looking for feedback on painting on aesthetic attraction
hello! my name is salem and i've been working on an art project where i'm creating a series of art pieces highlighting asexual and aromantic experiences. this is my third completed piece and it's about aesthetic attraction. i have a written piece and an artist statement to accompany the painting, and i'd love to get some feedback on it! anything that can be shared--positive or negative, is really appreciated. i'm also struggling with figuring out a title for this piece (and all my previous pieces) so if anyone has any suggestions that would be amazing!
thank you <3
Aesthetic attraction (noun)
Occurs when someone appreciates the appearance or beauty of another person(s), disconnected from sexual or romantic attraction.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
As an artist, the main way I’ve found myself experiencing aesthetic attraction is with an itch to draw them. Sometimes, I’d just look at someone—a stranger on the bus, a friend, the barista at the coffee shop—and there would be something that would catch my eye. It could be anything from their overall appearance to the smallest details: their tattoos, the way their hair caught the light, the slope of their nose, and for a second I would find myself staring, thinking about how to use graphite to capture the curve of their eyelash or about how their cheekbones would look painted in Prussian blue. And in the next second, the feeling is gone.
This piece attempts to capture what aesthetic attraction feels like to me. Most of it was painted in one sitting, quick and rushed compared to the slow, methodical way I usually work to portray its fleeting nature. Compared to the black and white backdrop, the subject stands out as he is the only part of the painting in color. However, only aspects of him are colored as often I am only drawn to specific features in a person when I experience aesthetic attraction. The parts of him that are colored are done in bright and bold but unrealistic colors, as the attraction is only skin-deep and not about him as a person, unlike the other two forms of attraction I experience: romantic and platonic.
looking for feedback on visual art/written piece on amatonormativity
hello! my name is salem and i've been working on an art project where i'm creating a series of art pieces highlighting asexual and aromantic experiences. this is my second completed piece and it's about amatonormativity. i have a written piece and an artist statement to accompany the multi-media art piece, and i'd love to get some feedback on it!
thank you!
Amatonormativity (noun)
The set of systemic pressures and societal norms that assume everyone wants and would be happiest in an exclusive romantic relationship, usually marriage.
Statements like “I’m sure you’ll change your mind when you meet the right person” and “Oh, you just haven’t met “The One” yet” when someone expresses a desire not to be in a romantic relationship. Or legal benefits like how a spouse could inherit an entire estate without tax consequences, while if the couple is not married, there would be taxes.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
This piece was created to both educate on what amatonormativity is and to highlight how asexual and aromantic communities have flourished despite it. The canvases are covered in fake newspapers that I made that are covered in articles I found espousing the benefits of marriage and statements commonly made in society that continue to perpetuate amatornomativity. Yet, through the cracks between the canvases, the flowers that I had chosen to represent asexual and aromantic communities bloom.
The yellow roses and green zinnias are for the aromantic community, while tulips and strawberry flowers represent the asexual community.
I'd like to remind everybody that this isn't just about A03 or civil rights organizations. This could be applied to any 501 organization. That includes churches, schools, museums and library support organizations. All sorts of support organizations like soup kitchens or places like goodwill. Those are all non-profit organizations and they all have a 501 status. This is a threat to every civil organization we have that is meant to help the public.
So please contact your representatives. Please look this up on Twitter and click the link so you can call your representatives and voice against this. Because there's a hell of a lot more at stake with a bill like this than just ao3. People's lives could be at risk.
The House will vote THIS WEEK to determine whether the incoming Trump administration will have the power to shut down non-profit organizations with no due process.
Congress has already tried to fast-track this legislation once and failed because of the onslaught of calls to their offices. We can’t let them do this quietly. Congress giving Trump the power to crush dissent and target organizations fighting for justice is a betrayal. Tell your representatives to vote NO on this dangerous bill!
looking for feedback on visual art/written piece about queerplatonic relationships
hello! my name is salem and i'm working on a year-long art project where i'm hoping to do a series of paintings highlighting asexual and aromantic experiences. i've finished my first painting and i was wondering if i could get some feedback on it!
this painting and the accompanying written piece was inspired by queerplatonic love and queerplatonic relationships. it's intention is to both offer representation and act as a way to introduce/normalize queerplatonic relationships to those who haven't heard of it before. i'd appreciate feedback in any form on it! and for those who have been in a qpr before, i'd really appreciate hearing about whether or not you feel that the painting and the written piece offer a realistic portrayal of queerplatonic love and relationships? if not, what should i change? (full disclosure i have not actually been in a queerplatonic or romantic relationship before, im basing most of this work off of anecdotal research i have done)
Queerplatonic relationship (Noun)
A committed intimate relationship between significant others whose relationship is not romantic in nature
When people ask me to explain our relationship I’m never quite sure what to say. Best friend doesn’t encapsulate all of it. And so, in a world where romance is a metric for intimacy, our relationship is defined to others in “but”. I love you, but I’m not in love with you. We’re partners but not dating. Then they ask if that means we’re just friends and I don’t know how to tell them that there is nothing just about us.
