Joan Tierney

this made me cry so now i need everyone to see it

“a community without romance risks being brutish and crass, superficial and brittle, cruel and even muderous. . . i don’t mean just romantic romance. i don’t just mean erotic romance. . . i mean the romance that allows us to soften our voices when we see each other.”

maya angelou, 1998

"All Texts", Viggo Mortensen

“please don’t come closer unless you plan to stay”

— Unknown

the relationship i have w a little life is so complex i hate it i love it i would never recommend it to anyone i think the last 100 pages will never leave me in a way that is terrible and beautiful and endless i have sm beef w hanya yanagihara but this is the single most beautiful paragraph i have ever read in my life and i think about it often

I want to tell a story to the artists and would-be artists out there.

When I was 19, I made a large oil painting of the nerd I would eventually marry. I poured all my attention and care into this painting. It's the only art I have from back then that still holds up as a work I'm proud of today.

I entered it into a judged show at the local art center. It got an honorable mention. I went to see the show with my beloved model. One of the judges came up to talk to me, and highlighted that all the judges really liked the painting. It would have placed, except, you see, the feet were incorrect. They were too wide and short, and if I just studied a bit more anatomy-

I called over my future wife, and asked her to take off her shoe. Being already very used to humoring me, she did. The judge looked at her very short, very wide little foot. Exactly as I'd lovingly rendered it. I would never edit her appearance in any way.

The judge looked me in the eye, and to his credit, he really looked like he meant it when he said "Oh I'm so sorry."

Anyways the moral of the story is that all of those anatomy books that teach you proportions are either showing you averages, or a very specific idea of an idealized body. Actual bodies are much more varied than that.

So don't forget to draw from observation, and remember that humans aren't mass produced mannequins. Delight in our variation. Because it's supposed to be there.

can’t focus on work. can only think of that one lesbian poem about chivalry

MISS YOU. WANT TO GET NOODLES WITH YOU. DISREGARD THIS, After Gabrielle Calvocoressi, by Lev St. Valentine

ray at 14 by Dorianne Laux