Hawks, ospreys and dragons

 The main event of the past several years has been that I have found some amazing birdwatching spots near where I live in Houston—not well-known public spots, these are more "I found a spot" spots. I've seen more species than you can imagine in a couple of small areas, and I have seen the visiting birds through several migratory seasons. One perpetual resident—two actually—are an osprey and some red-shouldered hawks. I've seen multiple osprey too actually. The osprey sails in every day around lunchtime and the hawks are always present. On this one occasion the osprey got into the hawk's territory, and the smaller bird chased him away. I was completely busy doing something else when it happened but managed to snap a couple of pictures anyway.

Seeing these birds is the best thing that can happen in any given day.

With that in mind, I seem to be doing a lot more dragon paintings lately than usual which is really just a return to being 14-16 years old. Something about winged things. Watching the birds of prey sail past me at eye level constantly is an incredible experience (I found a vantage point that's about level with the tops of trees in a basin) and I can only hope that I can get some better binoculars or cameras some day. 

"The Mistress of Dragon Tower," 12 x 16 acrylic on stretched canvas

This is my most-looked-at painting from the past week since I started listing things on Etsy again regularly.

"Pink Crystal Cloud Dragon" 8 x 10 acrylic painting on stretched canvas

This one came to me in one of those half-asleep visions of things I'd like to see very '80s imagery of crystals and clouds and heart balloons.

"Candy Coloured Cloud Dragon on Sugar Mountain" is a 12 x 16 acrylic painting on stretched canvas

As a painting title, this is an amalgam of Cocteau Twins and Neil Young song titles or lyrics and actually was more inspired by "In Dreams" by Roy Orbison for the title and then we can start talking about Blue Velvet and David Lynch none of which have anything to do with dragons and candy and ice cream and medieval dragon treasure. But here you have it, the inside contents of my brain.

Return from the long slumber, new art and efforts

 I didn't think that Blogger/Blogspot was still a going concern with most people but I see that there's actually a ton of people (or bots—hello, bots) viewing this so I'm going to bring it back tentatively. For one thing, you don't know about me and BIRDWATCHING, which I've documented at length on Instagram and other sites. More on that in a bit though. I've only done one of these so far but I've taken enough pictures to keep me busy for a while working them into paintings. 

My goal right now is to get a good pair of binoculars, and to replace my wide-angle lens that seems to have stopped working. I mostly use the 300 mm though. Anyway, I'm not a photographer by any means but it's been a huge source of calm and comfort to find all of the amazing birds that live in my neighborhood in Texas.

Above is my greatest recent victory, grabbing a picture of a scissor-tailed flycatcher while I was on the phone with my mom for Mother's Day, and one appeared right in front of me. 

Since I stopped posting here, we moved, some things changed at work, Covid happened, I went to grad school and got a master's degree in English, and now I'm back pretty much back to my old routine and painting and wondering where all the time went.

For now here are some new paintings, and we'll figure everything else out later.

My first love is 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons-inspired art so that's been most of my time in recent years, going back to what I loved to do when I was 13-17.

And more recently, a love of vintage Halloween postcards is still a thing. 

Here are some new places where I have social media accounts:

Threads: ArtBySarada

Bluesky: Xelucha

Here are some old places that I've resurrected recently: 

Tumblr: ArtBySarada

Pinterest: ArtBySarada

Bird adventures, gothic exploration and classic D&D are all going concerns for the time being, more about those soon.

Psychedelic visions, imaginary album art, and dark memories of dungeons. Necklaces, too.

A big update is underway in my main Etsy shop this July, and one of the big things to know is that I've reduced the cost of prints, at least through the end of the summer, to $6 for 5 x 7 prints and $10 for 8 x 10 prints. I also tried to make sure that first class shipping is available for all prints. If you see it coming up as only priority mail shipping please let me know and I can adjust it down to first class. As always, international quotes are available on request, but require some extra time to pin down the exact cost.

I finally listed an oil painting that I completed late last year, with a gothic/alchemical theme. It's one of my favorites, and I'll be happy to offer prints on request but haven't made them just yet.

