Release The Bees

Btw the heat *is* why we see water that's not really there, but mirages aren't exactly hallucinations so much as optical illusions:

If you drive on a straight road in the summer you can see mirages pretty easily.

Mammal in a Sunday Dress explores the uneasy relationship between femininity, civilisation, and the animal body. At first glance, the figure appears modest and withdrawn. Her posture is composed, her gaze seemingly lowered towards her bare feet, recalling the conventions of nineteenth-century portraiture where women were often depicted as passive objects of observation. Yet as the viewer moves closer, the illusion collapses. Her eyes are not lowered at all. She is looking directly back. The delayed eye contact transforms the encounter. The viewer approaches believing they are safely observing a woman; instead, they realise they have been observed themselves. The work refuses the traditional power dynamic of portraiture, denying the comfort of anonymous spectatorship. Looking becomes a reciprocal act. For Cox, the painting considers humanity's persistent desire to separate itself from the rest of the animal kingdom. The title quietly undermines this distinction. A "mammal" is not another creature—it is us. The Sunday dress, rich with cultural associations of femininity, morality, and respectability, becomes an attempt to distinguish ourselves from nature. Yet clothing cannot alter biology. Beneath lace and ritual remains the same vulnerable animal body. The work also reflects on the historical relationship between women and nature. Across art, religion, and philosophy, women have repeatedly been positioned as closer to instinct, emotion, reproduction, and the body itself, while men have been aligned with reason, culture, and civilisation. Mammal in a Sunday Dress does not reject this comparison. Instead, it questions why proximity to nature has so often been treated as something lesser. Chiaroscuro isolates the figure within darkness, allowing the luminous dress to symbolise the performance of civilisation while the bare feet quietly return the body to the earth. Neither is presented as more truthful than the other. The painting exists in the tension between performance and instinct, refinement and biology. Mammal in a Sunday Dress ultimately asks a simple but unsettling question: if every layer of culture were stripped away, what would remain? Not a king. Not a saint. Not a gentleman or a lady. Only another mammal, looking back.

The concept that married people live longer is interesting. I'm sure there is some merit to the idea that if you're married there is someone there to nag you about going to the doctor, but I think much larger factors are having the finances of dual incomes and access to an immediate support person.

thinking about this further, people often cite this as a sort of See It's Better To Be Married and mostly accept it as a fact that being married is better for you overall and proceed to breakdown why marriage leads to longer lives. Instead I think we need to be looking at why the system is failing single people and what we could do to close that gap. What structural societal changes can we make to help single people rather than treat it as a Well Obviously foregone conclusion that everyone will eventually pair up.

https://www.statista.com/chart/36293/life-expectancy-of-married-never-married-us-men-and-women/

Hello everyone.. I am sorry for the barrage / I am sorry for remaking my shops post.. but I miscalculated how much my severance would be / they did not take my w-8 ben into account which meant I will pay taxes both in the philippines and the US.. I was left with almost nothing... I am the sole caretaker of a family of four in the global south.. I have a job lined up but theyll only start paying in two months if they like my work.. I am posting again because I have a life limiting disability which puts my life at risk if I am not medicated (I do not have a thyroid and need to be on synthetic thyroid hrmones.) I also have diabetes which is so close to remission.. under my care is my mothwr who is not independent and has a brain injury from sepsis.. and my sister, our two beautiful cats.. I do not have any other family who will help outside of my partner.. my only other family who are willing to help are incapable of.. Im asking folk who are in a more fortunate position to come please give me a boost, rb this, pick up prints or give me a tip if you so would like.. thank you so much

Made this bc I have been trying to take meds only every other day- I take metformin twice a day, liver supplements and levothyroxine. It did not work, I knew it wouldnt; but I did it as a sort of hail mary. I feel very weak, upset, and cognitively impaired.