I want to move in with you. I want to bake bread together in the middle of the night when neither of us can sleep. I want to go on sunset drives and Ikea trips for furniture. I want to sit and do taxes together at the dining room table. I want to make you your favorite drink on your bad days and find plants you got me on mine. I want to plan our futures together. I trust you more than I trust myself and I’m never more myself than when I’m with you. We aren’t just friends and we aren’t in love, we just are. I love that, I love us, and I love you.
looking for people in the gaming industry to talk to!
hey guys!! im a Chinese American high school student looking to interview some people for a project that I am working on! It's going to be a game about an agender protagonist named Chen (晨 and any pronouns!) who visits her mom's grave on QingMing (清明节) and basically gets sucked into a dreamscape/purgatory and fights his way through to bring their mom back from the dead.
I know next to nothing about game development haha, so I would love to learn about it from people! No matter what you do in the gaming industry---concept art, programming, etc---I would appreciate it if you reached out to me so we can figure out more details together! thank you so much for your time <3
looking to talk to any ace and/or aro people for an art project
hello! my name is salem and i'm working on a year-long art project where i'm hoping to do a series of paintings highlighting asexual and aromantic experiences. if you would be willing to do a quick interview about your experiences over the phone or email that would be very much appreciated! i'm a member of the asexual community and i want to make sure to do the aromantic community justice, so if you're a part of that community (especially if you identify as a loveless aromantic) please please please reach out it would be so helpful and so appreciated!
if you're interested dm me over tumblr and we can figure out an interview time!
inspired: merfolk actually have very different concepts of gender to humans because they’re an entirely different species with their own unique culture
It’s a biological fact that fish do indeed change their sex to keep the male/female ratio balanced in their school population. So this fluidity actually makes more sense from a scientific standpoint than the silly idea that merfolk are born with a strictly assigned sex like humans.
Human: (invites merfolk friend to a boat party with their friends)
Merfolk: oh man, there are a lot of women here. Haha don’t worry guys, I got this :) *changes into a man to keep a balance because that’s culturally polite for merfolk*
not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]
Or: Once upon a time, a man turned himself into a demon for the sake of his husband's soul.
It's been a long time since then.
-
Demons don't really need to sleep, but Roier likes to do it, anyway. It's relaxing, and it reminds him of better times back when he was human and his husband wasn't... well.
Well.
Jaiden doesn't get it, but that's because she's never known what dreams are. Because demons don't sleep and, unlike Roier, she was born a demon. Her and Bobby both were, leaving Roier as the odd one out.
...That's fine! Their loss! Because sleep? Great. Dreams? Even better.
Because, in Roier's dreams, he sees him.
-
(They're in bed, because that was Roier's favorite place to be. He's on his back with his husband laying next to him tracing patterns into his shirt with one finger. Rain patters on the ceiling, and some leaks through into the kitchen and lands in a pot placed conspicuously in the middle of the floor. Their blankets are warm, and so are their hearts.)
-
Roier has been married for almost 500 years. His husband has been dead for 499 of those years, give or take a few months.
They were never legally married; that just wasn't something you did back then. Didn't matter, though, because they wouldn't have been able to afford a wedding even if they could get married.
They were farmers- well, Roier was a farmer. His husband just liked sitting and watching Roier work shirtless in the fields. He'd sit with a pitcher of water waiting by his side should Roier need it, and he'd watch shamelessly for hours at a time, and he was horrible.
And now he's dead.
-
But, see, the first thing Roier asked when arriving in Hell was whether or not the Devil was cool with gay marriage.
"Uh," said Jaiden- and this was their first real conversation post-demoning, okay? So she obviously wasn't as cool as she is now. "Maybe? I don't know. I'd have to ask?"
"Could you?" Roier had asked, freshly deceased and still bleeding from the temples where his horns had just finished growing in. "I'm expecting my husband."
"Right," Jaiden tensely replied. "Your husband."
"Yeah," Roier said, and he tried saying his husband's name, but it just. Wouldn't... what was it again?
