Bast's followers are at it again...

One of these days, I may just get slapped upside the head for these cartoons.

Daily Drawing - The place where I do most of my drawing

The daily drawing prompt was to draw the place where I do most of my drawing. I sit under a big cedar tree most of the time, except when it's really cold or raining. There are a few things I'm not happy with in this sketch - like Nathaniel's leg. I think it actually attaches a little differently to his body but of course, like all life models, he started moving whatever part I was focused on. I don't know how in the world he can sleep like that either.

Click on the graphic to embiggen.

Daily Drawing: Carnivorous plant

I've been on the Daily Drawing list for a long time now and I decided it was high time I started contributing to it.

One entry was for a carnivorous plant. I decided to go to one of my favorite books of all time for inspiration - Day of the Triffids. Here is my rendition of a triffid but I forgot to give it any leaves.

Poor little naked triffid.

Sketch: Giant Leopard Moth

I had a visitor the other day. This fella stuck around for hours. I figure it had just come out of the chrysalis and was drying its wings. According to enature.com, it is a Giant Leopard Moth - what wooly worms become when they grow up!

Wishcasting Wednesday

Jamie Ridler says on her website: "You can be a maker of magic and a tender of wishes. It's easy." All you have to do is answer the prompt on your blog and link in. Today's prompt is "What do you wish to know?"

Oh gods, there's an entire universe, both out there and in here. What don't I want to know?

Some of the things I want to know are pretty mundane, if fangirly. Will Atlantis ever get back to the Pegasus galaxy? (I hope so.) What was it Sam felt so bad about before he died in "Under the Dome"? Will we ever get to ogle see Wolverine in another movie? (Oh god yes, please.)

All right, I suppose I won't waste wishes on those.

Other things I want to know: why do all the best songs come on the radio just as you have to leave or get out of the car? Why do I always have plenty of pennies in my pocket, except when I need them? How does my cat always know when I have something to eat, even when he's two floors down and outside?

I guess I won't waste wishes on those either. Sometimes it's better and more fun to wonder than to actually know.

Will we ever find definitive proof of life elsewhere in this big universe of ours? Is this the only one or are there many, many other universes? Can everything be explained and unified by one little elegant equation, like Einstein tried to find? I kind of hope not on that last one. I'm not so sure I want everything explained. Not only does it seem to be way too much diversity to be explained with one tiny equation but honestly - what fun would there be in it? There wouldn't be any mystery left.

What's life without a little mystery?

So what is it exactly do I wish to know? There are so many directions to go in. Spirit, career, love to name a few. I may as well go for a big wish, one that is a little scary as hell for me. May as well kick that fear to the curb, even though I know it won't go without a lot of screaming and kicking of its own.

I know I am a solitary person. I don't need someone in my life 24/7. In fact, I need solitude in order to function or things can get very ugly and surly. It's just the way I am. I don't need to be "completed," "made honest" or "a real woman" by another person.

Even so, this doesn't mean I don't want to share things with someone. Someone who can appreciate the mystery, the splendor, the...total awesomeness of this universe but doesn't need someone around 24/7 either. Of course, I say that now. We could choose to be inseparable, for all I know.

Thing is, I'm not sure I know how to do this. I was with someone a long time. It wasn't perfect (what is?) but it was relatively stable. I guess a part of me decided, for good or whatever, that was it. When it was over...I don't know. How do you undo a decision you weren't even sure you made until it was taken away?

So here is my wish. I wish to learn how to let go of this thing that doesn't even exist anymore. I wish to learn how to let go so I can get on with living, loving and even more creative insanity.

This is my wish, I reckon so. (Heh. Thank you Josey Wales.)

The septagram - part one

(This is part of a series I'm writing for another site. I'm hoping posting it here will inspire me to finish it soon. I'm having trouble fitting some of the modern uses into this and will hopefully post them when they're done.)

Most Pagans are familiar with the pentagram. An outgrowth of this symbol is the septagram, a star with seven points. It is also known as the Faery Star, Elven Star, Elven Star of the Seven Sisters and acute heptagram. There are representations of it found in mathematics, paganism and even the subculture called Otherkin.

