A Face in the Crowd

 

"A girl looks on among Afghan women lining up to receive relief assistance, during the holy month of Ramadan
in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, June 11, 2017." Photo credit: Parwiz/REUTERS (found here).

ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders over persecution of women and girls

"THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for the Taliban’s supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on charges of persecuting women and girls since seizing power nearly four years ago.

The warrants also accuse the leaders of persecuting “other persons nonconforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression; and on political grounds against persons perceived as ‘allies of girls and women.’”

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“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of colour remains chained. Nor is any one of you.”

- Poet Audre Lorde via Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism.

I think we've all been waiting a long time to hear news like this, but I suspect the women living in Afghan (and other countries in which women are denied full autonomy)  have been waiting far longer... and with an urgency most of us have experienced to a lesser degree. One should keep in mind that all things are relative and this gap is always in danger of closing... and, I don't think there is one woman or feminine person who is not in some way aware of it. It is embedded in the feminine morphic field (along with many other fears). 

But, if there has been any good news this year, this is surely it! Take heart; some good may come of it... keeping in mind that the wheels of justice seem to turn very slowly these days.

Also see: Afghan women face near total social, economic and political exclusion.

Artful Resistance: How Afghan Women are Wielding Art Against the Taliban

New! A thoughtful reader just sent me this sobering link. Think you live in a free world? Guess again. (Thanks Bella!)

What Is Modern Slavery: A Comprehensive Research

"Over 49.6 million people (0.61% of the global population) are subjected to modern slavery, surpassing the populations of around 200 countries."

Flying North for the Summer - A Study of Clouds (revised, completed: June 12)

 

Flying North for the Summer - cellphone photo (filtered), Albuquerque - 2025, DS.

"At this point you are possibly saying, what on earth are you doing gazing at paintings of clouds in the sky when the earth is actually on fire? It’s an excellent question. But there is a difference between looking at the details of the universe that others insist are important– often at great profit to themselves – and looking at the details that move you on their own. They can be the same details. The important question is, which ones do you actually feel?"

"We spend so much time staring into our laps these days, looking desperately down into our smartphones and hungrily inhaling whatever the Internet has to offer. We live there now, down that dank, semi-real, untouchable and ultimately unknowable hole. But every once in a while, we forget it’s there, and look up."

- Two quotes from Canadian journalist Ian Brown's excellent, perennially relevant 2022 article: Paintings of clouds are just what the world needs right now. In the article, Brown features the Canadian landscape painters, The Group of Seven. Inset right is A Celebration (1924) by Georgia O'Keefe.

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Link Update! Also see:

A Meditation on the Endless Appeal of Clouds in Art

Clouds in Art

Artistic depictions of Clouds (via Medium)

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(Instead of taking photographs, these days I'm shooting short videos of clouds and exporting frames. This seemed like the best approach after a weird experience I had with a cumulonimbus cloud I wish I'd filmed... discussed recently on Mac's memorial in The Giant Awakens. Here lies the other half of that story...)

For an artist, working with clouds can be an illuminating experience. Working with an anomalous cloud, however - even if only documenting what you see with a digital camera - borders on the mystical realm. Something unexpected happens.

The first thing this artist discovered is that the lens was not recording the image exactly as I saw it. And I mean this beyond simplistic rationalizations such as faults with either a.) camera, b.) photographer. No, the clouds in the photographs rarely matched the clouds I saw from my perch on the balcony. It took me some time before I realized why.

(Continued below the jump...)

GrowIng Roses in the Clouds - A Safe Haven (revised and completed May 31)

 

Clouds clustering over the Sandia Mountains (in the distance), Albuquerque, May 19 - cellphone photo - 2025, DS.

"A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is generally a tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level, formally described in the International Cloud Atlas (2017) as silvagenitus ('created from forest')."

- A misty, moisty, mossy forest is the stuff of European folklore and fairy tales... bringing to mind a spooky sort of magic. The true cloud forests (via Wiki) - generally found on cloud-covered mountaintops -  are mostly a phenomenon of tropical climates but they can also be found in temperate zones. The Appalachian mountains are a stunning example. But, can they exist in the American southwest?

Large cluster over the Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque, May 26 - cellphone photo 2025, DS.

Probably not. But, I can dream... and I can wonder about the frequent cloud clusters that seem to stretch over the Sandia mountains, regardless of the weather. The photos above was taken during a bright respite after 2 days of rain but the Sandia cloud phenomenon was the first thing I noticed upon visiting New Mexico and it continued to amaze me all through my peak travelling days.

As for the cloudscapes - or cloud terrains - on top of the Sandia mountains, see the collection of photos linked to from this page, and see if you can find evidence of one. (There is!)

Large cluster over the Sandia Mountains, Albuquerque, May 26 - cellphone photo 2025, DS.

"Monteverde has unquestionably become one of Costa Rica's most popular draws, making it a must-do for 70,000 tourists each year. Its popularity is largely due to its many protected reserves, including the star of the show: the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. Listed in National Geographic and Newsweek as one of the top cloud forest reserves in the world, the government even deemed it one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Costa Rica.

