Oops!... I Did It Again

And here it is: the bluethroat in all its glory.

"A growing number of people are and have been questioning the more usual representations of gender. Some have had chemical and surgical enhancement, and many have not. Inhabiting a less static gender identification than that of typical transsexuals, they are exploring and experiencing a fluid range of gender embodiment. My own intimate partner, Kayt is one such individual. Ironically it has been through knowing and loving her that I have gained an even deeper understanding of the mutable soul. Her flexible consciousness has encouraged me to be generous in my thinking, and less rigid about the way others self-define, or in fact, when they choose not to" - Body Alchemy: Transsexual Portraits (1996) by Loren Cameron

found out about inupiaq baleen baskets today. i really like them! a lot of them remind me of animals popping their head out of the water

Nicholas Makalik, Barrow, Alaska, 1963

Coiled Baleen Basket by Abe Simmonds Barrow, Alaska, 1954

by Andrew Oenga, 1981.

genuinely wild how often i realize i’ve taken an interpersonal situation where the information i actually have is ‘i’m not having a good time’ and turned it into ‘i’m worried they’re not having a good time with me’

probably ultimately very straightforwardly traceable back to a childhood in which i wasn’t having a good time with my mother and the only variable in the situation that i actually had the power to alter was myself, so that now when as an adult i’m having a bad time with someone my instinct is still to fix myself instead of, you know, removing myself? or alternatively checking in with them about how things are feeling to them and attempting to arrive at a meeting of the minds, or at least a mutually semi-satisfactory compromise?

anyway like. this failure mode probably implies a particular menu of followup actions that i ought to be identifying and instituting, but i’d frankly settle for just ‘recognizing this particular self-abnegating reframing when i’m in the process of committing it’!

unrelatedly changing seasons is always kind of a brutal renegotiation with the mysterious rules of dysphoria but i WISH i understood why like. the exact same tank tops will have been totally fine with certain bottoms and then with others it's suddenly like 'agh nooooo we're doing a bad job of Man AND of Woman, time for death 💀💀💀'

This sheep tablet woven band might be the cutest thing I ever did. Probably because I don't do cute things often. But now I get the appeal.

kinda funny that my body hair is just like every other aspect of me in being poised precisely between 'will get funny looks' by hegemonic standards and 'pfft, you think that invisible shit counts?' by counterculture ones

Dutch farmer in Marken, 1943.

Tiny Tuesday

Feeling a little fashionable? You simply must check out this dahling little book! Put on your finest frock, your furriest scarf, and oh, mustn’t forget your monocle! The book is bound with blue snakeskin and the front cover is bordered by seed pearls, with an inlaid gem accenting the second E in in “Erté.” The box is made of sterling silver lined with black calfskin with a tassel attached to the hook.

Published in 1984 by Rebecca Press, Erté Maquettes had 200 Deluxe editions made. According to the colophon, this is copy number 15. It contains a selection of 44 creations by the artist Erté, who drew hundreds of covers for Harper’s Bazaar in the early 20th century without a single rejection, using the style of Art Nouveau. Many of the paintings in this book were never reproduced, however, offering a unique chance to get to know another side of Erté.

SMITH NE2233.5.E77 1984b

--Theo P.

QuiltCon show part 29