I also have a number of 8 x 10 and 11 x 15 paintings on stretched canvas that were done for art shows or just my own amusement...and pendants are now available! I have made 12 designs in total and have four more in my shop. Contact me if you're curious about the others and don't want to wait, but I will list the rest very soon.

Original oil painting

"Black Swan Ritual"

9 x 12 inches

Original acrylic painting

"The Golden Dragon and the Unicorn"

11 x 14 inches

This painting was inspired by a scene in a D&D module that I love, X2 Chateau D'Amberville. In the encounter, there is a woman with golden hair asleep in a grove with a unicorn, guarding a box. She is actually a gold dragon that has shapeshifted. You'd never know this is from a D&D module if you weren't looking for the reference, but just between you and me...that's where the idea came from!

Original acrylic painting

"Subterranean Summoning"

11 x 14 inches

Original acrylic painting

"Beyond the Sea of Cosmic Memory"

8 x 10 inches

These two psychedelic paintings (above and below) were in a recent psychedelic art show at Insomnia Gallery in Houston. They have an art show every month on a variety of themes: gothic, gaming, horror, and plenty of other pop culture and art themes. We've participated in at least a half dozen of them so far, including their annual monster art show, cartoons, video games and other topics. The gallery also houses an incredible record store!

Original acrylic painting

"The Source of the Mushroom Vision"

8 x 10 inches

One other thing about these psychedelic paintings: I did them to resemble album covers I'd love to see. The first one in particular is a bit of a nod to the kind of album art that The Fool did in the 1960s for projects like the Incredible String Band's 5000 Spirits of Layers of the Onion album. Just as colorful as possible, with vague overtures toward cosmic and spiritual themes.

Original acrylic painting

"Luna Crystals"

5 x 7 inches

Original acrylic painting

"Octo Crystals"

5 x 7 inches

Original acrylic painting

"Accidents in the Alchemist's Workshop"

5 x 7 inches

Now available as a photo print

"The Unicorn Constellation"

5 x 7 or 8 x 10 photographic print

"The Crone's Secret"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

I have wanted to make little glass tile necklaces for close to 20 years and finally broke down and did some. It is quite easy to do and they are very charming! Each pendant is made of a nice, sturdy, heavy metal and houses a teeny tiny 1-inch photo print sealed in place with a glass tile. I include a basic 24-inch gunmetal chain so you can wear it right away, but feel free to use your own instead.

"The Owl and the Pussycat Went to Tea"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

"Le Coeur et le Serpent"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

"Song of the Witch Girl"

Glass tile pendant

1-inch square print beneath glass on a chain

 In March, I participated in the Thorn and Moon Magickal Market at Avant Garden in Houston, an event that grows every month, and is held the first Friday of each month. I hope to attend again. Prints and pendants were extremely popular there, and I have all of them available in my shop all the time. If you ever see that I am out of stock of something you want let me know and I'll make sure to make a new one for you!

I have lots more art on the way, it's just a matter of sitting down at a laptop and listing it, but who actually sits down at a computer anymore, right?

Magical crystals, unicorn, witch flowers and dark omens

In the weeks before Halloween, I have a mixed bag of art and styles that isn't sticking strictly to the black and orange pumpkin theme. I've been through a few phases lately, so I present these here just as a sampling of some art that is currently available. Watercolors in shades of blue, pink and purple; unicorns; dragons, psychedelic and gothic ladies; and a new favorite style of mine which is to create a "cabinet of curiosity" style assemblage in a painting featuring bones, shells, rocks, crystals, insects, plants and other oddities and pleasantries.

Here are a few new items, both originals and prints (prints are available if the original painting sold) before I crack down on putting together a grouping of Halloween-specific items!

Meditations on Twin Peaks: The Return, the nature of reality and ultimate evil

I have enjoyed returning to the world of Twin Peaks for the past few months, and David Lynch's third season ("The Return") of this legendary show easily figures among my very favorite of his creations, from start to finish.

Since I am still very busy with work-related activities stemming from the flooding that has spread across Houston and eastern Texas, I don't have a lot of time to chime in with online discussions so I thought I would present my initial response to the series finale here, for the enjoyment of my friends and casual passersby. I have only watched each episode once and I have pretty much just absorbed them along the way without prolonged commentary, but here are some of my thoughts, accompanied by a selection of Twin Peaks-inspired artwork I have done in recent months.