A Smattering of Math
Mathematically, the septagram is called the acute heptagram ("hepta-" being Greek for seven.) It belongs in a class of shapes called star polygons. They are usually represented by a fraction composed of prime numbers. In this case, the heptagram is known as a 7/3 star polygon. This simply means seven points are spaced evenly around the circumference of a circle and when drawn, the straight lines are connected at every third point. However, it is theoretically impossible to accurately draw a septagram with only a pencil and a straight edge, unlike the pentagram. Where the interior angles of a pentagram come to 36 degrees (180 degrees divided by 5), the interior angles of a septagram come to about 25.714 (180 divided by 7.)

Why seven?
There are as many reasons the number seven is sacred as there are people. One theory is it may have come about from the number of planets that could be observed in the ancient sky. It could also come from the seven observable stars of the pleiades, also called the Seven Sisters, or those seven stars that every child learns in the night sky called the Big Dipper. Another theory says the moon is responsible. It changes phase every seven days - from new to crescent, half, full and back to new again.

A Smattering of History
One of the oldest representations of the septagram is linked to the seven planets. It comes from the Hellenistic (circa 323 BC to about 146 BC) world This was a time of expansion for the Greeks, whose influence was felt from Italy to Egypt, the Middle East and Asia. During this time, the seven day week was widely adopted and each day was associated with a planet. The planets were placed in a counterclockwise circle in the order of the apparent speed of their travels across the sky, from Moon to Saturn. If a line is drawn from the point representing the Sun, not only does it form a septagram but also shows the days of the week in correct order.



The septagram makes another appearance during the Renaissance as an alchemical symbol. Usually seen reversed, or upside down, it was used to represent the seven recognized metals: lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, mercury and silver. Again, each metal was associated with one of known planets. It was also a depiction of the seven steps of the alchemical process: calcination, sublimation, solution, putrefaction, distillation, coagulation and tincture. Black (or "nigredo") was considered to be the starting point. As Saturn was the slowest moving planet in the sky, lead was considered by many alchemists to be the prima materia, or base material. With each step, impurities were supposed to be removed from the lead until all that was left was gold.



Upcoming posts: Modern uses of the Septagram and explorations into the meanings of the seven points - sun, land, water, magic, wind, moon and connection.

Sources (includes sources for info on some modern use as well):
Seven point star

Weisstein, Eric W. "Star Polygon." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.

Weekday heptagram

The Metal - Planet Affinities - The Sevenfold Pattern

The Heptad, 7 from Numbers, Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtues, by W. Wynn Westcott, [1911]

Sublime Lead: The Biography of a 5000 Year Toxic Love Affair, Chap. 6 -
The Honeymoon: Lead and Alchemy: Decoding Chemistry Within the Imagery (pdf file)

an essay on the seven pointed star, by magpie

Blue Star Beliefs

Occult Rock

What Does the Star Mean?

A future tattoo

It needs a little tweaking but this is it. I think I'd like it to be on my left wrist...if I go through with it. I keep thinking, "what if it hurts more than I can stand?" and "What if I get tired of it? I know me, I get bored pretty easily..."

In any case, it's been fun coming up with it.

A new sketchbook

I thought about joining the Sketchbook
Project at the Arthouse Co-op this year. It sounds like a great thing - fill up a Moleskin sketchbook and it goes on tour before being permanently housed in an Art Library in Brooklyn. It gets its own barcode and has the option of being digitized and put online. You can even get an email everytime someone looks at it.

The more I thought about it, though, I decided I may not finish it. They're charging $25 for the sketchbook. I'd probably start thinking it was too "good" to just sketch in or even to mess up. So I decided to try it on my own, with a blank book I already had. It won't go on tour anywhere, unless I carry it in my backpack and the only library it will see is the the room where I keep most of my books but that's okay. This way, the sketches can be good, bad or whatever and I can just go crazier crazy.

I'll admit it - I stole the theme I was going to use if I signed up.

So, here's the first entry. Click on it to embiggen. I ended up changing the conversation between the two pterodactyls on the branch. The first one made no sense whosoever. I'm not saying it's great art or anything but it made me laugh.