-
But that's fine, being a demon is a pretty sweet gig. All Roier has to do is go up to the Mortal Realm and do a few jobs for a few witches, corrupt a few souls. In return, he gets badass magical abilities and immortality.
More importantly, he gets his husband's soul. As soon as he reincarnates back in the Mortal Realm, and as soon as he dies again, he goes to Hell with all of the memories from his previous life with Roier intact, and they finally get their happily ever after.
It's what he would've wanted. Hell might sound terrible, but it's no worse than the Mortal Realm, and its public transportation is actually better, somehow. The busses all run on time, and the subway is free.
More importantly, Roier's husband was the one collecting all those books on summoning demons and making deals with demons and communing with the Devil. Roier just... completed his work for him.
It's the least he could've done, and it was his last chance at seeing him again.
-
Fuck, but what was his name?
-
(They're in the fields, because that was Roier's husband's favorite place to be. Roier is shirtless and bent over a row of seeds that are going to grow up to be corn in a few months, and his husband is on the ground under the apple tree watching him shamelessly. It's sunny out, and there's the smell of smoke in the air.)
-
It's been 500 years since Roier's husband died, and Roier has spent that time trying to remember the name of his husband's killer.
Because, once upon a time, there was a farmer, and there was a witch. Ah, but witches were illegal, you see. They communed with the Devil, and they brought chaos into a world of order.
All Roier remembers is that the person who tied his husband to that pole was in all-white. Not a priest, just someone boring.
That same person was the one who lit the straw at Roier's husband's feet on fire. And they smiled doing so even as Roier dove towards the flames as if he could put them out with his bare hands.
It didn't work. Big surprise there.
-
"So the Devil's fine with you two getting married," Jaiden said after a few days of dealing with demonic bureaucracy, "but I have some bad news for you."
Roier, for the first time since Jaiden slit his throat and converted him, felt fear.
"What is it?" he asked.
She let out a breath, slow, and said, eventually, "Your husband's soul isn't here. He isn't in Heaven, either. Or in any of the other gods' realms."
Roier blinked. "What."
It was not a question.
She threw up her hands. "I don't know! It's like he just... disappeared!"
"Is that why I can't remember his name?" Roier asked. "His soul is fucking gone?"
His hands shook. Jaiden reached out and took them.
"We'll find him," she promised, kind despite her whole 'Is A Demon' thing. "Even if it takes five hundred years."
"Yeah, well, it won't," he scoffed. "I'm going to find him. He promised me a wedding."
-
Souls don't just die. They go to someplace that Roier has only ever heard of: Purgatory.
Once in Purgatory, souls get judged by the Eye of Justice. He asks them questions about their life, and they have to answer truthfully, or he'll feed them to his children.
There are a few options for what comes next.
One: they pass the Eye of Justice's judgement and are allowed to move on to whatever afterlife they believe in.
Two: they pass the Eye of Justice's judgement and are allowed to reincarnate into another life.
Three: they fail the Eye of Justice's judgement and are forcibly sent to reincarnate into the life of a bug or a blade of grass or something else boring and tortuous.
Roier got to skip out on Purgatory entirely because he took the direct line to Hell. But maybe, just maybe, if he had died regularly, he could have seen his husband in Purgatory, and they could have reincarnated together.
...Ugh. Hindsight is a bitch.
-
(Roier is visiting his grandfather when the church bells ring.
"A witch!" he hears a woman scream, and his stomach fell right into his shoes.)
-
It's been 500 years, and Roier has gotten a bit of a reputation among modern witches for being one of the easier demons to work with. He'll help with their problems in exchange for information on a certain lost soul: if they hear from his husband's soul, they summon Roier. Or he'll help in exchange for some book recommendations for his son; Hell has many things, but it does not have a public library.
He isn't a particularly strong demon despite what his only angel friend, Etoiles, might say. Etoiles is just a silly little guy, don't listen to him!
-
(He never even got to say goodbye. They locked eyes as the flames rose, and Roier screamed his name one last time, and he hasn't been able to feel anything since.)
-
Jaiden was the first demon that Roier had ever met.
He was on the floor surrounded by the ashes that used to be his home. His husband's books were in charred tatters around him, but one managed to survive the fire. It was almost supernatural, but, like, yeah. Demon book, of course it was fireproof.
He was bleeding. He had offered his blood, and his soul, to the demon in exchange for his husband's life back.
She sat on the floor with him.
"I can't do that," she gently told him. "Demons can do a lot of things, but we can't perform miracles."
Roier's throat burned: smoke inhalation and grief.
"Oh," he said, small-sounding.
