Monday, 8 March 2021

Happy International Women's Day!

This year to celebrate International Women's Day, I'd like to acknowledge and honour the accomplishments of Kamala Harris, a leader of many "firsts."








I believe she will be the first female American President some day.

She's just getting started!

Saturday, 6 March 2021

Are You Hungry Too?



Yeah, same thing in 
the human community!


Now it's true, pizza CAN 
sometimes disappoint --




But let's be real, pizza is 
almost always the 
best food EVER!



Noooooo, don't make me choose!


Or is that choice illusory,
because pizza is ALSO
a stairway to heaven?


Metaphysics is hard work.

LET'S EAT!

Thursday, 4 March 2021

Thursday Art Date with Rain -- "Creases"

Rain and her weekly Art Date theme 
have once again inspired me to complete 
an unfinished assignment from the 
"Art of Coloured Pencils" class I took 
in the Fall of 2019. 

This portrait of a Boxer Pup has plenty 
of wrinkles and creases!
 
(As do I, of course, but luckily this was
not an assignment in self-portraiture!)

So, back in 2019, I made a good start 
on the dog's eye, highlights and base colour --


Added a few more layers of colour . . . 
say, things are going swimmingly 
so far, aren't they!


And then I went totally berserk 
applying blue shadows to 
the dog's muzzle and under-eye area . . . 


. . . which meant I had to go over those areas again 
with some darker pencils, trying
to tone things down. 

It did help a little but as you know, 
once something's done, it's done
and there's only so much 
you can do to fix it after the fact.

Anyway, this toned-down version
 is where I left off in 2019 --


And here's the completed art 
which I finished just this week.

This required a total of 23 different
colours of Prismacolor pencils.


Once it was photographed,
I noticed that I'd applied the colours
on the dog's body with a much
heavier hand than on its head.

D'OH! 

I'm blaming the discrepancy on
being out of practice due to
the year and a half delay
between start and finish.

All things considered, however,
I'm happy with this dog.

[Art and photographs © Debra She Who Seeks, 2019-2021]

Tuesday, 2 March 2021

This Month Marks a Year of Lockdown

And what a loooooooong year it's been!



 tailornorata

As long as that mask meets covid regulations I'd say it's valid







And are you as tired of 
covidiots and deniers as I am?



Well, at least there's still 
the joy of cats!


But this next cat is NOT
Her Royal Highness!

I swear!


Saturday, 27 February 2021

February Full Moon Altar: Brigid


February's full moon altar honours Brigid, the Celtic triple goddess of healing, poetry and skilled metalwork. Her sacred day of Imbolc occurs at the beginning of February as well. Brigid, her lore and her symbols were later incorporated into Christianity as the popular "Saint Brigid."

I bought this wonderful statue of Brigid about 15 years ago at a spirituality store here in Edmonton, a reproduction of a work by Paul Borda of Dryad Design. The blue altar cloth with its golden sacred spirals is meant to honour Brigid's dual role as a Goddess of Sacred Wells and as a Goddess of the Fire of Life and Creativity. These themes are also reflected in the two white lotus bowls containing (on the left) water and (on the right) a votive candle.


The water used for this month's altar actually did come from a sacred well -- the Lion's Head Well in Chalice Garden at the base of England's Glastonbury Tor -- water which I brought home with me a dozen years ago. If you're interested, you can read about that by clicking here. I still have half a bottle left!

At the front of the altar lies a Brigid's Star (or as it's known by Christians, a Brigid's Cross), traditionally crafted from rushes, its woven centre meant to represent the interconnectedness of all life. I bought this one many years ago at an absolutely exorbitant price from a British import store in West Edmonton Mall.

[First photo © Debra She Who Seeks, February 2021.
Second, unfortunately blurry, photo © 
Debra She Who Seeks, November 2009.
Pixels are so much better now!]

Thursday, 25 February 2021

Updating a Favourite Classic Poem


[illustration by Theo Gayer-Anderson]

Ozymandias 
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”


["Ozymandias of Amarillo, Texas"
sculpture by Lightnin' McDuff]

OZZY
by Mitchell Thompson

I met a traveller from way the hell off
who said: two gigantic, fucked-up rock legs
be out there in the middle of goddamn nowhere
right next to them covered in shit some kinda big face
looked pretty pissed & upset & whatnot
all damn covered in words
“yo ozymandias here, this my shit”
“better than your shit, get fucked buddy”
not much else tho, just sand
shitloads of sand all over the place


Tuesday, 23 February 2021

It's Smut Time, You Sinners!












In my last NSFW post, I included these 
charming light switch plates . . . 


. . . so now Her Royal Highness the Cat 
insists on equal time!


And while we're on the subject of cats --