Musing on the season finale of Supernatural

I don't talk too much about fannish things but this time...I can't help it. I should say there's spoilers ahead if you hadn't seen the season finale of Supernatural. There are a only a few things I'm going to comment on because I've only seen it the one time so far and there may be some things I get wrong. Feel free to correct me, if you are inclined.

First of all, the biggie - Chuck.

I don't think he was God. At least, not always. Until the finale, Chuck was a very unconfident person. He hated what he saw in his visions. He hated - and had plenty of troubles with - the process of writing it all down. He drank to forget, more often than not. Let's not forget how he was at the convention at the haunted hotel.

The Chuck we saw in the finale was none of this. He didn't even seem to be merely recording what he was seeing and there were no blinding headaches (if I remember correctly, this was a problem when we first met him last season.) He had no problem whatsoever writing the story. Rather, he seemed to be enjoying telling the story of the Impala and how it was intertwined with the Winchester brothers - and he was very confident in telling it. There was that one spot in the story where he even commented on how he liked how a certain line sounded.

The story itself was different in tone to previous ones. There was no pulp here. Just a story, lovingly told.

This Chuck was also drinking but he only sipped his alcohol - and did it quite properly, at that. There only seemed to be two fingers' worth in that glass. (On a side note, when Dean calls Chuck for information, was the call girl in the magazine named "Mary Magdalene"?)

So - was Chuck God? Like I said, I don't think he always was. Chuck was the Prophet and he did his job, however hard it was and miserable it made him. I think God stepped at the end. It was an act of compassion (mercy, even?) and reward for a thankless job well done. It also afforded God a way to intercede, using the Impala to spark Sam's memories of happier times and the love between the him and Dean. Besides, what was it He said? Endings were tough to get down.

On a side note: I don't think God was as heartless as it seemed when we found out He wouldn't be helping defeat Lucifer. We've known a long while that the last battle was supposed to be between Michael and Lucifer, both being angels created by God. We never expect a parent to choose between two of their children - so why is God expected to choose one of His over the other, even if one of those children has rebelled? So it's no wonder He didn't want to take sides.

Castiel

I wasn't surprised that Castiel got his Grace back. In fact, after last week's episode, I would have been surprised if he didn't. He may have fallen and eventually lost his mojo but he kept his faith. It wasn't his faith in God, but rather it was a faith that he, Sam, Dean and later, Bobby would somehow get through this.

I call it faith because that is what it is. Way back in the episode where Uriel wanted to wipe that town off the map, Castiel tells Dean his orders were to do whatever Dean ordered. He may have started out only following and protecting Dean but somewhere along the line, Dean did as Dean does and took him under his wing. Castiel became family. Faith in God is good and all but when it comes down to brass tacks, is there anything stronger on this earth than family bonds? After all, who else will stand by you or give you a good, hard and swift kick in the assbutt when you need it?

I think this is exactly what Cas took back with him when he went back to heaven. He says he's not sure if God will ever show up again but he figures with Michael gone, the place may be in chaos. He's gone home to sort out his "other" family, maybe even using what he's learned from his time with the Winchesters.

Bobby

So, has the contract between Bobby and Crowley been fulfilled? We never heard the details of the deal, did we? Crowley only said he would "borrow" Bobby's soul for a little while (and it seems to me that he knew a lot more than he let on in the previous episode, didn't it? Especially since he said to Dean, "How about we go for pizza when this is all over?" as they searched fruitlessly for Death.)

Anyway...I think the contract has been fulfilled. In past deals, the one making the deal always got a set number of years before they died and went to hell. As vague as Crowley's deal was, Bobby did die if only for a little while before Castiel brought him back.

Sam

I'm not sure what to make of Sam at the end. Was he a ghost, watching over Dean as he had dinner with Lisa and Ben? It would certainly be one possibility, since ghosts are able to mess with electrical systems. He wouldn't be needed in Hell since Lucifer had been re-caged and it wouldn't be impossible for him to get out, especially with a little help, like say from oh, God?

I don't know. It's going to kill me waiting to find out. :-)

Stories...

Geez. It's time to start blogging again. This poor thing has been neglected for long enough. I'll admit, it's partly due to that harlot Twitter. There's just something about fitting everything into 140 characters instead of writing an entire blog entry.