...Interestingly, its origins can be traced to Quakers who settled in the area in the 1950s. After fleeing the US to avoid the Korean War draft, the cool climate of Monteverde allowed them to set up dairy farms in the region."

- Via the article: Ultimate Guide to Monteverde: Costa Rica's Lost World. The photo of a suspension bridge inset left was found in the Wiki entry for the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve. Suffice to say, the world's cloud forests are allegedly vanishing... however, dreams of cloud cities begin to arise.

"Roses – native or naturalized wild roses, old roses (dating prior to the development of hybrid tea roses in 1867), and modern cultivars grow well in New Mexico. Perhaps you’ve admired them blooming in summer, in filtered light along mountain trails and in canyons, on abandoned homesteads or historic sites, and along irrigation ditches and streams, as well as in urban gardens."

- Excerpt from an illuminating article from the Santa Fe Botanical Garden. According to the article there are five species of wild roses native to New Mexico! The photo (Credit: Paul Rothrock) inset left is of an Asian, naturalized variety: Rosa multiflora. Allegedly, this beauty is considered an invasive species, but, in my estimation, if roses were invasive we would all live in paradise.

(Continued below the jump...)

Artistic Empowerment in a Dark Age

Hello again. Just in case you thought I died, I thought it might be a good idea to drop by and put in an appearance.

Below is something I was inspired to write yesterday. It felt like it came out the blue but, when I got to thinking about it, I realized that what I'd done was list some of the underlying elements of empowerment I'd discovered during the course of researching and writing about other artists. (Re: the empowerment posts of which 2 are yet-to-come). (Yes, you heard right: the initial "last" empowerment post has propagated into 2...)(And, yes, I'm living in a metropolis of rabbit-holes!)

Anyway, the list is not gender-specific. Also, although I'm not sure how much of it will hold up in the coming months, there's a chance I'll be referring to it again. Or scrapping it altogether.

Incidentally, the small oil paintings appearing here were painted early in my artistic herstory and were precursors to the images found here. I wish I had access to a similar sort of list then!

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10 Strategies for Survival as an Artist

I. Don't feel as if you must always "go it alone." Join a group, form a collective. There is safety and strength in numbers. Even if you must initially isolate yourself always keep in mind that there are individuals like yourself who need to express themselves in similar ways. Keep an eye out for them. You may need help that only they can provide... and vice versa. Create a Movement; it draws attention. While categorization is a superficial goal, having a general location - politically, stylistically or philosophically - might work to your advantage.

2. When in doubt, build larger. The meek do not inherit the earth. If you believe in what you are doing then make a bold statement. It is a statement which will become a part of the historical and herstorical records. Like the Egyptian pyramids, it will last indisputabley; it will be impossible to overlook or ignore.

3. Do something unexpected. Surprise yourself. Don't be afraid to evolve. Make your work a playground... a laboratory.

4. Express yourself in several dimensions. Likewise, find your inspiration in several more; many dimensions of experience are layered within the psyche. An artist needs to explore these hidden dimensions... to go where few humans have gone before. In a sense it is an artist's job, his or her truest vocation. We are here to explore the hidden, the forgotten, the damned, the invisible... the places no one looks for truth... the places it hides.

5. Find support... whether it's in the form of a mentor, a patron, a benefactor, a partner or a true friend. Know your allies. Realize that fate may not always come to your rescue, but that your inner self will champion you at all times. Your true fortitude, your salvation, lies within. Meanwhile, you may have to take on laborious jobs for physical survival...  or utilize commercial ways to finance larger projects, but never let a source of income be your only guide and never let the dictates of society weaken your resolve. Demand the society of angels.

6. Celebrate your physical legacy; embrace your genetic heritage: the people and places you originated from. And, then, rise above them. You are a unique expression in a continuum. You are a new explication in a morphic field.  You are an alchemical point in which all symmetries are unbound and a crucible in which all impossibilities are born. Through you new landscapes emerge and dreams achieve substance.

7. Celebrate yourself. It's uplifting to expand your expression to include your appearance. Be a child dressing up in a mirror. But don't, for any reason, let current trends or societal prejudices define your choices... specifically those dealing with weight, gender, chronological age, and skin color. Gender profiling is passé. Age profiling is society's way of creating new landfills. Skin color is only relevant here when choosing a complimentary shade of accessory. Defy convention. Have fun. Pretend you have just met yourself for the first time.

8. Find your inner, mysterious "other half" who compliments and completes you. Jung referred to this entity as the animus - a woman's inner man - and the anima, a man's inner woman. But, this wasn't merely psychobabble; the anima and animus exist. And, for an artist, acknowledging and accepting this dual-gender aspect in their psyches is crucial to initiate, enrich and perpetuate all creative acts. The greatest, most effective art is not sexist in a derogatory way; your inner opposite enables you to rise above sexism. Moreover, It will enable you to express your humanity as a whole person without recourse to superficial displays of worn-out gender tropes.

9. Find joy in your creations. This is the truest, most heroic subversion of all the falseness you have been taught and indoctrinated to believe. You are not here to suffer. You are here to overcome suffering. Let your muse show you the way. Illustrate what you've learned. Sing, if only to yourself. Write poetry (it renews the spirit). Dance wherever it is not allowed.

10. Set all winged creatures free.