A Hundred Visions and Revisions

Stevie Nicks

I kept thinking of this quote last night when I was watching the Golden Globes. I really thought that there was a horribly icky tone toward women and their accomplishments. It started with that horribly sexist and totally unfunny opening monologue, and then kept chugging along with casual misogyny. Despite all the really strong female performances and intriguing stories about women’s lives, wants, and desires, it felt like a really big men’s club meeting to me last night.

I felt it the most in regards to “Barbie.”  Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig shepherded that movie to be the most successful movie of 2023, yet all people could comment on were boobs. It was gross.

I hate this narrative, because the exact same thing happened with Lady Bird and Little Women. The movies are properly recognized, and given a lot of praise for their insights into the lives of women. Then award season that goes around, and suddenly they are belittled for being too “superficial” or “slight.”  Men’s coming-of-age stories are treated as sacrosanct and universal while women’s are treated as frivolous and “niche.” Seems like the only time a woman’s story is given value if the woman truly suffers in the story – illness or death has to be involved, or else it’s as if the story doesn’t have merit.

Women’s stories have just as much value as men’s stories – I don’t care if they are a comedy or a drama or what. A female character doesn’t need to shed tears or shed blood in order to be valuable. I feel like Poor Things suffers a bit of the same issue – it’s boiled down to being simply “horny” and hence Bella’s voyage to discovery of what she really wants, and embracing life, is ignored. Oppenheimer is allowed to have a sex drive, because it makes him complex and edgy . But Bella Baxter has a sex drive, and suddenly it makes her silly and “a caricature.”

I just hate the fact that Barbie is being dismissed because it uses a light touch for the serious subject of exploring girlhood to womanhood- what is gained and what is lost. Just because it’s funny doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a legitimate message to share.

I have so many thoughts of this, but I’ll go back to Stevie’s quote. Ultimately, women are punished for what they are initially praised for.

This poor pup, at the age of 44, was nearly decapitated sometime in those four plus decades.

His person didn't remember if it was a fight with another dog or something else, but she found him stored like this among her mother's things, and wanted to see about making him feel better. In addition to the neck wound, he was missing a spot on the back, needed some eye touchup... and we were planning a spa for him.

Here he is in his bubble bath:

I don't know about you, but I can see his Scooby grin (which is actually missing) forming under the bubbles in that photo. I think it's one of my favorite spa pics. Anyway, here's his heart being made and installed.

Next his internal wire supports were straightened and reinstalled, and his neck injury was treated. That's when I figured out he once had a collar, because a stub of it was clinging to the inside of his neck. So I spoke with his person and we planned a new collar. These were the felt options, based on illustrations of Scooby from that era (the stub of collar was so faded, it was hard to tell the original color).

The plan was just to do a collar, maybe with a blank diamond hanging from it as I couldn't exactly replicate a machine embroidered tag (or the images of Scooby's tags online). But it was the weekend, and we let Scooby rest and while he was resting and I was busy doing other things, I had an idea of how to make his tag! So I made a tag with the collar, attached it, and sent photos. I told his person if she didn't like it, it was easy to go back to a plain gold diamond:

But she loved it! So we kept the SD tag and next was his new felt spot on his back to replace the missing one, and a new smile. Based on the stitches on his fur, it was hard to tell what his original smile looked like, so I sent a sketch with some example options:

His person chose the center one, but said thick yarn maybe? I knew it couldn't have been thick yarn originally. There would have been larger holes. But based on all his felt parts, thought maybe it was felt, so that's what we agreed to do. Soon, Scooby was smiling again and ready to fly home:

His person wrote "he looks brand new, wow I cannot thank you enough! Thank you so much!! He looks amazing!"

and when he got home, she added:

"He is home!!! He smells like my mom, I know you bathed him and cleaned him I don’t know how he does but that is the only thing I have now that smells like her. Thank you so so much!!!"

It started with a sheep. I was messing around with new watercolor tools and crosshatching tools, thought “that looks kinda like a sheep” and then took out the bits that didn’t look like a sheep.

The noble Aukhound, originally bred to herd migratory seabirds. These majestic, slightly damp creatures are now used extensively in ecological restoration work.

I do this whenever I see a frog.

Then I was just in the mood for weird shadowy cloaked figures.

You know that’s a clove cigarette.

Portrait Of A Creature With A Chicken On Its Head