"But I can get his soul to Hell," she offered. "In exchange... you have to go to Hell."
His answer was immediate: "Yes."
She blinked. "I wasn't finished?"
"The answer is still 'Yes'. As long as I'm with him again, I don't care what happens to me."
"You'll have to turn your life over to Satan. You can't just go to Hell. That isn't how it works."
Roier shrugged. "That's fine."
Jaiden gawked for a moment before nodding and standing and extending her hand.
He took it.
And then he died.
-
But it's been 500 fucking years, and now Roier is being summoned by another witch for another deal. He'll probably have to help supply additional magic for some big important spell, that's basically all he's used for these days. He's more than a battery, thanks! He's a demon, he should be out, like, stealing souls and shit.
He goes, anyway, because he has to. If he doesn't, his contract is void, and he won't get to see his husband because he himself will be sent to Purgatory to be judged and, really, he does not want to deal with that. (The Eye of Judgement is fucking creepy, okay?)
There's the familiar pull at Roier's core, and the familiar blinding burst of light as he's yanked into the Mortal Realm, and the familiar smell of brimstone and evil that follows him wherever he goes outside of Hell.
The room is filled with blood red smoke as he appears- his trademark.
(The most important thing to a demon these days isn't evil, it's marketability.)
The witch in front of him, nothing more than a shadow hidden behind the smoke, coughs and wheezes and fans their hand in front of their face.
They're kneeled on the ground in front of a pentagram drawn in... what the fuck is this, strawberry jam?
Roier crouches and sticks a finger into one of the circle's markings. Careful not to break the circle, he pulls his finger out and licks the red stuff on it.
Shocked, he looks at the witch, and he asks, "Dude, what the fuck? Is this blood?"
What happened to chalk!?
The witch coughs at him indignantly. "I needed to make sure I got someone powerful."
Roier rolls his eyes and plops fully onto the ground, criss-cross applesauce. He wipes his blood-covered fingertip on his jeans. Newbies...
"Well, you got me," he says, humble to the core. (He may be a super evil demon now, but he isn't a dick.) "So... what's up? What do you need?"
The smoke in the room slowly starts dissipating, revealing the witch to be a man in what have to be the previous day's clothes. His head is still ducked, and his face is still hidden in his elbow as he coughs, but Roier could almost call him objectively handsome. Shame Roier's married, this guy would be fun to mess around with.
"I need to- fuck-"
The witch coughs one last time before finally managing to get a lungful of clean air. He raises his head, and Roier finally gets a look at his face, and-
"I need your help," the witch says, voice rough and rugged and absolutely heartbreaking. "I need to kill someone, and I need your help to do it."
"Okay," Roier agrees. He doesn't have a choice, being a summoned demon and all, but he doesn't think he could turn this witch down at all, because...
-
("Cellbit!" Roier screams.
He can see his face in his husband's glassy eyes, and then he sees nothing but the flames as they rise over Cellbit's head and drown him whole.)
-
The man with his husband's face frowns, suspicious.
"What," he asks, "just like that?"
Roier grins, fangs and all. "Just like that."
After all, he doesn't think he'll need any payment for this one.
…..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.
spiderbit and cellboier and their respective relationship and irl friendship really do something to my brain. i know it’s been said before but they really are one of the prime examples of what quackity set out to accomplish with the qsmp
like cellbit and roier, both as characters and cc’s, hadn’t even known each other two full months before their characters were married. and because of that, we’ve gotten to see a whole lot of growth, in both their actual friendship and, consequently, q!spiderbit’s relationship. from communicating in predominantly english to speaking each other’s languages. and isn’t that just so cool?
spiderbit is one of the most inexplicably wonderful (if morbidly wholesome) fictional relationships i’ve seen in literal ages, and the craziest part is… they’re cubes in a block game… portrayed by two people who haven’t even known each other a full year yet (and you’d think they’ve known each other for ages now with the way they’re almost always on each other’s asses)—
and… idk man. the qsmp has just given us so many incredible things on so many levels that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise, and i’m eternally grateful for that :’)
Remember when everybody had to go to a mandatory dinner and our streamers were standing around doing the minecraft version of a grip and grin before the meal, and then some kids showed up despite having been tucked into bed earlier, and phil went why kids here > why kids acting strange > these are not my children > imposters > trap, in the space of like half a minute because he's 85% survival vigilance by weight, and then raced home to verify that his kids weren't really there, and then zapped back to the dinner and it was madness and chaos and dead candidates because it had been a trap and these parents can read the body language of animated minecraft eggs and tell when they've been replaced? motherfucking quesadilla island.
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