother) with the former mayor of a major US city. Our move to the desert may not have happened had we not needed larger space for less money to accommodate cattery. Our move to New England likely might not have happened as well, but most importantly - if it had (without cats), it wouldn't have been a 'cross-country in a rented RV' adventure due to the sheer number of animals. Hell, I've worked on several musical projects and creative things with people I likely wouldn't have met had I not been 'the person with all the cats'.

I'm not gonna be all "I didn't rescue them, they rescued me" but like god damn- I'm looking back at photos from February or early March of 2016 and thinking 'the person in these pictures has no fucking clue what's about to happen' in the best way possible.

Anyway. You should adopt a cat if your living or health or financial situation allows for it. And if possible, help spay or neuter outdoor cats in your area because one unfixed ladycat can become a kitten factory so quickly. Many cities have free or low-cost TNR programs as well.

If you've read this far you deserve another kitten photo. Here's baby Possum. Happy belated Kitten Portal day to all whom celebrate.

Sometimes I need to track down good reference on costuming I'm not qualified to really try and design from scratch. Claire Hummel put together an incredible google doc that aggregates a ton of great info from actual physical books through to pinterest pages and fashion blogs.

I particularly like this one for it being extremely simple in its presentation. Great for both browsing and also just drawing reference.

I'd like to preface this with a warning- there are probably going to be things said here that you don't like. I ask that you let them sit with you before you get angry- I only ask that you think about them, not that you agree.

Who am I to say these things?

I have somewhat of an uncommon position here on social media in the digital art space. I've been practicing digital art seriously for more than 10 years now. In that time, I've also gone to college and gotten my degree in media studies- where I learned about the making and history of fine arts, film, and also of digital media. This education also exposed me to the more technical side of digital media in coding and creating programs.

Even with all that, I've ended up in IT. I wanted to go into visdev, or the games industry, but my art wasn't good enough for it and I didn't have the portfolio to go anywhere. Furthermore, I've never had a considerable presence on social media, which is the primary way I show my art.

So maybe I'm just a hater, who can say. /shrugs

John Berger and You (roughly)

One of the things I learned in school was that art- physical art- has a weight to it. Berger discusses it in the (only?) chapter I've read in Ways of Seeing. Berger didn't write in the time of computers- or at least, not in the time of the internet. Instead he discusses photography and film, and their ability to replicate works of art. As far as I know, this was in response to a different writer's views, but the essay provokes a question- is the reproduction a valid way to experience the art? What, if anything, is lost in the translation to film? (This is really paraphrasing as it's been a while since I've read it- probably bad academics but this is Cohost okay, not some sort of publication.)

😘