Ponderance

I have always harbored a fascination with caterpillars. The way that they move has always been completely enthralling—one can almost see their insides moving around inside of their mushy outer skin sacks. The way they crawl around, taking their time, has always been something I’ve aspired to emulate. Life is not something to rush through, because you’re only rushing towards your death.

Moths have also always been of interest to me. It’s not them that eat holes in your clothes, but their babies. Moths always look so incredibly soft, that I wish I could caress one without scaring him away. If they weren’t living creatures, I would want a mothskin jacket. Perhaps I’ll have one synthetically engineered.

Question for you veginites: If scientists could grow leather or meat that had never been alive, would you wear it and eat it? Fake urea is made for artstuffs (urea comes from pee, and is used in dyeing and stuffs)…on the molecular level, it is the exact same stuff that comes from pee, yet we have no problem touching it and dyeing our fabrics with it. Taurine is originally from bile (found in the lower intestine of many animals), and is used in lots of energy drinks—made in a factory, of course. You are drinking bile that was made in a factory, but bile nonetheless. Are you okay with that? Is it still vegan if it was made in a factory?

Researchers are attempting to grow skin grafts and eyes and even limbs in laboratories…would you eat those? They were never attached to a human, so is it still cannibalism? What about if it were beef or chicken? Would you eat it then?

Self Portrait Series

I’m working on a large series of small scale self portraits. All the same view of my face, all about four inches in diameter. I have three completed so far, and hope to eventually end up with 25 to 36. This is the project I’m doing for my independent study this semester…I think I’ll only end up with about ten this semester, sadly.

I need to take pictures of the first two, still. ...not to mention mount them all and such.

This is the latest:

Embroidery

This semester I am taking an independent study with Clare Verstegen, in embroidery. I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to do this—there aren’t any classes offered that focus solely on embroidery, and I very much look forward to developing mine. It’s also an honor to have the opportunity to study with Clare, as she doesn’t do very many independent studies—she saw some of my embroidery work last semester, and approached me…almost demanding that I take an independent study with her.

This is the first real piece of embroidery I did, about two or three years ago:



I like it. I’ve stuck with ¾ turned self-portraits, in the same neutral-ish shades.

This semester I plan on doing somewhere between 9 and 25. Hopefully closer to 25…

They're only about four inches in diameter, but take about 20 hours each (maybe much more...I'm bad at keeping track of time) to complete.

A Concise, Idealist Argument Against Organized Religion, Government, and Crime

How subjects as personal as religion, government, and crime can be so overly organized (and therefore diluted) in our world truly baffles my mind. They all started out so…nonexistent. Then, they increasingly lost their purity throughout the ages until they became the bastardized cousins of their true forms that we now know them to be. ....

Without organized government, there would be no organized crime. The large structures that mafias and gangs use would be obsolete and, frankly, altogether unnecessary. Governments establish ownership, and without ownership, greed and power would be so diminished that crime would be used mainly as retaliation for personal vendettas—poor people would not have to steal food or money to provide for their families, because poor people would not exist.....

In its purist forms, I have no problem with religion (I’ve already established that crime would not really exist without government, so I’ll stop wasting words on it). Religion is such a fiercely personal thing that it cannot be found to be identical in two different people. Each person brings their own unique past, present, and future together to create spirituality within themselves, and I have never been able to understand the big deal about how they express that spirituality and what name they call their personal higher power, if they have one. ....

Personally, I embroider. Embroidery brings me clarity and, through clarity, guidance. Clarity and guidance are why others meditate or worship gods and goddesses (or whatever). I strive to be a better person, simply to be a better person—not to please some higher being or call dibs on a spot in the afterlife. Why does it matter to others WHY I am striving to be a better person, or HOW I find my clarity and guidance, so long as I am doing it? ....

When religions become organized, shit goes awry. The Christians raped the Pagan religions and bastardized their holidays, and forced millions to convert. The Jews and Muslims are getting distracted from their God and what HE would want by land wars and laws and arguments which, in reality, matter very little in the grand scheme of things. Christians want everyone else to be like them, and Buddhists just wish we could all get along. Everybody believes that everyone deserves to live and nobody deserves to kill, but we cannot seem to put that into practice.....

We cannot stop killing because the organized governments say this is OURS and not THEIRS, and how dare THEY try to take it from us?? Organized governments say WE are right and YOU are wrong, because WE say so. ....

The purist of governments is still a government, which still establishes ownership (which encourages greed which results in crime).....