Art it up! Open thread

@Dave So I won’t suggest Gimp for you, then. 🙂 (I hear you about the problems figuring it out, though.)

Right now I’m painting a banner for one of the sponsors of our medieval group. It’s a local hot springs place so they submitted a fox (his wife) and a bear (the owner) relaxing in a cauldron with the company name in vaguely medieval lettering and part of the actual logo turned on its side to represent steam. 🙂

Edit: well, the pics aren’t showing up. *^&%* Facebook….

https://www.facebook.com/groups/companyofthewhitewolf/photos/

Finally, I can comment again! Due to the epic levels of WTFery posted on here lately and the recent volatile state of my hormones, I didn’t trust myself to comment without going afoul of the comments policy, so I hung back for a while.

Re: art-I can draw exactly two things, Bender from Futurama and the Pigeon from Mo Willems’ picture books; otherwise I could use a ruler and still draw a crooked line. I also don’t know much about tech. Thus, I will give absolutely zero helpful artistic advice and be treating this as I would any other open thread.

We’re currently looking for new furniture. Last week we were all in a furniture store looking at couches, but my dad started rambling and I got distracted and sat in a bucket chair (something like this: http://www.valuecityfurniture.com/product/item/living-room/seating/chairs-chaises/montclaire-accent-chair-gray/1692840) across the aisle.
Dad said “That makes you look like you’re in the bucket seat of a race car!” and I stood up, not wanting to look like a NASCAR driver. I have nothing against NASCAR-it’s just not my bag, and I didn’t think the chair looked NASCAR-ish at all.
I said “I don’t want to look like a NASCAR driver when all I did was sit down!” Not logical, but again, my hormones were in flux.
Dad’s response: “You don’t get to be picky because you’re wearing a Green Day t-shirt, and that’s not music.”
WTF?! How does his not liking certain music (in this case, Green Day) invalidate it as music, and how does my musical taste have anything to do with my ability to pick furniture? I had no clue how to even start with that one, so I huffed, gave him a lost look, and went to the back of the store near the mattresses, shortly followed by my mom.

I’m editing it. This is way too long and I wanted to sleep on it. I want to do a more thoughtful pass over it. Less “dump rough draft” and more emphasis on where it meets art.

The art part has to do with the fact that I’m trying to create something meant to change a persons feelings with respect to society. I’m breaking the rules when it comes to what we do with text by showing other people how they can rationally “break the rules” in arguments. The symbols/words that we use to communicate are what will change, reality will be what it is. I have the long term goal of changing how society talks about emotion and feeling so I’m trying to inject something into the culture that will force the process forward in a way that is beneficial to everyone.

A “meme” is art to me because it manipulates cognition and memory with media and social information. I’m trying to combine several sets of concepts together in a way that lets people functionally use what we know about how brains make minds in dismantling socially aggressive bigoted rhetoric.

(I’m also going to try to be more interactive. My life keeps getting more socially complicated but I have to be more overtly social at some point. I’m working on the medical part of my facility now. This place addresses “rehabilitation” very broadly. Traumatic brain injury, severe wound healing, age related breakdown…I don’t have to words yet. I’m walking the talk and it hurts. This is a job worth doing and my patients and co-workers are awesome, but it’s still intense and terrifying. I’m making lots of ways of interacting with people. I wish this was easier.)

@Steampunked’
There is a beautiful sense of depth in that. What kind of media?

@Hambeast
I have the same problem. I need to eject about 50% of what is in my project/computer room. It’s as disorganized as I am. I suspect it’s mucking with my motivation somehow.

@Ooglyboggles
Got a link? I’m interested. It’s by education and circumstance that I can even try to do the same.

@Dalillama
That right there is one of the things that has me editing and your comment sharpened what I was already about in a more relevant direction. I am keeping the problem biases of the modern culture of brain science in mind. It won’t be perfect but I’ve tried to keep it modifiable for that reason. Being inherently alterable is needed for bias to be dealt with.

Here is an interesting test case. I think the following links can be related to modern behavior in a socially responsible way and I clearly see my own bias when it comes to sensitivity to symbolism in research relating to myself.
540,000-Year-Old Shell Carvings May Be Human Ancestor’s Oldest Art
Positive selection on the human genome
I don’t want to leave religion and every other human culture out the assumptions going into something that I’m applying to american english text. And I don’t particularly care about the integrity of the english language when it comes to being inconsistent with reality. I’m more about hating the social effects of bullies and abusers and planing something at the interpersonal level that will be socially useful. But I want to make big picture connections with self interest like everyone else. It needs a leash.

I’ve also had the unique opportunity to consider
Children and adolescents with Tourette’s disorder in the USA versus Argentina: behavioral differences may reflect cultural factors.
I get make assumptions about myself and social bias and it’s been very useful in being careful about this. I assume that there are things in my head that are different from what is in the head of a person with TS from another culture. That’s on top of the inherently social nature of the shifted, flipped, enhanced, reversed and disembodied urges and sensations that we deal with as a group. I already knew I was the 1% when it came to feelings so I’m hopeful when it comes to bias and presentation. I assume that many other kinds of people will have equally different experiences that we have to take into account as a group.

Unbiased is not a thing so it’s not a goal. Rational, useful and appropriate bias in parallel with accuracy is the goal. Bigots can’t “win” in the sense that they seem to want to because it’s self-defeating and emphasizes short term, individual goals. We are individually far more different within our groups than we are with any difference between our groups that they focus on. I choose to believe that we can get our collective priorities and emphases where they need to be for all of us.

@TheDreadVampy
What are you subjects? The first one has a nice organic feel to it to me. I like how the browns blend.

TheDreadVampy
Those are fantastic! I love how you do skin tones.