꧁𓆩༺✧Monster Trucks & A Cheer Mom✧༻𓆪꧂
Happy Sunday, friends. How are we doing? Hanging in there, I hope? Things have been quite busy around here and I do believe I’m fighting a cold on top of everything else. Tis the season! Our girls have started their actual cheer season and though we absolutely love watching them, it makes us unable to have Saturday plans for a few months. As it is, we are skipping next weekend so that my husband and I can take a quick weekend trip and drive to Pennsylvania to visit my artwork hanging up in a museum there. I’m SOOOOO excited. This will be my first art museum appearance, and it feels like a really big milestone. OF COURSE, I will take a picture for you scallywags! ˙𐃷˙ I’m also still REALLY trying to finish up my newest painting in my Retrospective Infringement series: Edna. It is a 16×16” acrylic on canvas done from my previous drawing with the same title. I need this one finished up soon because I have to take “Pathogen” down at the Arts Council where it is currently hanging and send THAT piece to the Northville Art House in Northville Michigan for their upcoming exhibition: Art That Pushes Boundaries. I am so excited for that as well. (Now, if only people would start buying my original work!)
I know I mentioned I was going to begin rereading Frankenstein, I had read it in high school and liked it but I’m on a really strong 19th century gothic literature kick and this seemed like the perfect time to reread. You may already know I’m a little weirdo about having to do a full history lesson on the author when I’m reading them… so I had already known Mary Shelley was 19 when she wrote the book. I knew that she had married a Percy Shelley who was also an author. I knew that Frankenstein was created because of a writing competition between them and Lord Byron in the summer of 1816, when the “summer with no sun” occurred due to volcanic activity in Indonesia. But the things I learned about Mary Shelley’s life were somehow even more dramatic than her book. I’m going to regurgitate it here so PREPARE YOURSELVES. First, Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, was also an author and a practicing ‘feminist’ before that was a term. Mary’s mother had a previous relationship and conceived a daughter named Fanny Imlay. Mary’s mother met Mary’s father, William Godwin, and they were married. Godwin adopted the then 3 year old Fanny when Mary’s mother died in child-birth with Mary. So Fanny was kept in the family, though Mary was only her half-sister and Godwin, Mary’s father, had no real family tie to Fanny. 4 years later Godwin marries a Mary Jane Clairemont who has two children from a previous relationship, one being Claire Clairemont who is around the same age as Mary. So 3 girls in the one household, mkay? Now, we are going to talk about Percy. Anyone who knows the history of Percy is just like… what the fuck is up with Percy?! So Percy is born to a decent family, and grows up fairly good (though lots of records say he was bullied in school), he went on to college where he was kicked out of Oxford for writing antichristian propaganda. He had a lot of radical ideas on things like the institution of marriage, religion, and organized governments. Which is when he went seeking… a 16 year old Harriet Westbrook. They eloped against their parents’ wishes so were cut off financially. They struggled with money but had a child in this time. Percy went to seek financial aid for essentially a cult village he wanted to create and decided to ask William Godwin, Mary’s father, as he was also an author with similar views and revoluntionary ideas. After meeting MARY at 16, Percy started wooing her against her father’s wishes… oh yeah, and with a pregnant Harriet and their small child at home. Percy did not believe in monogamy and made a point of indulging himself. Mary, being smart but just a girl, fell for his crap and eventually ran away with him, bringing her STEPSISTER Claire, for some damn reason, and leaving Fanny home with a miserable stepmother. Claire and Percy were also VERYYYYY close. Like, really close. Mary eventually elopes the already married Percy (though he doesn’t believe in marraige, remember?), she is pregnant and very sick with her first child when she writes Frankenstein. She has had 4 children all together, and sadly only one: Percy Florence, makes it to adulthood and many historians believe Mary’s children could have survived if Percy hadn’t been dragging his young family all over the continent during times of war, famine, and heat waves. Both Fanny and Harriet end up taking their own lives due to their sad circumstances left to them. Percy ends up dying in 1822 due to an unseaworthy boat he had specially built going down in a storm. Mary Shelley lives out her life writing, taking care of her son, and dies from a brain tumor at 53. Isn’t that all bizarre? Sorry that was long- that was the freakishly, over-simplified version of it too!
Photo captions-Cover Photo: Gorgeous morning at Medberry Park. Photo 1 & 2: My lil’ cheerleaders ♡ Photo 3: Kinger is the 23rd butterfly I’ve hatched this year! Photo 4: My baby girl at the Harvest Day festivities at her school, this was the first year Nova wasn’t there and it was hard for mama bear! Photo 5, 6, 7, & 8: We went to see a live Hot Wheels Monster Truck show last night and it was INCREDIBLE! The vehicles are so cool and smashing the crap out of tiny cars is a DANG GOOD TIME! My girls kept saying how much they love being in the city too! ࣪ ִֶָ☾. Photo 8: Edna WIP, the strawberry leaves took forever but I’m finally beginning on her. Photo 9: Again, am cheer mom, am proud!!!
Alright, since I took a whole bunch of time explaining Mary Shelley history and how much Percy kind of suck, I’m going to wrap this up and let you know that I’ll see you next week! I hope you all have an excellent week! I can feel fall in the air and it has me reaching for all the apples and donuts! I freakin’ love fall! Okay, bye frannnnnss!
xxx- Kanda 𑄝੭
