The time is approaching... just over the horizon...
SOLARPUNK AESTHETIC WEEK 6!!
The hosts for this event are @fennopunk, @solarpunkani, and @mendingourstars! We'll be reblogging and chatting from those blogs about the event as well, so feel free to drop a follow!
What’s this all about? Solarpunk Aesthetic Week (SAesW) is a biannual week-long celebration of the aesthetics around the Solarpunk genre and movement! As Solarpunks, we look forward to a hopeful future, and this event is meant for all of us to take part in visualizing that future and working towards creating it step by step! So let’s get creative, get our hands dirty, and tell our stories together!
“But it’s winter! There’s less sun in the sky, it’s cold, it’s miserable, what’s Solarpunk about this time of year at all?!”
We firmly believe that solarpunk looks different in different times of year--whereas in spring and summer we might be growing tomatoes and dreaming of greenhouses and sunny communities, in winter we might be doing lots of work--mending up clothes or making new ones, planning future gardens and actions, reading and writing to help visualize the future we want to achieve. Sure, solarpunk is generally associated with the color and warmth of spring and summer, which is all the more reason to truly think about what solarpunk will be like in the wintry months. There’s plenty to do, and you can take part any way you’d like to!
If it’s dark and cold during this wintry time for you, it could be an excellent time to dive into Lunarpunk as well! Lunarpunk is the night side of Solarpunk in a sense, so its a good time to explore this closely related aesthetic. It's also the subtheme of this year's winter event!
In addition, consider looking into Polarpunk! It’s a smaller aesthetic, but you’re sure to find plenty of inspiration and wintry vibes to draw inspiration from! If you’re dealing with snow and ice and cold temperatures, Polarpunk very well may be your Solarpunk!
But also, we aren’t forgetting about our friends in the Southern Hemisphere! For you all, it’s summer, and we’re excited to see what you do to celebrate!
Solarpunk Aesthetic Week Four will be taking place on the 51st week of the year, so December 15th - 22nd! Feel free to share anything you do to the tag #solarpunk aesthetic week, or submit it to the blog!
This wonderful work was done by a friend - @pumpkinspice-creations
Resharing because I like it so much but also because it represents some of the feelings I have about shit when being involved in solarpunk and related stuff. More under the cut
For context, this is my current sona
So, my sona essentially has a werewolf form. Part of the reason I have that is to have a different sona of the same person, something that represents other parts of myself like ADD, but also my rage.
I fantasize with the idea of letting my rage take over. Just paying attention regular updates from ENGOs makes me furious because it's always something the Premier of Ontario (and maybe the future Prime Minister of Canada) has done.
Some things said Premier has done:
Cancelled numerous renewable energy projects (and now is maybe reinstating them because he's desperate)
Pushing for natural gas expansion
Tried to sell off the Greenbelt (even Margaret fuckin Atwood wrote a little comic story about it, accompanied with drawings WITHOUT FUCKIN AI SERIOUSLY STOP USING IT)
Is trying to get a new highway built through the Greenbelt (separate Greenbelt issue) because cars and urban sprawl amirite
Set up municipalities and the feds for shit that was the province's fault (seriously, forcing municipalities to raise taxes to pay for urban sprawl despite the province getting a loophole to put developments whenever and wherever)
Sat on MILLIONS of money from the Feds that was supposed to be used for COVID response
Is letting the public healthcare system fail by refusing to fund it and pushing for for-profit healthcare (despite for-profit long-term care homes abandoning seniors during COVID and forcing the military to step in to help)
Charging people who stay too long in hospital beds $400/day for not going into aforementioned long-term care homes
Tried to charge protesting teachers $4000/day for protesting
Slapped anti-federal carbon tax stickers on every single gas station pump and charged gas stations if they removed it
Spent a ton of money fighting the Feds in court for having a carbon tax
Generally pushing for urban sprawl and expanding homes outward into nature instead of upward and make better use of existing space
Getting angry at homeless people for not having a job and claiming to take care of them if they're sick (see again, aforementioned letting the healthcare system fail)
Forcing the removal of bike lanes to, yet again, push for cars
Just being an all around jackass and clever fucking bastard because I can see all the fucking ways he's trying to maneouver politically around all this shit and make him and his party look great and shift the blame onto others like fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you
So yeah. This guy pisses me off.
But for context, this photo references Billy Talent's song Kingdom of Zod.
Ontario's Premier is Doug Ford. His brother, Rob Ford, was the Mayor of the province's capital - Toronto. He died of cancer in 2016.
This song was about him, because he was a piece of shit. I didn't pay much attention to politics when he was in office, especially not Toronto politics.
And his brother, and the way the Federal Conservatives are heading? How often do we have to let this story run its course? To relearn the same fucking lessons over and over and over again? Doug Ford and his party are really up for corruption scandals, but they're still in power. How can we believe in these fucks, and WORSE ONES who are inching their way into power?