I want to get back to the original intent this thing. Don't get me wrong, I will (eventually) get back to posting my artwork. I just feel somewhere along the line I kind of forgot a few things, like "life, faith and gods know what else."

And stories. I've missed the stories.

Say whatever you want but to me, it's not love that makes the world go 'round. It's all the stories, running around looking for their entrance into this world, creating this crazy centrifugal force and BAM! There you go. Planets, stars and *everything* spinning and dancing around the universe.

...and I bet you thought it was something like 'gravity' and whatnot that set them spinning, didn't you? Well, there you go. One more story, as told in the Scientific Theory style of narration.

Is it ever right to lie about your path or aspects of it?

I usually don't feel the need to lie about any aspect of my path. I am not ashamed of it by any means and could care less about what anyone else thinks. Tonight was a little different. I bought some bourbon as an offering and the person I was with asked, "What are you going to do with that? Drink it or make something with it?"

In the past, I have answered honestly and it would be as if my words hit Teflon. The fact I follow a path other than Christianity simply does not and will not exist in this person's mind. Even though it can be irritating, it's something I can put up with, most of the time. After all, who am I to tell someone else what to think in the relative privacy of their own mind?

But tonight, I knew it would be more of the same and I was tired of it. So I lied. I remembered reading on a forum about some bourbon muffins someone made as an offering for a deity so that's what I said - I thought about trying some bourbon muffins (apparently, I'm a horrible liar and can't make a lie out of whole cloth. I need source material.)

Even as I was doing it, I didn't like the fact I was lying, much less what I was lying about. True, my answer wouldn't be accepted if I did tell the truth but does that matter? Not really, not in my mind.

So here's the question(s): Is it ever right to lie about your path? Am I just holding myself to too high a standard (and apparently failing)? Should I just get over myself, shut up and go watch Pepe the Prawn?

A small prayer

A while back, I got an idea for a story about a devotee, complete with a prayer woven through it. As the story progresses, we find out exactly what said devotee will do for his gods. Maybe the story will be ready to be born...someday.

Two lines, "Invisible to mortal eyes, let my cry come unto you," I can't claim but I also don't remember the source of them.

Here then, is my small devotional effort:

Prayer

Oh Lord,
Invisible to mortal eyes
Let my cry come unto you.

Take, O Lord,
My hands and
use them as you will.

Take, O Lord,
My mouth and
speak your wisdom.

Take, O Lord,
My heart, My mind
and my will.

Fill my soul, O Lord
Grant me sweet oblivion.

IA! IA!
Hear me,
O Priest of the Elder Ones!

IA! IA!
CTHULHU F'TAHGN!

Wake.


(What? Who'd you think it was going to be for? ;-) )

(Mostly) Finished Paintings...

First off, a declaration: it's 11:44 p.m. and it's still hot. It's still humid. Who needs hell when you have summer in the South?

Now on to the paintings.

Here's Red, 7"x9" oil on birch:

I like the way this one turned out but...that hand! It gave me fits! I ended setting up a small mirror and holding a sketchpad to get the right position. Now that I look at it, I may have to tinker with the color a bit...or maybe I'll just leave it alone so I don't mess it up.

Music Box, 5"x8", oil on birch:

I really like the shape the dancer's body makes, although I will tinker with her face and arm a bit more. I just don't like that "daub" of a mouth and she's kind of muddy looking to me. Perhaps it needs a few more highlights too.

The Bee, 3.5"x4" (more or less), oil on birch:

This is one of those "end of the day" paintings I did just for myself. I found a dead carpenter bee on the walkway in front of the house and I had to immortalize it. I love my bee.

Now that I look at them together, I think it's pretty obvious when I paint from life and when I paint something purely from my head. The life (well, death) one is more painterly.

Crop Circle Discovered in Sumner County?

Joannie Snigglebotham, Sumner County News staff writer

Residents of upper Sumner County had a mystery on their hands last Wednesday morning. A strange symbol appeared in a slightly overgrown grass pasture, resembling what is popularly known as a crop circle.