TL;DR: I love it.

Reflections on Twin Peaks: The Return

Twin Peaks gained a large portion of its audience because of its quirky characters and sense of mystery, but as we have known for some time, its underpinnings are profoundly dark. Would a neat resolution and a happily-ever-after coda do justice to the fact that the show is philosophically rooted in the concept that mankind’s infinite capacity for malice and destruction has threaded a new form of evil into the cosmic fabric?

Inspired by the Philip Jeffries sequences in "Twin Peaks: The Return"

The show’s concessions to conventional narrative—tying up some of its romantic plotlines and delivering on some audience-pleasing moments of triumph and reunion in episodes 16 and 17—are almost a parody of the form when viewed against the bleak and open-ended meditation which is episode 18. It is another layer in a multi-layered universe that has already been revealed to us several times during the show’s run, in moments such as Cooper’s transformation into Dougie, the audience’s journey through modes of time and reality in episode 8, or Audrey’s dreamlife and unresolved awakening in episode 16. This layering is explicit in the sequence where Cooper’s image is superimposed over the concluding moments of episode 17’s “final boss battle” and the subsequent events.

A bit of Twin Peaks catechism we will never forget.

When his image stares ahead after the big battle at the sheriff’s office, is Cooper waking from a dream the way Audrey does when she confronts her image in a mirror in a bright white room? Her dreamworld was populated by intrigues and romance and battles, but they were ultimately all shadows on the wall. She does not reappear in the last two episodes because the point of her storyline has been made. It would be nice to see her reunite with Cooper and lock arms to go out and fight evil together, but is that what this show has ever been about? Was it ever going to end with a freeze frame of everyone laughing it up in the sheriff’s office, hoisting coffee mugs while the theme song plays? We were given that moment when Cooper recovered in the hospital, but there is still a lot of activity backstage after the curtain closes on the show’s narrative action.

Following the fast-paced events of episode 17, is episode 18 merely an hour of “nothing is happening?” I see the episode as germinative, which by its nature requires a period of darkness and a length of time, but also heralds a beginning, even if it is merely the latest in an infinite loop. In a prolonged moment bridging two realities, Diane and Cooper in the motel represent a moment not unlike that in episode 8, where the same music accompanies the sleeping world’s invasion by uncanny and malignant forces. Nothing will be the same afterward.

The evolution of the arm (SOLD)

Cooper and Laura's long drive to Twin Peaks is not an action-packed sequence full of satisfying narrative elements, but it does represent movement and transition. The show as we knew it ended in 17 when Cooper walked through that door. It makes me think about other long, meditative but seemingly superfluous“driving” sequences. The first thing that occurs to me is the long driving scene in “Solaris” (1971) before the main character leaves Earth for a planet where reality is highly subjective. I found an excellent description of the meaning of the 5-minute driving scene in that film, on this post answered in Quora which I excerpt here:

“This is a film about human perception and questioning ournotions of ‘real’ versus ‘imagined,’ but more importantly questioning whetherwe have a choice between those two things and whether the difference is perhapsitself merely a manifestation of human perception.”

Twin Peaks is a different animal, of course, but it deals similarly with questions of reality and dream states, and these long and silence sequences—in the motel, or on the road—seem to offer both the seeding of a new reality and its slow and silent gestation.

The show was never about answering a question or solving a mystery, as any viewer who has made it this far will know. It pulls back layers, but it is clear that Lynch does not intend to provide a clear explanation, for who can explain the nature of evil or reality? The concluding moments of the show make it clear that we are still within the shadow of the show’s main narrative—the whisper of Laura’s name, the flickering of the house and her unforgettable, resounding scream show that this world is still anchored in another. Is progress ever possible, within this loop, or are we merely switching between different outcomes and different levels of experience? I think it would be less satisfying to have this tie up with a well-explained happy ending, and it would completely inappropriate for the themes Lynch has explored throughout.

Inspired by Dougie Jones' unforgettable coffee scenes

(SOLD)

The Room 315 key at the Great Northern Hotel assumes a particular importance in episode 18

So many mysteries to be revealed (SOLD)

Thank you for reading and viewing. I am always open to doing some Twin Peaks-based fan art for individuals who share my enthusiasm, both in paint and embroidery.

