Monster Monday

 Welcome to 

I woke up yesterday to my left foot and ankle in so much pain I could barely make it down stairs. The only thing I can think is that lupus is attacking this foot. It's my surgery foot from a few years ago.

Since that surgery my foot has been pretty much ruined. Thank the gods I can still walk. 

Me yesterday.

Today my foot feels better.

 

Now on with Monsters. I'm following the doll theme from SITAR. 

 

and a few pretty dolls.

 

Off to ice my foot.

 

Have a great Monday.

 Nicole
 

Sunday in the art room

 Welcome to 

SITAR is about ANYTHING art. Your art, someone else's art, writing, photography, the art of cooking, the art of sewing and textiles. Sharing historical art, street art, a story about art. Do you have a question or need help with art? Write a blog post and link it up here. We will all try to help with it. My only rule is that if someone asks for critique it must be done with generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of learning, encouragement and inspiration.

 

I love art dolls. Some of you may remember my spirit dolls.

 

 

Over my years I have made other types of dolls and always am impressed with dolls I see at shops or on line. 

 

Artist Francine Haskins 

Art Dolls by AKVARELA

Ankie: the dollmaker

 

The doll world is massive and the creations are never ending. 

You know I had to show you some creepy dolls. 

These are from Pintrest.

 

Did you know, The first recorded dolls date back more than 4,000 years ago to ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The oldest known examples are wooden "paddle dolls" found in ancient Egyptian tombs from around 2000 BC, made with clay or bead hair.

 

The oldest known complete dolls in history are  Egyptian Paddle dolls, carved from wood and dating back to around 2000 BCE (the Middle Kingdom period). Found buried in ancient tombs, these flat, paddle-shaped figures feature bead or clay-thread hair and geometric body patterns.  

Dolls exist in every human culture. They serve as sacred ritual objects, beloved toys, and powerful historical records that reveal how people lived and what they valued across time.

  

 If you are interested in dolls just google it.

 

 Nicole

 

I'm joining Gillena for 

 

 

ICE with electircal gloves

 Hi Everyone!

 

You may already know of this. The other day as I was reading through my "feed", I came across this.  An article that ICE will be getting electrical gloves. It's not bad enough to beat, tase, and shoot people, now they will be getting electrical shock gloves. 

 (ICE) plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to purchase electric shock gloves for its officers and agents. 

THE GLOVE stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter  

The manufacture is Compliant Technologies LLC, a veteran-owned company based in Lexington, Kentucky.  Oh, the 10 to 20 million dollars spent on these gloves come from us the US tax payer. 

The apparel looks and functions like standard law enforcement patrol gloves. However, an officer can press a built-in switch to activate an electrical mode. When the palm makes direct contact with a subject’s bare skin, it delivers a painful shock designed to force compliance. 

 

 

Unlike Tasers, the gloves do not shoot prongs or needles that break the skin, and they are not supposed to leave burn marks. They emit up to 380 volts—compared to a Taser’s 1,200+ volts—meaning they do not cause full neuromuscular incapacitation. Instead, they cause a highly localized "conductive distraction". 

Uhhh that would be PAIN!!! 

 

While the manufacturer's manual explicitly states the device should never be used for punishment or on high-risk groups (such as children, pregnant women, or the elderly), safety concerns remain. Opponents point to an active civil lawsuit involving a 2024 incident where a man died in a Kentucky jail after being repeatedly shocked with the gloves well past the manufacturer-recommended 15-second limit. 

In fact the man was shocked repeatedly with the GLOVE lasting 44 to 99 seconds, well over the 15 second manufacturers recommend time limit.

The man is Johnathan Dale "Jon" Mansfield exact medical complications that directly caused his death are cardiovascular failure, respiratory failure, septic shock, and multi-organ dysfunction, two weeks after the shocks. 

I didn't know that these gloves have been utilized for years in controlled, confined environments like county jails and prisons to break up fights, ICE’s purchase represents the first massive rollout for federal law enforcement agents operating out on public streets. 

 Really? Dose anyone trust these assholes to comply with the 15 second time limit? Or to not use these on a pregnant woman, or an elderly person? Do you think they will ask first if you have a heart condition

I asked what can we do to stop this.

I got,  write your congress person to defund this. Get involved with civil rights groups, sign petitions, document anything you see and report it to local immigrant rights networks.

The "thing" will have no problem using these on any of us.  

 

Nicole

Friday Face OFF (FFO) 8/14/26

 

Welcome To Friday Face OFF (FFO)

This is the place to show off your face art.

You know, ANY type of face, nature, the face of a flower, photography, drawings, paintings, AI. There just needs to be a face in your blog post, a link back to my blog and please use the image below. 

Thank you.

Well, this week has been a not art week. I did get a sketch done but that's about it. I wish I could say that my week was filled with fun things but in reality it wasn't. I'm not saying it was a bad week just weird week. 

 

I thought I would show you the faces I have in waiting to draw. 

I'm drawn to this woman's eyes, and of course no hair. LOL 

This woman's face speaks volumes. I think it would be a challenge to capture the pain she emits.  

 

I found this girl and thought she had beautiful features. Her crossed eye reminds me of how my eye was when I was a kid. I just gravitated to her.

 

I also love the expression on this girl's face.

These are just a few of the faces I have saved and want to draw. 

Here is my beautiful Granddaughter.

who is also a Master Sgt in the USAF

This is an older photo so she doesn't have her M.S. stripes.
 

 

Now for some features
Iris

 

Erika N

That's it for now 

Don't miss

Sunday in the Art Room this week.

 

I will be joining Gillena  

Now it's time to show me your face.

