Di

I am Kareman, a Palestinian mother from Gaza, and we are still alive after 475 days of war that began on October 7, 2023, and ended today. However, despite being alive, pain and sorrow have not left us. Everything around us has turned to rubble. I once said, "This pain will end one day, and I believe in that," but I never imagined that the pain would follow us in this way.

We returned to our home, only to find that the pain has deepened. Our home, which once embraced us, is now destroyed. The fishing boat, which was our only source of livelihood, was consumed by fire, taking away all hope. The fishing nets and equipment, which were our means of survival, have been burned. My husband, who supported us with his work, now has nothing but memories😭💔

As for me, I was a children's teacher, teaching them to love life despite the difficulties, but my school, which was once a place of hope, is now nothing but ash. We have lost everything, but we still hold on to hope thanks to Hamoud, who gives us the strength to keep going.

Today, we need you more than ever. We ask for your help in repairing my husband's fishing boat, as we have no other source of income. If we don't get the support to repair it, we will remain trapped in a cycle of poverty and need. But if we stand together, we can rise again.

Please, don't leave our families in this dark path. Every donation, no matter how small, represents a chance for us to live again.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your continued support, and I trust that hope will return thanks to your help.

Donation link through the campaign gofund

Or through PayPal

My campaing vetted by/

@90-ghost here

@gaza-evacuation-funds here

Or through the link here

Please donate here

“The Flowing Sky”

This painting was created especially for a charity auction benefiting the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the forests, rivers, farmlands, and natural landscapes of central Pennsylvania. Since 1982, the conservancy has helped preserve thousands of acres of land for wildlife and future generations. I am honored that this painting can contribute to their mission of protecting these beautiful places.

The Big Elephant in the Room: AI and Solarpunk

We have a problem Yuston and it's quite extensive! Solarpunk, which supposedly thrives on counter-systemic directions and a return to the Earth in harmony with it and non-human animals, has had a toxic relationship with artificial intelligence for quite some time. The massive use of AI to create solarpunk imagery by stealing from artists has been present since the early years of solarpunk. Many of us will have surely seen these images at the top of Pinterest searches when we first searched for the genre.

Lately, this trend has diminished a little, but hyper-technological posthumanism remains a veritable virus within the community. But why? Aside from the obvious negatives about AI (depletion of already scarce freshwater resources, health problems for citizens, its use to suppress and continue the genocide in Palestine, instant facial recognition in every country that claims to be democratic, even in the EU now, etc.), it solves a major problem that capitalism and neoliberal thinkers have been think for about two centuries, starting with Adam Smith: the tendential fall of capital.

I promise I won't write a history of political economy here (besides, I'm writing this before a long day at work and I'd like to avoid falling asleep alone; I hope I don't write any typo because I slept for three hours, lol), but I really wanted to write something about this.

The tendential fall of the rate of profit is one of the problems of capitalism, already noted by the father of liberalism, Smith, cited above, but also by Riccardo and good old Marx himself. In short, what these economists observed and theorized was that sooner or later, in the distant future, capitalism would enter a crisis due to internal structures (competition, companies growing ever larger until they swallow up all the others) that lead to serious consequences due to savings (worse construction materials, for example, leading to more fragile buildings), and we know what companies love to save on. Certainly not their bosses' wages.

Well, does that resonate with you? Because yes, that distant future theorized by Smith and the others is, unfortunately, our present. So how can we solve rising production costs without cutting our own wages and continuing to expand our company? Through technology, yes, by limiting the cost of spending on salaries. Once upon a time, they thought about factories; now it's AI.

AI is the last desperate gasp of a dying and failing economic system whose theorists had predicted its demise, and dear old Marx was no exception. This was just to explain in this little space why AI is so dear to big companies, and to give another reason to fight it at all costs :) Because we should reduce, reuse old methods, and learn from more intelligent cultures in their relationship with nature. Technology won't save us; the communities we build will.

Solarpunk that isn't anti-capitalist is just gardening, or a tool of neoliberalism.

Anduin tarot c0mm for ClaretAsh on bsky 🌹

I was so delighted to get to draw Anduin, his outfit and hair were just so much fun to do! And even more so was to make this a part of a matching pair with Wrathion! Thank you so much for giving me the chance to draw them both!

I'm doing c0mms like this, info here! Prints (made available with client permission)

Process under the cut, and face closeup

Rainbow

my art book and prints are available here

a lonely black cat with trust issues

(who has to learn that sometimes it's okay to accept help)

a kind capybara that's happy to share in its luck

(who portrays how even the most steady presence in your life might need a hand once in a while)

a good dog that just wants to be friends

(who has to learn that sometimes making real friends means learning how not to follow bad ones)

a heroic secretarybird that faces bullies for a stranger

(who shows how sometimes constantly fighting for the right thing can leave one exhausted to the bone)

and a kleptomaniac lemur that just wants to stare at its reflection

It’s not a lie that sugar is expensive. 1kg is $80. Frying oil is $70. That donut was expensive to make, even without the sugar. But it’s okay. Even if it means the adults can’t eat, it’s okay. Soso was happy for a few hours. She’s only 4 years old yet her life is already so hard. She’s not growing properly due to malnutrition and trauma. Her mental health is in shambles, not at all how a child should be. Since birth, two wars have come very close to killing her, so we just want her to be happy.

Please help me make her happy every day. A few days ago, she was the happiest child in the world because she ate an apple for the first time in a year. That won’t happen again because fruits are too expensive, but I swear, she explodes with joy when we buy vegetables too. She is a child with simple dreams.

Please don’t feel hesitant to help me, my campaign has been vetted!

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #347 )✅️

FEMALE RAGE

“Timoclea Killing Her Rapist” (1659) by Elisabetta Sirani

Italian Baroque artist Elisabetta Sirani championed both female painters and female subjects during her short life (she died somewhat mysteriously at 27). She opened a painting school where she trained many women, including her younger sisters, and in her own work, she often chose themes that foreground female fortitude.

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

"Timoclea Killing Her Rapist," depicts a popular tale described in Plutarch's biography of Alexander the Great. During Alexander's invasion of Thebes, a captain in his army rapes the titular Timoclea. Following the assault, the captain asks where her money is hidden. Timoclea leads him to her garden well; as he peers into it, she pushes him in, dropping heavy rocks down the well until he dies.

The painting turns the story on its head, inverting the hierarchy quite literally: The rapist is shown upside down and helpless, feet flailing in the air, as she stands resolutely above him. Sirani, like many Baroque painters, had a flair for drama, but it's worth noting that most depictions of this story show the aftermath of the violent event: Timoclea standing before Alexander to accept his judgment, usually flanked by her children. Sirani daringly chose to show Timoclea's justice, rather than Alexander's mercy.

WAHT

“I’m part of her being. Her very shadow”