Word about the circle got out early, with people parking along the road to see it. Since the pasture was on a slight incline, many stood on the roofs of their cars in order to get a better look. Local authorities were contacted after the crowd began to get out of control late in morning and several people ignored the posted no trespassing signs. They tramped across the field to get a closer look.

By Wednesday afternoon, speculation was running rampant in this community. "Aw. ain't no mystery to that thing at all," said local resident Ira Smith. "It's just some damn kids playing a prank, that's all." Another resident, Vera Green, didn't know what to think. "It's just strange, isn't it? It just appeared overnight. Nothing like that's ever happened here before."

Unfortunately, the crop circle was destroyed before researchers could arrive to study it. The owner of the field, who did not want to be identified, mowed the field after the crowd of onlookers began trampling the grass and littering. Terry Onsmore, of the Sumner County chapter UFOrce, was allowed to enter the field after the field was mowed to take as many readings and samples as possible. While the results of the soil and plant samples will not be available for several weeks, magnetic readings taken at the site were promising.

"There were several places in the field where the needle nearly went off the scale," said Terry. "I came into this project convinced it was a complete hoax, not I'm not so sure. Readings of this kind are extremely hard to fake. What the heck happened out here?"

No one seems to know the answer to that question. There were apparently no strange sounds or lights the night before. This was verified by Azra, who lives across from the field. "I was working on a deadline," she said. "So I was up nearly all night to finish. I went out several times to take a break and look at the night sky. I didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

Crop circles are relatively rare in the United States. They are most often seen in Great Britain and depicting fanciful designs. Many who study crop circles believe the crop circles contain messages vital to the human race, although there is no credible evidence of that message being understood at this time.

In progress: Red

Okay, I guess I lied. Even though I feel my brain tripping merrily off on its very own little roadtrip, I'll ramble a bit about Red Riding Hood.

Even though this painting isn't finished yet, I wanted to go ahead and post it. I consider this a "sister" piece to the werewolf painting in my icon. The entry about Little Red Riding Hood on that paragon of knowledge, Wikipedia, mentions the story may have come about around the same time the werewolf trials were going on. (Who knew there were even such a thing as werewolf trials in the Middle Ages?)


Well, that's all I needed to spark this idea. The other painting is based on the old German legend that says witches would plant tomatoes in their gardens in order to draw werewolves to them. So...who said the wolf in the woods was just a wolf? Why does Red here have a wolf mask? Is she trying to fool the wolf and sneak past him to Grandma's house? Is she really a wolf herself, wearing a human mask and carrying a second wolf one? Is she hunting herself or is she just smug because she's getting away with the ruse?

Good questions, huh? I rather like them. I'll let you come up with your own answers, though.

Okay, I think I'm done for real this time. I'll post Red again when it's finished.

Oh yeah...btw, I didn't forget to put in the hand that's supposed to be holding the mask. I just haven't gotten it where I like it yet. She's not really that orange either. I guess all that red is messing with the scanner a bit.

In progress: Freya

Click the graphic to see a bigger version.

Freya is interesting and complex. She is a warrior, riding her boar into battle. As leader of the Valkyries, she is a psychopomp who claims half the fallen dead and takes them to her hall, Sessrumnir. She is a witch, who taught women the art of seider, prophesy and magic.

Of course, there is that other side of her. Lusty, sensual, beautiful. There's no hangups for this girl, she'll willingly use whatever skills she needs to in order to get what she wants. Just look what she did with (to?) those dwarves for the Brísingamen.

When I began this sketch, I wanted to reflect a bit of her complexity. It also seems natural, after facing so much death, to want to reaffirm life. Here she is, in the wood, her warrior's armor is shed, except for her Valkyrie helm by her side (minus the wings, which I haven't gotten around to putting in yet.) She is now wearing a traditional Norse dress and the Brisingmen is around her neck. Eventually, somewhere in the background will be Bygul ("Bee Gold" or Honey) and Tregul ("Tree Gold" or Amber), her two grey cats.

Of course, one of my own cats couldn't let this be without making his own mark so just ignore the spot there in the upper part of the sketch. I still haven't figured out whether it means, "This is worthy. I claim it as mine" or "This is what I think of you and your pathetic scribblings."

I'm not sure I really want to know.

