letter to thai

i friend posted the following on her facebook this morning...

"So sick and tired of kids saying something to Thai because she wears superhero shirts to school! Teacher getting a call! She cried about it this morning."

>:( 

this is not acceptable.  this is downright rage-inducing.  messing w/ this girl?  because of SUPERHERO TSHIRTS???  this is like messing w/ my own child.  we go to cons w/ her & her family.  we hang out at kickboxing class.  shoot, we have more pix of her on our fridge than we do of our own son.

i know kids can be stupid & use a strange logic that we grown people just don't get, but this needs to be nipped in the bud.  i remember once upon a time when self esteem wasn't an issue for me.   i mean, every kid coming into the world has unlimited potential to do great things...until they are told by someone else they can't/don't/shouldn't.  i use to be the fastest runner in school & queen of the monkey bars (i had the blisters on my palms to prove it).  then 6th grade hit & i was made fun of because i didn't play quiet games during recess.

& it didn't quit there.  i withdrew further into myself when in 8th grade was told i was suppose to draw flowers instead of dragons.  & then in high school i was 'weird' because i read (for fun, not for homework) at lunch instead of gossip, didn't wear make up, didn't go on dates.  &, oh yeah, i didn't care for new kids on the block.  i know, ole weirdo janet.

it wasn't until i hit my mid-20s before i realized i was tired & unhappy of trying to fit in & hiding the things i liked, all for people who i never saw again & did not matter whatsoever in my life anyways.

a girl doesn't have to wear pink or draw only flowers & unicorns or wear hannah montana shirts or like princesses to be a girl.  

she can dress up as her favorite superhero.

best black canary EVER!

she can be in ballet.

graceful.

she can whoop some tail in kickboxing class.

she's smiling because you think she's cute & can't hit hard.

she can learn to play violin. 

country fiddlin' or classical.

she can have taekwondo family fun time, too.

choke him out!!!

 

oh yeah, & she can read a comic book whilst wearing a SUPERHERO tshirt.


in yo faces, haters.

so here's my words of encouragment to this multifaceted young lady.

dear thai:

i know sometimes it's hard being 10, trying to figure out who you are & where you fit into this world that can be full of people who, at times, are rather stupid & slow to realize that not everyone's a cookie cutter clone. 

you are an individual.  you are ok to like the things you like and enjoy the things you do because those things make you happy.  and too bad if it bothers someone else so much that they feel they need to make fun of you.  those people need to find a hobby, like knitting, if they really don't have anything else going for them.

keep wearing batman tees.  keep playing w/ star wars legos.  keep reading comic books.  one day you'll understand that you are an AWESOME kid.  everyone who love you already know your awesome-osity is boundless.  :)

love <3<3<3,
~~me
 

that's right.  wear that superhero tshirt, miss thai.

my inner darkness

i've just recently discovered something about myself, & it kind of scares me.  but in a good way.  or maybe not?

i love lovecraft.

to those who are unaware, this might seem harmless or even fun.  i mean it has the words 'love' & 'craft' (the crafting of love?), so how bad could it be?  to those who do know, they know this is a step towards a dark part of themselves from which they may never return.

lovecraft, as in mr. h.p. lovecraft, was a pioneer in horror fiction.  monsters, aliens, physical metamorphises, interdimensional demon-gods, insanity & all that.  go here to read up on him. 

i'm kind of a fan when it comes to the horror genre.  i like to be scared.  blood & gore don't really cut if for me.  it's gross, but not exactly scary.  i need something a bit more mind-blowing, & lovecraft does just that. 

to start off w/, what exactly defines a person?  who are you?  your likes & dislikes, thoughts, feelings, emotions.  these are things that a person might consider a part of their soul / give a person their humanity.

now what lovecraft does is tap into a part of your reptillian mind, the primordial subconscious, where there is no rt/wrong, no logic/reason, no emotion.  there just IS.  & nothing more.  this is the instinctual part that every1 has buried deep w/in their minds that just wants to survive & possibly procreate.  it is raw & completely soulless; humanity is gone.  in lovecraft's stories, your normal everyday life is a lie you tell yourself to hold on to--erm, yourself.  then 1 day you peek thru a doorway or notice a bit of darkness moving in the corner of your room that you've never noticed before, & you're suddenly thrusted into a vast & undefined universe where you do not matter, & if you tried to understand it/your place in it you lose your damn feeble, unable-to-ever-grasp-the-truth mind.

THAT, my friends, is scary to me.  to lose yourself & know you can't do a damn thing about it.  i've often wondered if crazy ppl knew they were crazy.  but there's something so seductive about insanity, to lose yourself.  walking the tightrope & peeking over the edge to the monsters & darkness & all of the unkown.  it's like being at the crescendo of a rollercoaster ride, rt before it plunges w/ frightening speed.  you have no choice but to hold on & HOPE you come out ok & not shit your pants.  thrilling, ain't it?

cthullu wants to play w/ your children.

my mother always wanted me to draw flowers & pretty things.  harmless things.  acceptable things.  perhaps i should've listened to the harpy & stuck to the light instead of be curious of what was in the dark.

s'more lovecraft-inspired goodies...

behemoth thing from stephen king's "the mist."

dye's music video "fantasy"

 

mignola's ogdru jahad from "hellboy."

 

sleep tight, kiddies.

