The best thing about that article is that there gets to be a point where you’re like surely. Surely we can’t get sexier and less-martyr-y than this. And that point is about a 3rd of the way through the piece.
For my own amusement, I have included some even sluttier Sebastians found in the most cursory of Google searches:
Having fun with a bit of different style for this self portrait. Sometimes I have to remind myself of the joy in creating, of how much joy there is in me. When I am adrift in the Deep Black it is essential that I can be for myself enough, a reflexive exaltation of self-as-creator-and-created, that I can sense that I am here and say with this alone: Keep Going. Inertia is inevitable, comrades: make momentum your friend. . . . #selfportrait #meditation #contemplation #angel #icon #iconography #queerart #gayart #queerartist #gayartist #digitalart #digitalillustration #illustration #joy #keepgoing #eldritch #tree #eldritchtreeprints #eldritchtree #phillyartist (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLrriQ1nTTL/?igshid=1x2dmgksd691h
Though we wander not, Spring still comes: the Dead Nettle tells us so. “Mother of the Dead Nettle” ink and sketching grays on paper. For sale: DM me for details. . . . #spring #mother #icon #iconography #purpledeadnettle #deadnettle #nettle #flowers #skull #dagger #illustration #ink #inkillustration #pigmamicron #sketchinggrays #mothermary #earthmother #nature #oldgods #oldways #paganism #eldritch #tree #eldritchtree #eldritchtreeprints #phillyartist #philadelphia #artistoninstagram #dailyart #darkartmissions (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/B941nU-n2zf/?igshid=3aj820eyk4vi
18 de agosto: dia de Santa Helena, Viúva (+ Nicomédia, Ásia Menor, 330)
Era de modesta origem, tendo sido criada numa pensão. Um oficial romano, de nome Constâncio Cloro, atraído por sua beleza e sua elevação de alma, tomou-a à maneira de esposa morganática. Dessa união nasceu Constantino, o primeiro imperador cristão. Muito piedosa, Santa Helena partiu em peregrinação para a Terra Santa, onde teve a graça de encontrar a verdadeira Cruz do Salvador.
I carved a Sutekh icon for my altar from the same blackthorn branch that I carved Eris. He is stained with an 18-year-old red wine bequeathed to me by a dead bus driver (praise be to Albert! May he live forever!), blackberry and fig liqueurs, and icon. The black stain is part char from my stove, and part a mixture of ritual ash and Stuart Semple’s Black 2.0. The gold is ol’ Stuart’s goldest gold, which I can’t recommend enough really, and gold leaf. The red is a crimson alcohol ink I bought last year and immediately forgot I had. Turns out, it stains unsealed wood really well, and can be blended out with neat isopropyl alcohol on a paintbrush. This would ordinarily make me worry about drying out the wood, but beeswax and neem oil solves all problems.
Introduced by Apple in 1984, the original Macintosh created a revolution in computing.
Instead of being developed as the typical utilitarian box whose interface relied on a relatively deep knowledge of computer hardware and programming commands, the Macintosh team instead decided to focus on the user, and through that created an interactive experience that embraced how people actually work in the real world. By changing the interface paradigm to one that used the analogy of a real-world office represented by interactive iconography, the user was free to use and explore the computer in a way that was much more natural and understandable to them. And even more importantly, that lower entry point allowed users to focus on the projects they wanted to accomplish and without the need of complex and intimidating software commands.
The ease of use of the Macintosh brought a democratizing spirit to computing, giving people who would not otherwise think they had the ability to use a computer a simple to use tool by which they could actualize their ideas.
It’s difficult to understate the importance the Macintosh had on changing the course of computing. After its release, most computing moved to the user oriented, ease of use model of the Macintosh. Even today, the interaction we have on our computing devices still relies on the concepts the Macintosh pioneered.
Ο ΠΑΠΑ-ΧΑΡΆΛΑΜΠΟΣ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΑΤΗΣ (Elder Haralambos of Dionysiou) by Μιχαηλ Ε.Κουκα carved into humanely, ethically sourced ivory.
Born in Russia in 1910 to Pontic Greek immigrants he was known as capable, sociable, deeply ascetic, and vigilant.
Despite being hesitant at first, Elder Haralambos became Abbot of Ιερά Μονή Διονυσίου (Holy Monastery of Dionysiou) before reposing in 2000. His guidance was marked by frequent partaking of Holy Communion, noetic prayer, and the life of hesychasm.
(My thanks to Μιχαηλ Ε.Κουκα and Lynchos for the gorgeous icon and in-depth biography)
“Ukrainian artist Vladimir Denshchikov creates mind-blowing religious icons made almost entirely of linen thread.
Only the faces and hands of the saints in Denshchikov’s icons are painted on canvas, everything else is made from millions of linen knots. The artist doesn’t use any tools, like needles or crochets to make the knots, all the patterns and details are created directly by hand. The material used for these incredible artworks is created by the artist himself: he takes a piece of pure linen cloth (a fabric associated with Orthodox Faith), soaks it in water and takes it apart one string at a time. He uses linen threads between 0.5 and 2 meters long and works between 3 and 6 months on a single 40×50 cm icon. It might sound like a long time, but let’s not forget one of these things numbers up to nine million tiny knots, each made by hand.” (Source)
In two years, 2019-2021, with the pandemic and the caregive, I finished all my book illustrations today, 12:06 PM, Sunday, 11 April 2021, all two hundred nine (209) of them
Maycapal: Philippine Mythopoeia. From the timelessness of the cloud archipelago to the Philippine Republic of 1946.
Here’s to the anitos, diwatas, Indarapatra, to the babaylans, to Philippine flora and fauna, to myths, folklife and folklore, to the proud pre-conquest natives of the archipelago, to our Austronesian heritage, to the imagined Filipino and the Philippines!
To Thomas Bulfinch, to Edith Hamilton, to Hieronymus Bosch, to the early printers and typographers, to Cesare Ripa, to the medieval traditions brought by the holy orders, to renaissance humanists, heretics and alchemists.
To Francisco Balagtas, to Damian Domingo, to Jose Honorato Lozano, to Jose Rizal, Juan Luna and Felix R. Hidalgo.
To Gaiman, to Pullman, to Le Guin.
To semiotics, to Umberto Eco.
To archetypes, to Carl Jung.
To folklore, to Maximo D. Ramos, to E. Arsenio Manuel, to Damiana L. Eugenio.
To history, heraldry, comparative literature, religion and mythology.
To museums, archives, and libraries.
I owe to them my love of reading, drawing, and imagining.
I have been working on my book about Philippine Mythology and Folklore entitled “MAYCAPAL” since 2019. The corona virus pandemic of 2020 threw a wrench on my writing, illustrating and productivity like with the rest of the world. I got my groove back and am back on track. ✍️