(I also have a few more sketches and a painting in progress to post but I'll do it tomorrow. My brain is nearly gone at the moment.)

What?! No way!

There is no way it's been nearly a year since I updated this thing. Good god.

:::insert _headdesk_ here:::

Praying for the gods?

A while back, Beliefnet put up this article: Praying for Satan's Soul. In The Laughter of Aphrodite, Carol Christ writes about the effect an Elie Wiesel story had on her, where the main character prayed for the soul of God for letting the Holocaust happen.

It's common practice for who pray to pray to the gods but what about praying for the gods? Would it actually need to be done? What would the prayers be for? Continued well being? A change of heart, like those I mentioned above? A good pair of socks? (or was that Dumbledore?)

What do you think?

As the Tomato Turns...

I'm kind of glad the last week and a half is over, mainly because I am so tired of myself. Last Sunday, the owner of the gallery presenting the Tomato Art Fest emailed me a question: "Would you be willing to do more of those little paintings?" So I decided to see what I could do.

Apparently, not much. At least, not as much as I thought I should be able to if I could just get out of my own damn way.

Monday was great. I cut the boards, built supports and glued them all together. Gessoed. Cussed a bit when said gesso dried too fast and cracked. Still, I love this craftsman phase. Saws! Hammers! Industrial Strength Glue! What's not to love?

But by Wednesday, Captain Oblivious was in full command. I had it in my head to go back to some of last year's ideas. "I know! I could try to work out the snail! I love that idea! What about the cherry one that has a little critter embryo in it? That can easily be adopted as a tomato..."

This was one of those times where the good Captain just needed to be shot. I lost two days to the Captain before I realized Meg meant "more paintings like the one you turned in last week."

So Friday, it began. The Great Painting Frenzy. Tomatoes in various "poses." Painting in phases because the paint would just turn to mud otherwise. Sleeping, eating and feeding the cats as the paint dried. At one point, my back hurt so badly from sitting, I vowed I would never sit again when this was all over. I also got so tired of hearing Dave Shuffett because KET4 decided to run a weekend long Kentucky Life marathon and I just never got around to changing the channel. I ended up getting four tomatoes finished:






I've also noticed something...well, stupid about myself when I delivered the paintings yesterday. I have to keep a clamp on my mouth because I can just feel the urge to start babbling when I'm around Meg. She has nothing but great things to say about my work. She has even given me a standing offer to bring her more work to hang in the gallery.

...and that's the problem I have to get over. I'm not in school anymore. I'm not going to get constructive criticism here. I have to stand on my own two feet. The work is good or it's not. I have to fight the urge to just start babbling about what I can do to make it better next time. In my own head, I can always do ever so much better.

Secretly, I wonder when everyone is going to figure out I'm just not that up to par. Until then - or I can just get over myself - I'm going to keep plugging away anyway.

Paintings and whatnot

It's Tomato Art Fest time again! This year, it was a bit of a struggle to come up with ideas and when I did come up with one, I usually didn't know how in the world to carry it out. I had cityscapes hiding inside of tomatoes and whole universes leaking out of slices, complete with stars, planets and galaxies. Tomato shaped bubbles floating in the air (the background gave me fits on that one.) Hermit crabs and tomato shaped clouds.

Here's what I finally came up with:





















I call this one Medusa. The lady at the gallery said it reminded her of a children's book about a little yellow baby boa constrictor who didn't want to grow up because he didn't want to turn green. She told me the name of the book twice and my ears just didn't have their gloves on for some reason. I never did catch it.





















I finally called this one "Oh, Hello!" I worked on this one off and on for six weeks and the composition changed at least three times, maybe four. I felt I went out on a limb with this one because it has an actual background instead of what I usually do. I worked on this painting right up until two days before it was due at the gallery. Even the photos I took of it came out strange.

I told someone that I felt the same way about this painting as I imagine a parent may feel about a kid: you can't help but like them but you just know they're going to end up on the street, possibly in the wrong part of town.
















This is Ode to Wazowski. That's about it's real size. I tinkered with this painting after the festival last summer. It was a plain little thing, with its little tomato self. I picked it up again this year and immediately saw it looking out at the world.

And yes, it's that Wazowski.