[insert crazed laugh here]

geek girl lookbook - thundercats, hoooooo!!!

i've been looking @ too many fashion blogs lately. 

i'm no fashionista, but i do have a geek girl uniform.

target has the BEST stuff.

it was a thundercat kind of day.

all those bracelets?  yeah, i made them.  you may be jealous now.

i got everything that i need! boo boo pee pee pee!

this is definitely a magical time for my husband & i.  the boy is coming into his own, developing his own quirky personality (which mirrors our own, surprise surprise).  lately he's gotten into busting out random songs he makes up all on his own.   like he'll play w/ 2 action figures as if they were fighting, but they'll sing opera-esque their fighting moves.

[lex luthor/ryu]: i will do my haduken now!
[batman/ken]: aaarrrgh! & now i will do my sure-you-can!
--[ominous music]:  dun duuun dun dun dun DUUUUNNN!!!

 & sometimes he'll take a familiar song & replace key words.  like this for instance, from "the muppet movie":  

"i got everything that i need! boo boo pee pee pee!"

see what he did there? how golden is that, ya'll?

"the light side or the dark side?  decisions, decisions..."

i <3 this goofy boy so much.

korra eats an apple instead of doing casual 1 armed push ups

i've been meaning to contribute something to the airbender/legend of korra fandom for quite some time now.  the only thing i've ever done was a sketchy of aang as elvis, or aang-vis if you will, that was a compilation of artists from all over who were fans of the show.  but w/ the 1st season of korra already done i was pumped to do something else.  something a little more...badass.

& if you've ever watched "the legend of korra", you know just what i'm talking about.  korra is the embodiment of badass.  she's the avatar, a teen girl, a girl who can do amazing things & is so confident of herself that i want to BE her.  well, ok let's not get carried away here. 

i've wanted to do a korra pinup for some time but couldn't figure out how to pose her.  every other amazing pieces i see show her bending, & yeah i know she's the avatar & it's her thing, but i wanted something a bit different. something that was casual but also showed off her awesome arms & torso.  a pose that let you know she was a badass w/out even trying.  my husband suggested i make her do push ups.  the thing about when i do these vector pinups, i base them off of an actual photo reference.  which means i take a pic of myself doing the pose.  which means if korra was gonna do some casual push ups, then i would be doing push ups too.  um, no thanks.  then some1 else suggested i take it a step further & make her do a casual 1 armed push up.  say wha???  ok now you're just being crazy.

:/

so i picked an easy pose, something mundane but because she's doing it it's not so mundane.  like eating an apple.  & cocking an eyebrow at you because you're creepily watching her eat an apple.

sketched it out.  used ref snagged from nick.com.

outline everything.

shapes, shapes, shapes.



close up of those beautiful blues.

"can't a gal eat an apple?"
& here we are w/ a very casual but still badass pose.

no direction

my compass needle changes direction so fast.  my mind jumps from 1 thing to the next.  i feel like i have no focus. 

sites like deviantart.com & etsy.com are awesome to inspire, but it can also make you feel like you really suck & have a looooooong way to go in your creative endeavors. 

:(

SOMEONE, TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!

superman celebration 2012 & 10yr anniversary

2 things happened over this past weekend.

the 1st was superman celebration. 

each & every summer we look forward to attending superman celebration in metropolis, il (or as 1 friend calls it, "the trop".  seriously.).  this yr was no different, except...it was...different.  this time, the boy came w/ us!  (dun dun duuuuunnnnn!!!)

because of this, i had to trade in most of the MAW Productions booth time for mommy duties.  which was ok, except for the times anakin got a little too excited &, well, let's just say he got into more trouble this past weekend than in the whole 3 yrs of his life.  :/  but it's ok.  he's only 3 & has the attention span of a cat.  there were times i had to take him away from the celebration & go to a park down the street so he could run around & get it all out of his system.  as long as he had fun, rt?  rt!

but we were all happy to see old friends & hang out & eat deliciously bad consession stand food & appreciate all the cool costumes & get sunburns.  let's take a gander @ the festivities, shall we?

the boy & i @ lambert's, on the way to "the trop".

outside lambert's. put more quarters in it! it'll go faster.

an updated pic on the horsey. in 2009, anakin was on this same horse. i'll have to find that pic...

yeah, i don't know either...

the riley's w/ george perez.  gotta love his seizure inducing shirts.

richard, superman, & Turra.  1 of these things is not like the others...

Super Mule!!!  in front of the MAW Productions booth.

marco, choppin it up.

kevin & a sketch for a fan.

eating artery clogging consession stand pizza. mmmmm.

w/ wonder woman (margie cox) & green lantern (michael cox).

w/ green arrow.  this guy's the BEST green arrow i've ever seen.

you know we had to be in front of the huge superman statue.

& what about the 2nd thing that happened?

antone & i celebrated 10yrs of marital bliss.  that's rt.  on june 8th, 2002, @ around 2:30 pm, me & the flavor o' my life sealed the deal in a hot church (ac broke down) in front of family & friends.

& how did we celebrate?  on june 8th, 2012, at around 2:30pm, my husband & i were performing in a Super Mule puppet show w/ the guy who should've been the best man 10yrs ago, kevin williams.  that may sound corny & strange to some, but i thought it was perfect.  we were together (how many couples can even boast THAT, huh?), we were happy, we were doing something we liked doing, & we were w/ friends.  & bam, there ya go.

06.08.02 - "i promise to love, honor, cherish, & ink whatever it is you pencil."