An Octopus' Garden

It's the Royal Academy of Art Young Artist's Summer Show. One of my favourite exhibitions of the year. Like. Not only are the older kids insanely talented, the younger ones' artist statements will just punch you right in the face.

Jeffrey is my cat and he feels like my heart

These are all so good!!! please look at them

I think my favorite is this one

“You’re not coping” Ok here’s the deal; I’ll stop feeling this anger when we have a national memorial (we don’t) or a cdc equipped to stop it from happening again (we don’t) or a population that takes a deadly disease seriously BEFORE it effects them personally (WE DON’T!)

HELLO I have so many queer sci-fi recs... I tried to focus on gay characters here but a lot of these are also going to be trans/ gender queer gay. anyway:

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - Kel our protagonist is a lesbian (she might be more broadly queer but I remember it that way) and Jedao was for sure bisexual. this is battle type space opera with wildly complex world building

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon - this is a modern classic !!! in the generation ship space sci-fi genre and for sure lesbian protagonist. also very dark and intense

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer - this is maybe the closest to andy weir type sci-fi on this list (guys sent in to space to save humanity) and I am also obsessed with the gay romance in it!! should mention it is YA

The Iron Garden Sutra by A.D. Sui - gay death monk investigating a creeeppyy space ship. also has gay romance

Redsight by Meredith Mooring - blind author writing about blind lesbian space priestessss lesbian romance also

Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis - very fun spaceship hotel book with lots of POVs I believe two of which were lesbians

Landlocked in a Foreign Skin by Drew Huff - important addition to the lesbian alien creature in space genre

Toward Eternity by Anton Hur - more literary far future multiple POV style sci-fi that I really liked and some of the POVs were gay

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz - this is a real engineers hope punk style sci-fi, more of a thought experiment about the future than it is narrative fiction, but ! I remember there was gay sex

Empire of the Feast by Bendi Barrett - you can read this novella in a sitting and It is real out there sexy funky space opera. its more queer than gay cause peoples genders keep changing but I would still sell it as gay

The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis - more lesbian space opera now with more of a handmaid's tale situation

These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs - this was a big deal for the evil lesbian cat and mouse space opera community

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - lesbian cave diving in space!

Countess by Suzan Palumbo - lesbian space opera retelling of the count of monte cristo, though much much shorter than actual count

This World Is Not Yours by Kemi Ashing-Giwa - very messy polyamory stuff on a space colony primarily focused on one lesbian couple

I hate how Dan holds his laptop

fresh hard monday right here

and EVEN WHEN things were more muted/neutral, the neutrality was OFFSET by ACCENT COLORS and HIGH CONTRAST between the wood tones and everything ELSE

ALSO AMERICAN COLONIAL INTERIORS POPPED OFF, Y'ALL (IN TERMS OF COLOR/COZINESS)

PEOPLE USED WHITEWASH AND COLORFUL TRIM OR EVEN JUST COLORFUL FURNITURE IF THEY COULD AFFORD TO DO SO

AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON FRENCH AND BRITISH AND AMERICAN WALLPAPERS

"ELIZABETH" YOU CRY, "WHY ARE YOU BEING SO EXTRA THIS MORNING?! IT'S MONDAY"

Because, my friend, my war on GREIGE will NEVER end.

Historic interiors were filled with LIFE and LIGHT and COLOR. ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.

Part of the reason we don't see a lot of textile art is because, frankly, textiles tend to degrade over time - especially ones that had utility! And yes, pigments and weaving and dying all boosted the expense of things, when we were finally reliably block-printing fabrics and broad reams of paper, it was no longer just the wealthy who could afford pretty patterns!

In the Americas, a far wider variety of pigments also became available because of the abundance of... well, a shitton of flora and minerals, some of which weren't as common in Europe.

WHY THE HIGHLIGHTER COLORS? you ask.

CANDLES.

Those colors reflect candlelight and natural sunlight REALLY WELL.

Humans LOVE bright colors, it's NOT just a thing for kids. We live in a brilliant, vibrant, multifaceted world. We ALWAYS have.

(If ever you have the opportunity to visit the Stencil House at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont (pictured above at 3, 4, and 5), I highly recommend.)

And that's before you get into American painted murals:

Koi. Japan, Home of the Sun. 1963. Kikuko Mori, illustrator.