(Are we blind?) Will they cover up the evidence of their crimes?
Are we blind (blind), blind (blind), blind (blind)?
(It's a lie) When they tell me to surrender the fight
(It's a lie) I'll surrender the fight, I'll surrender the fight
It's a lie (lie), lie (lie), lie (lie)
I want to be vicious, I want to tear the throats out of everyone who wears the Zod tie.
But I can't do that.
And it's so goddamn exhausting to hold that rage. I want to surrender the fight. I've lost so much of my energy from that, and from the goddamn circumstances of my life, and the lives that my family and friends have to endure, IN PART BECAUSE OF JACKASSES LIKE THESE WHO ARE FUCKING UP THE BASIC NECESSITIES OF LIFE.
FOOD? GREENBELT GONE.
HOUSING? WE'LL SAY IT'S AFFORDABLE IF THE NEW MILLION DOLLAR HOMES WE WANT TO BUILD ACTUALLY COST $800,000!
HEALTHCARE? NO WAY, WE'LL PUT IN FOR-PROFIT HEALTHCARE THAT ADDS IN A MIDDLEMAN TO INCREASE COSTS!
EDUCATION? LET'S UNDERFUND TEACHERS TOO
I take solace in solarpunk, and in seeing everyone (even conservative family members) get pissed at the premier and his cronies (so much so that they reversed an initial Greenbelt development decision).
But goddamnit, the burnout is real.
I see my own allies, non-profit environmental organizations, USING GENERATIVE AI. I've seen them take money from fossil fuel companies and related industries. Because we're all so exhausted and burnt out. I recently saw one statistic that said that job satisfaction is WORSE in the nonprofit sector (not sure if environment) than it is in public or private sector work. That's how bad it is. People doing good work for the sake of the work because it is good, don't like the work.
I remember one tweet in response to Mark Jaccard's "Activists are complaining because they like to complain even though this is the best climate policy ever" (paraphrased) that "We aren't complaining because we like to complain. We're complaining because it's not enough! I'd love to hang up my activist hat and just go enjoy life, but I can't. Because people like [Jaccard] think it's enough when it's far from enough" (also paraphrased).
I'd love to hang up my activist hat. Really, it fell off my head when I fell through the doorway and onto the couch. But now, all it does is cover my eyes when I try to sleep. It's still on me, but I can't wear it properly. I'd love to not just hang it up, but to stuff it in a closet to be forgotten as I go do the things I actually want to do. But I can't.
So I've modified the hat. Personalized it a little. Made it so that it's an activist hat but a hat that' so much more. That's kind of what I like about solarpunk - I don't have to be a man of many hats. I can have one hat that has all these different parts of me under it. I can be activist when I need to, but I can enjoy and find rest and energy in the other parts of it. Really, I'm still working on making it something energizing (since it's a little hard when money is still so necessary for life, and work takes up so much time that it's hard to wear a solarpunk hat), but I believe in it. And I believe in the solarpunk community (here's hoping the others stop using generative AI).
Anyway, please go vote for the progressive candidate with the best chance of winning in your area. As someone who's so exhausted from all this, I can't really ask anymore of y'all.
Thanks for being here, and thanks @solarpunkaestheticweek for encouraging this vent opportunity.
After several months of work, I finished this embroidery project yesterday. It's my second ever attempt at embroidery and I'm really, really happy with the result.
Also, a few weeks ago, my partner and I did a little photoshoot at a nearby park with the previous iteration (which is identical except for the golden circle).
The Stunning Astronomical Beadwork of Native Artist Margaret Nazon
Margaret Nazon has spent the past decade building intricate beadwork depictions of outer space. The colorful artworks balance representational and stylized aesthetics set on black fabric backgrounds to depict galaxies, planets, nebulae, and other astronomical phenomena.
Initially inspired by Hubble space telescope images, Nazon’s celestial renderings are part of a lifelong interest in beading. In an interview with Glenbow, the artist shared that she began beading at age 10, but found the density of traditional beadwork to be tedious.
The abstract nature of celestial images allows Nazon to be more interpretive and incorporate different materials like caribou bones and willow seeds that have location-specific or cultural significance. Nazon is Tsiigehtchic, part of the Gwich’in community in what is now the Northwest Territories of Canada. The artist explained that because she is retired, she is able to dedicate significant time to beading, and often rises at 4:30am to begin working. Nazon plans to continue experimenting, including merging her abstract beadwork with her seamstress skills to create artfully embellished apparel.
Nazon’s artwork was most recently exhibited at Glenbow in a group show, Cosmos, and A Beaded Universe at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. You can read more about her in the Glenbow interview, and explore Nazon’s portfolio on her website.
