✧₊⁺🕯⋆.˚୨ৎButterfly Wings & A Cowboy Spider୨ৎ˚.⋆🕯⁺₊✧
Well, well, well. Look who it is. It is already Wednesday and I feel our summer dwindling. I’m getting a massive number of emails from the schools and I am NOT ready to be going back into the swing. My girls are really excited to go back, which is really great. I’m not looking forward to the days when it will be a drag going back. (That started way earlier for me.) I cannot believe I will have one child in MIDDLE SCHOOL. I remember older folks always saying that time flies but now I truly understand what they meant. It’s bizarre how it feels like just yesterday I had my first baby girl and, at the same time, feels like an absolute lifetime ago. It was only 11 years ago but we were in a totally different position than we are now. We had just moved to West Michigan, we were renting a trailer, I ended up having to work retail out of necessity (ew), things were very touch and go. I’m thankful for the growth, the stability, and the comfort my family & I have found, or rather created, since then. I hope you all have good people behind you. It is so hard not to take for granted the things (and people) you have grown accustomed to but things like a stable home life is one I try not to overlook. So if you are in a shite family situation… come join ours! Leave your petty baggage and toxic relationships at the door! ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ
A small artist update for you: if you recall, I am still that… ( •᷄ᴗ•́) I began my LARGE 24×36” canvas for the revisit of “Felt Cute…Might Usher Souls Through The Underworld Later… IDK”, a drawing of mine from 2019 that depicts a Grim Reaper sitting on a unicorn floaty in the River Styx… because even necromantic ferrymen need breaks sometimes. I’m thinking of having him enjoying a beverage as well… I haven’t decided. If you think a beverage is a good idea-what beverage do you think he would be enjoying? A can of Diet Coke? A glass of Mai Tai? The canvas has its base coat, and I have the edges detailed with filigree so that it is interesting from all angles. I am now kind of stagnant as I wait for my kids to head back to school and I can focus a little more on the larger piece. (Ozzy is going to be SO excited to get his walks back too… he has been such a little mopey asshat.) I’ve also still got THREE separate exhibit applications out in the world and the end of this month will let me know if I got into any of those… fingers crossed! ♡ ︎
I read a historical fiction mystery novel over the weekend entitled “Oscar Wilde and the Death of No Importance” that I borrowed from a friend after seeing it on her shelf (because Oscar is intriguing, okay?!?). It was really fabulous and was also a very easy read… I recommend it! I’m ashamed to say that I did not know who the murderer was, though after the case was solved, I saw all the clues lined up and just felt *palm to forehead* DUH. Sherlock Holmes would be so embarrassed. I do have to admit that I struggle with historical fiction works… If they have names of real people in them, I always blend all the facts with the fiction and get turned around with what is actually the historical truth. (Or the “truth” we were given, anyway-”History is written by the victors” or something like that, amiright?) So after reading this intriguing novel that followed a fictional version of Oscar Wilde, I’m going to have to get my podcast on and do a little research to find the real Oscar through versions he’s written himself and others’ accounts of the man. What a nerd, huh? What I DO KNOW for a fact is that Oscar Wilde was jailed for 2 years in England after going to trial for “gross indecency” (homosexuality was not a word used at this time) after being accused of having an affair with a nobleman by ANOTHER nobleman (petty bitches, huh?) He was already a celebrity at the time and after his release, he moved to France where he lived out the rest of his life in “voluntary exile”. Poor fuckin’ Oscar. I must know more about him! I also know, just by the reading of Dorian Gray, that he held beauty to a very high standard. As did MOST Victorians- they all had a weird obsession with image that never went further than skin deep. You and I know VERY WELL that good looking people can be SUCH assholes… so that disproves their whole ideology right there. I want it noted that homosexuality IS NOT and SHOULD NOT and SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN a crime. In Queer Enlightments, I read a very real historical account of Gabriel Lawrence, a widower in early 1700’s London, who was HANGED for having a physical relationship with another man. And, as my heart breaks for Gabriel and all those who have lost their lives just for being who they are, I’m reminded that this is STILL happening in the world, even close to home. Queer people are not the problem, nor have they ever been. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk… What’s funny is I had planned on writing about RACISM in classical English literature today, but I went on a gay tangent so maybe I’ll bring back the racist rant for another time! Rest assured, IT’S COMING!
Photo captions-Cover Photo: Beautiful Monarch on a bush outside my front door! Photo 1: It is good to have friends with pools! We love to come crash the house with a pool. Photo 2: I’m highly recommending the U-Cut flowers off Fruitvale Rd near the intersection of Old US Highway 31. Their fun-colored sunflowers are open as well! Photo 3 & 4: My big baby girl at her birthday party! 𐙚⋆°｡⋆♡ Photo 5: My family got me all the main characters from my favorite show, Bob’s Burgers, and now I need to make them a shelf that looks like the restaurant front! Photo 6: Edges of my newest painting Photo 7: A cute rainbow cowboy? spider window hanging that my mom’s friend made for me, I LOVE HIM! Photo 8: our butterfly egg that hatched (that we lazily named Egg) has now turned into a chrysalis! I’ve got two more chrysalids and have helped 19 butterflies metamorphosize! I hope to do it again next year! My mom says I’m “saving the world one butterfly at a time!” ◡̈
Alright, I got you a better update like I had promised! Sorry I’ve been slackin’, but I’m soaking up what summer we have left! I’ve been consulting with different sites to try and find better ways of promoting this blog as well as coming up with out-of-the-box ways to advertise my artwork without being on social media. It’s soul sucking and not worth the hassle anymore. And, good lord, I cannot express how much better my mental health is after dropping them. It is NOT going to be easy but it IS doable to be successful without social media apps. Send some good juju my way, and I will send all that I can to you! Stay safe and sane, babes!
xxx- Kanda ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗
P.S. An employee of the Frauenthal Center in Muskegon READ MY JAWS POST about visiting the theater and has invited me to vend at another Free Family Movie event!! So, there ARE people that are reading this blog!!! Not just my mom. (I love you, mom!! ( ˶˘ ³˘)♡ ) That is exciting as hell! Okay, bye!
