Stein @kanehon - Tumblr Blog

by Kyle Bonallo (ig: @kylebonallo)

Fluorite var. Stink Fluss on Quartz (+/- Hematite) aka Antazonite

Locality: Kletno, Gmina Stronie Śląskie, Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland

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When crushed, this material releases free Fluorine gas trapped within inclusions throughout the mineral. This creates a strong smell of ozone, leading to the distinct name.

maureen2musings

Ireland

martin_moll

thelostcanyon

Along Meyer Ave. in the El Presidio neighborhood, Tucson, Arizona.

thelostcanyon

Friday, August 18 at 6:00am just after sunrise (top photo) and at 5:30pm in the late afternoon as monsoon storms move in, J-Six Ranch, Cochise County, Arizona.

kylebonallo

by Kyle Bonallo (ig: @kylebonallo)

thelostcanyon

Soldier Creek, Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona.

big-catsss

(by lebackpacker)

kylebonallo

Red Squirrel by Kyle Bonallo (ig: @kylebonallo)

fforsythiaaa

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.