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TO EVERYONE ELSE:

A series of ten reblogs is about to follow, since you can only have one poll per reblog. Please answer all ten polls. If you don't see them all, check the notes (this shouldn't take me long so if it's more than like, fifteen minutes since I posted this one they should all be there.)

We don't see this platform as a means to an end, like how influencers use other platforms to make money off their followers and don't actually care what platform they're on, as long as it pays them... we see it as a community we are all part of, and that we want to see improve without losing the community aspect

Every other social media is just using algorithms to feed us non-stop ads, pumping out the most far-right Nazi content, and being completely overtaken by bots and AI. There's no "social" aspect left to most of them.

Tumblr also has a Nazi problem, and dealing with that would be a great change to implement, but aside from that, Tumblr is pretty much the only place you can go and interact with real people, without being sold to non-stop.

Influencer culture is dying out everywhere... this is NOT the time for Tumblr to hop on that bandwagon. It would literally kill this website... no one is going to join Tumblr because it become more like the other platforms that everyone's already sick of, and the more it becomes like Twitter or Tik Tok or whatever, the more current Tumblr users will abandon it, just like they did with every other platform.

Actually, that would make a good additional poll, I think:

... for the purpose of this poll. rarely means more than never, but less than daily, I guess

It is a unanimous belief that the best sculptor in Greece's modern times was Yannúlis Halepás (1851-1938). Yannulis was born in Tinos (an island famed for its tradition in sculpting), the first of Ioannis Halepas' six children. Ioannis was himself a sculptor and created one of the best craftshops in the island. Yannulis however was later raised in Athens and studied in the Athens School of Fine Arts and then continued his studies in the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he completed a seven year curriculum in three years.

In 1877, while he was at the peak of his creativity, Yannulis started suffering from symptoms of a mental disorder. It is believed that the onset was after a girl he loved, Marigula Christodoulou, rejected him. In a crisis, he destroyed a lot of his artwork. After a suicide attempt, he travelled to Italy for recreation, which he enjoyed, but his condition deteriorated soon again and he was eventually confined in a psychiatric institution in Kerkyra (Corfu) island in 1888.

The Satyr must have been created around the time Halepas noticed the first signs of his mental disorder. Photo by Ilias Iliadis.

Twelve years later, in 1900, his father died and in 1902 his mother took him from the hospital back to the family house in the town of Pyrgos, in Tinos island, where Yannulis stayed for the next thirty years. His mother thought sculpting was the culprit of Yannulis' poor mental health, even though two more of her children suffered from similar conditions and one of Yannulis' brothers had actually taken his life. She forbid him to sculpt anymore. Yannulis' state was aggravated and when he would escape his mother's notice and sculpt, he would then destroy his work or his mother would do it as punishment. He made a living as a shepherd and was the "madman" of the village.

His mother died in 1916. Immediately after her death, Yannulis opened up his father's craftshop and started sculpting like crazy. His later works date to 1918 onwards which means Halepas was prevented from sculpting for overall 30 years (1888-1918) - the years of his prime. Mysteriously enough, the symptoms of his disorder disappeared or were significantly subdued after his mother’s death and for the rest of his life.

Halepas in his craftshop in Tinos after his mother's death. His work "Genevieve and her executioners" can be seen behind him. Unfortunately, the scultpure does not survive intact nowadays. From the archive of Konstantinos Kalaitzidis.

In 1925 an ehxibition in his honour took place in the Academy of Athens. In 1930, his niece Irene Halepa took him to her house in Athens, and Halepas lived his last 8 years surrounded by family love and public recognition.

Halepas with his nieces Irene and Eftihia, after 1930. From the family's archive.

His work is classified in three periods: a) the one of his youth, before his mental disorder, b) his activity while he had returned to Tinos and lived with his mother and c) his mature works when he moved to Athens.

Most of his famed works belong to the first period, including the "Sleeping Girl" (below), "Satyr and Eros", the Satyr bust and "Medea murders her children", a sculpture he destroyed himself. The work of that first period follows closely the classicism of the 19th century, with an attention to the realistic details.

The Sleeping Girl, created in his youth. Here, Halepas, now in old age, revisits his work in the First Cemetery of Athens, where it decorates the grave of Sofia Afentaki. From the family's archive.

His style had become totally different after the thirty years of being confined in the mental institution and then with his mother. His style became independent from standard archetypes, although he was still inspired by ancient Greek art. The themes were inspired often by his own experiences and he sculpted using clay. His works were sturdy, the faces were serious, imposing, often hieratic.

"The Secret", work dated before 1927, therefore of the second period. Eros is whispering something in the ear of the man. This is a common pattern in Halepas' works, maybe implying what the sculptor was deprived of in his life.

The third period (once he moved to Athens) differs from the second in the sense that his works started being more defined, thought-out compositions. His technique focused on simplicity and he returned to his original themes of mythology, allegories and scenes from everyday life. He mostly worked on plaster and he never returned back to marble since his youth.

"The siren" (1933), work of the third period. Note the common theme with that of the second period, yet now the sculpture is more defined and mature. Photo by Ilias Iliadis.

Satyr and Eros. A loved theme of his, in the first and third period respectively. Photos by Makis Skiadaresis and Yannis Sulis respectively.

Yannulis Halepas, photographed by K. Megalokonomou.

Sources:

ATHENS VOICE

When the anti "LGBT propaganda" law passed in Russia, all of you were going insane and cared. Give Georgia the same energy. If you can have sympathy for our oppressors on the basis of them being queer, you should keep the same energy for us, if not more.

If this law passes, every Georgian queer person I know is so severely fucked, myself included. If you make jokes about "being illegal in several countries" you better fucking care about the countries you're apparently illegal in, or going to be illegal in.

Day 1332 of posting pictures of elephants.