 Nicole    
 

T Tuesday

 

 Hi Everyone!

 

Today is Tuesday so I'm joining Elizabeth and Bleubeard for T-day.

Not much is going on here. Every day last week we had a medical appt. My yearly thyroid Ultra Sound didn't come back great. I will have to have a Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) which means a trip to Salem. uhhggggg

 

I found this cool T-shirt.

I've been having so much fun with my  new air fryer.

Potato and beef bites. Yummm

This is much better than it looks. The beef has a garlic butter sauce on it. String beans were made on the stove.

I've been making many meals with the air fryer but forget to take photos. I'll try to be better at that. 

 

My Zinnias have take off.

Mr. M. has been watering them for me. 

I also have two squash blossom. I'm so happy.  I took this photo in the evening so the flowers are closed for the night. 

 

Like I said not much going on here. 

My drink for the day is a chocolate protein drink.

It tastes very good.  

Have a happy Tuesday

Nicole

 

Elections in the US

 Hi Everyone!

 

I'm skipping Monster Monday today because this is very important.

information. 

 

If you are worried about the US midterms, you have good reason to be so.

I have noted before that our right to vote will be distorted, and soon eliminated if the "thing" and his butt buddies get their way.

This is a very important video please  click and watch.

Click here 

 

An excerpt from the video.

“According to States United Action, this year, there are 92 races for statewide offices that oversee elections. That's governor, attorney general and secretary of state. Of those races, 32 election deniers are vying for positions in which they would be overseeing elections,” 

Soboroff said.

“Let me say that one more time: 32 people who have questioned, or denied, or spread conspiracies about the 2020 election – which has been litigated over, and over, and over again – are running for positions that would oversee and administer future elections. This is a mayday situation, you guys.”

No matter where you live in the US, no matter how difficult "they" make it for us to vote 

WE HAVE TO SHOW UP! 

I know the "thing" and his corrupt followers will stop at nothing to protect their power.

 

Nicole 

 

SITAR

 Welcome to 

SITAR is about ANYTHING art. Your art, someone else's art, writing, photography, the art of cooking, the art of sewing and textiles. Sharing historical art, street art, a story about art. Do you have a question or need help with art? Write a blog post and link it up here. We will all try to help with it. My only rule is that if someone asks for critique it must be done with generosity and consideration. 

This is a place of learning, encouragement and inspiration.

 

Today I want to introduce Kara Elizabeth Walker. She was born November 26, 1969.

  Kara is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, sculptor, installation artist, filmmaker, and university professor, who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. Walker is most well known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes that interrogate romantic narratives of the antebellum South of the United States. 

 

She is regarded as among the most prominent and acclaimed Black American artists working today.

Kara was born in Stockton, California, actually not far from where I lived backed then.  Her father, Larry Walker, was a painter and professor. Her mother Gwendolyn was an administrative assistant. A 2007 review in New York Times described her early life as calm, noting that "nothing about Kara's very early life would seem to have predestined her for this task. Born in 1969, she grew up in an integrated California suburb, part of a generation for whom the uplift and fervor of the civil rights movement and the want it now anger of Black Power were yesterday's news."

When Walker was 13, her father accepted a position at Georgia State University. They settled in the city of Stone Mountain. The move was a culture shock for the young artist. In sharp contrast with the multicultural environment of Central California, Stone Mountain still held Ku Klux Klan rallies. At her new high school, Walker recalls, "I was called a 'nigger,' told I looked like a monkey, accused (I didn't know it was an accusation) of being a 'Yankee. 

Slavery! Slavery! Presenting a GRAND and LIFELIKE Panoramic Journey into Picturesque Southern Slavery or "Life at 'Ol' Virginny's Hole (sketches from Plantation Life)". See the Peculiar Institution as never before! All cut from black paper.  144 x 1020 in (365.76 x 2590 cm).
 

Some of her paintings.

 

Kara Walker feature in BOMB magazine 

Walker received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991 and her MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1994.   Walker recalls reflecting on her father's influence: "One of my earliest memories involves sitting on my dad's lap in his studio in the garage of our house and watching him draw. I remember thinking: 'I want to do that, too,' and I pretty much decided then and there at age 2½ or 3 that I was an artist just like Dad."  She found herself uncomfortable and afraid, however, to address the issues of race within her art during her early college years, worrying it would be received as "typical" or "obvious"; however, she began introducing them into her art while attending RISD for her master's.

Walker once explained her artistic process as "two parts research and one part paranoid hysteria", a description that captures the entanglement of history and fantasy that pervades her work.  Even despite the rational aspect, there's a sense of uneasiness and complexity that ties and illustrates itself through her work.

 

Harvard Art Museum's 

Watch how this incredible piece of art was installed. 
 

Solo Exhibition at kunstmuseum Basel

This video explains her art perfectly.

  

Kara has many sculptures but this one a 2014  massive sculpt is made of sugar. 75 feet long, 35 feet high, and 26 feet wide

Artist Kara Walker’s popular new installation inside Williamsburg's Domino Sugar Factory not only recalls the torrid history of the sugar industry, but is also made of sugar itself. Entitled Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, the project for non-profit Creative Time features a larger-than-life sugar sphinx symbolizing the history of slavery in America. The controversial statue, which is surrounded by piles of sugar, is also joined by sculptures of children cast from molasses. 

To see the slide show click here.

 

The best video 

You don't want to miss this. 

 

Kara's span of 30 years of art is massive. So please take time to view  more of her art on line.

 Today, with the regime we have in the US, where history is being dismantled and erased we need artists like Kara to remind us of this part of US history. 

 

Nicole

 

I'm joining Gillena for 

Christies 

BOMB 

Harvard Art Museum's