Announcing my new Etsy shop, Crewel Sister!

It's a little later than I had intended, but I finally launched my second Etsy shop this week, called Crewel Sister. I will be selling original embroidery creations, based on nature imagery and concepts in folk horror, or general occult/gothic imagery, along with anything else that catches my fancy. The 1960s/1970s retro look is a big inspiration, but so is more antique embroidery.  We'll see what happens!

 

Here are the first few items that I have up for sale, incorporating some imagery that I found appealing. For instance, an all-seeing cosmic eye in a bare tree.

Some gothic poisonous flower imagery, incorporating an antique looking design with a skull and a violet or pansy.

And of course, I can't resist a nod to my gothic paperback book covers, with a lady with long hair traversing a moonlit night with a candelabra...

I'll be experimenting with some retro designs that make me think of the embroidery kits that I saw as a kid in the 1970s as well.

My favorite subjects right now are these little classic traditional embroidery icons, which nonetheless suggest something from a world of fantasy and magic.

I will also offer custom work and commissions, within my range of ability, and on similar topics.

Please check back to see what else comes along, and "favorite" my shop on Etsy for more!

Through May 1, 2017 you can get $5 off your purchase with the code 5FORFRIENDS. If you're reading this, you're a friend!

Freaks, mummies, wax and weirdness in Texas

It is halfway through September and we are doing our best to get into an autumn frame of mind. This week we visited a handful of places where one can see weird things, wax figures and taxidermy, without really planning it that way. It's nice to find this kind of seriousness weirdness in Texas - the kind of things I used to read about or see on travel shows on TV and think, I wish I could go there! Of course, being from the greater Philadelphia area, I've been to the Mutter Museum a few times, so these places had a lot to live up to, but I'm pretty pleased.

First, in Austin we have the Museum of the Weird. On E. 6th St., a $18 ticket will get you admission BOTH to this and its sister attraction, the Sfanthor wax horror museum, which isn't very far away, over on S. Congress Ave.

At the Museum of the Weird, the assortment of bizarre taxidermied animals -- two-headed calves and the like -- sideshow and horror artifacts and a couple of wax figures, culminates in the unveiling of a true sideshow legend, the Minnesota Iceman. While they don't allow visitors to photograph this exhibit, they build up the suspense by screening an old "Unexplained Mysteries" segment on the beast and give some background information about how the museum's founder saw this exhibit back in the 60s and finally tracked it down and bought it. I won't give anything away, but if you want the full experience and mystique of this creature, don't google it any further -- let them tell you about it, and believe the legend!

The Museum of the Weird is joined to the Lucky Lizard curio and gift shop, which you can visit for free of course. They sell amazing horror t-shirts (I got a Tombs of the Blind Dead t-shirt, I'm happy to say -- they dig deep for truly excellent films on these tees!) an other fun stuff.

Over at the Sfanthor House of Wax you can see some beautifully displayed horror classics in wax -- mostly from old movies, but there's an Alien at the end as well (with a strobe light, so I had to close my eyes -- strobe-sensitive folks, be aware of this!). I can't recall ever being to a wax museum before so this was a treat.

Those exhibits are always open, and are open late -- but over in Houston for a limited time, the Museum of Natural Science has a wonderful exhibit called the Cabinet of Curosities. Modeled after Victorian-era curio cabinets from well-to-do explorers and collectors, it is an interactive exhibit full of dozens of drawers you can open to reveal more wonders: feathers, bones, crafts from native peoples around the world, shells, insects and other delights.

It's a wonderful, unique exhibit and so much fun to just wander around marveling at all of the artifacts. Even if you're like me and don't care for taxidermy, in a modern context -- as a mostly-vegetarian for 30 years, I recoil at the thought of killing an animal just to put it on display -- the fact that these are older artifacts makes it something I can appreciate on a different level within a historical context.

I'm not sure how long this will stick around but it really does seem to fit in with the Halloween time of year, for me.

Of course, Houston boasts one of the most gothic of all museums next to the Mutter, the National Museum of Funeral History, but we will save our visit to that for October. It's been two years since we last stopped by there, so perhaps there will be some new morbid things to enjoy there by now as well.