ishaway

The literal cofounder of queer theory as an academic field says that abandoning trans people is fascist logic.

The voices in our community trying to exclude us may be loud, but they are not right, and they do not speak for the community as a whole or our history or anything at all.

There is also a difference between "There is nothing wrong with being a woman." and "Being a woman can be a wonderful thing."

They not only don't mean the first thing, they also define femaleness by suffering, by oppression, by trauma. So once these are gone, there will be no womanhood in their eyes. For gender criticals, no "true female" is happy, there is no such thing as "girl joy" in their world. Because according to them, to be female is to suffer. The first thing also is almost always said maliciously, with either implication or a direct following statement along the lines of: "But there are many wrong things with being trans." It's never about how being a woman is a good thing. It's a necessary evil, one that has to be done in order for women as a class to keep existing. Their womanhood is always miserable, there is no room left in it for happiness. This is why they don't care if trans people (especially their trans kids) regret transition. They only want to drag us down with them into their pain. Or maybe some of them even want us to regret it. Either way they do not have the safety or happiness of trans youth (and trans people in general) in mind.

Many TERFs also hate their ability to get pregnant, but reduce women (and everyone they see as women) to it. They hate it when someone is happy to be pregnant, especially if it's a marginalized person having a kid in a way that's most comfortable to them. A true pregnancy for them is one linked to suffering and misery. The same goes for nursing a kid. Because to them, real females hate their femaleness and what makes them female.

This is why they actually stand with the patriarchy. Their whole ideology is rooted and based on the patriarchal, white supremacist idea that to be female is to suffer (and be white and able bodied enough of course). They have to hate themselves in order to participate in their social circles. Because only good women under patriarchy are those that detest their own existence.

The world is weird. I feel odd soliciting commissions while the world is -waves general hands at The State of Things-

But bills are still due. I am taking graphite and watercolor sketch commissions for late April/early May completion to help bridge the gap in hunting for larger projects, conventions and more conventional work.

Graphite sketches start at $45, is done at 5.5”x8.5”

Watercolor sketches start at $60, also done at 5.5”x8.5”

A hi-res scan is included. Originals can be shipped domestically or picked up at in person events. (I can figure out international shipping on a case by case basis)

We can’t all be mad… we can’t.

This sounds so much like my childhood. I remember walking out of my bedroom at night and telling my parents in the dinning room “We are at war.”

Gorge W Bush had announced it, and it was reported by the rock channel DJ.

The news right now sounds very similar. I am catapulted back to being 14 and aware the world I thought I knew was madder than I expected.

Dreaming: Cycles

I had high hopes and was fully of dreams about attending RISD; perusing illustration and becoming another artist with a BFA by 2018/2019.

remember working on this image, curled up with my cats and an elevated knee (lift gate at work broke.)

I had high hopes and was fully of dreams about attending RISD; perusing illustration and becoming another artist with a BFA by 2018/2019.

I did not get into RISD. I kept working away at my community college. I now stack my two associate degrees in a trench coat. My baby sibling got into a good 4 year school. So, I tossed my coins hard into furry art and conventions to help raise their tuition. My mother was hip deep in a nasty, prolonged divorce related issues due to my sperm doner choosing to (financially) starve us vs pay his part of our tuitions and higher education costs. (She never did get paid back.)

I am now in my mid 30s, revisiting this piece which I only have iPhone 4S photos of because we had to mail in the originals as part of the application. I remember being laid up because the lift gate at work failed under me, a coworker, and a flat of dishes. I was given a week to be off my very swollen and colorful knee, so curled up to work on this application piece.

The original was done with a loving cat curled up under the drawing board, many pens, and poor posture.

The rework was done on an iPad, curled up with slightly better poster (took breaks to stretch) and the ability to erase and redo some bits. I did rework elements of this piece a little bit. Tweaked the aspect ratio, added some filler bits… swapped some parts around. But it lives again. One of the largest Dreaming style pieces I have ever done. (All in pen at the time.) I think it is still the largest piece (file was so big I only got 10 layers to work with).

I spent time reflecting about the life cycles most animals go through. Birth, growth, life, death, reentry to the soil. Only one thing is promised once you are born, that someday you will die. The rest is up to instinct, chance, and (for some animals <hard eyes humans as a whole>) choice.

The Dreaming series has always been meditative for me. I can see where I can just let my mind loosen a little bit. Almost like on autopilot, I can know how I want the piece to work and twist, and nudge it the right ways to do so.

I also reflected on the Dreaming series as a whole body of work. I have done several animals, both common and unique. I rarely revisit an animal once I have rendered it. I did a Wolf; have not done a second. I rendered one frog; never came back for another variant. Did a kangaroo, haven’t done another. Horses are an exception; I think I have rendered them 3 or 4 times. Dragons are another, people like them.

Cycles has two requested animals: Fox and Owl. Each deserve a solo image. They will get one. But for now they live again, along with many, many rabbits.

This work was posted to Patreon / Ko-fi first before the wider internet. If you would like to help support the creation of works like this one, please take a look there.