swartology

18+, black, posting my life, writing, art.

[svvartology]

Charcoal drawing class at the museum, back in march

[simulationswarm]

basically i'm a late in life life-enjoyer so if it seems like i approach all the recent situations i get into like i'm new on earth that's why

[hjtart]

this is a redraw of the 2nd “terrible commune” comic i sketched in my sketchbook one year ago. just a strip about how terrible it is to live with a bunch of people who quote marx but dont do the dishes. and theres more #leftistinfighting

[svvartology]

Tataki-zome workshop aka the very sophisticated method of flower printmaking by smashing said flowers onto cloth with a hammer...

[svvartology]

"Ils nous voyaient comme des hordes de barbares sur la route"

Cool exhibit I saw the other day. The artist was recounting his childhood experiences of the yearly pilgrimage that happened within the North African community living in Marseille in the 70s-90s: le retour au bled. Hundreds of km of travel on old sturdy Renault cars which have become legendary for their ability to take in entire families within it, and what seems like their entire belongings on earth on its roof. A yearly return full of rituals, such as that of piling all the luggage all night long the night before, choosing the songs to play for the days on the road, the money to give the various border agents, the presents to distribute on arrival (such as Reve d'Or perfume, the scent of France, of success on the other side).

So much history that would be lost in the memories of those aging and dying with their stories untold (many times simply dying on the incredibly dangerous journey) if it weren't for the work of the artist bringing these stories back to life.

This one really touched me and made me think about which parts of my own history would seem like an ordinary to me yet extraordinary story to others, one worth sharing in this way, to confront people with the objects and images and sounds of my past, to really bring it back to life in a way that's bot really possible with just writing about it.

[scorpionlafemme]

[svvartology]

stuck in a mild freeze state and i've started rewatching slow horses again of all things, literally imperialist humour & propaganda. beyond what that says about my current mental state given my aversion to the british, one thing i've finally started to understand after the rewatch is that river is ho.

like in season 5 they have this whole scene in the intelligence dungeons where ho cannot break out of his delusion that his obvious honeypot gf never liked him fr to the point it's fascinating to watch him cling firmly to his fantasy of true love despite the overwhelming evidence. that's literally river and the abusive relationship he has with mi5. he literally can't accept they hate his guts and don't want him around, because if he were to deal with that fact he would experience immediate psychic collapse. he simply could not handle the rejection. i even rewatched his interaction with his gramps in season 1 and it's clear to me now the man was humouring him, trying to shield him from the truth. the boy has clear rejected orphan syndrome and tries desperately to prove how worthy he is to mi5 despite mi5 repeatedly punching him in the face. like with ho, people know what's up and just let him go on about what a great agent he is and how he just needs to do this one last trick to prove it to the powers that be, gently attempting to break through to him with the truth from time to time but otherwise just looking on with pity and hoping he'll catch on at some point. because the man is just desperately sad to watch with his dogshit self-esteem & profound chronic orphanreject loneliness he's had since childhood.

also that grandpa he idolizes is really not a good man and I understand why lamb loathes him. there is a reason his daughter doesn't talk to him and fell in love with a narcissistic cult leader, obviously clinging to traits in men she is familiar with. with her father the cult is british intelligence but it's all different flags, same underlying sociopathy. entertaining river's delusions like this is far from a kindness but confronting him with the truth would probably mean having to take accountability for ruining his grandson into a path clearly not suited for him by taking advantage of his need for approval just like he ruined his daughter, "the colonies" etc. with his manipulative control. but narcs like him are never wrong in their own minds.

can't believe i wrote all this over a piece of uksian propaganda but this show is just pretty sad if you get past the comedic tone.

[svvartology]

portrait in ink & watercolor

[svvartology]

trying aquarelle for the first time (and newly bought color pencils)

[tragbarerpanzrabwehrkomplexfagot]

Albrecht Dürer – Knight on Horseback, 1507

[svvartology]

final opera of the season for me, "les enfants terribles". it was decent, themes were a bit cringe/passé, like edgytragedy fanfic i read in my teens. but the music was good and the revolving stage was interesting and injected dynamism into the whole thing so that saved it, and I could stomach sitting through this tedious siblingcest storyline.

(then again i never really got the hype for that novel; in contrast i always loved cocteau's "les parents terribles" which no one really cares about... to each their own i guess)

[svvartology]

built a stool at a carpentry workshop

[svvartology]

just posted a new fic, Hogwarts Gets Online in which i imagine tom riddle's online activity.

wrote this two years ago and had an enormous amount of fun re-discovering and editing it.

the intro chapter is a collection of screenshots like the above sample from some of my favourite interactions or memes i found online (and edited) that i thought just perfectly fit his character. to me he'd be an unintentionally funny teenager: intense, out of touch and delusional.

also posted the 2nd chapter which has a touch of sublimated riddledore that tom is not really ready to face rn...

[svvartology]

life drawing night at the museum

[svvartology]

literally been kicking my feet giggling over this fic I've been editing for the past couple of days. it's a lot of memes I edited on canvas, but I like to see it as an experimental fic about certain hogwarts students online shenanigans and not just a meme dump. will probably post the first chapter tomorrow. it's likely that nobody will read because it's not tomarry or wtv which is sad bc it's hilarious...in my humble opinion...

[svvartology]

yesterday's art opening

[jstor]

For Black History Month, JSTOR Daily editors have gathered stories that draw on scholarship to explore Black life, culture, resistance, and creativity, with free access to the research behind each piece.

Inside, you’ll find pieces on Black radical traditions, community spaces like libraries and record stores, the Black press, visual culture, literature, and performance, alongside deep dives into archival discoveries and the scholars who help make these histories visible.

See the roundup.

Image: Two African American women, seated and facing each other, 1900. Library of Congress. Via Wikimedia Commons.