elves

Inktense blocks. This is one of a whole series of portraits I've done of people's selfies with a galaxy background. My goal with the series is to show just how beautiful and powerful and Universal selfies are. Selfies are a valuable tool in self-love and self-acceptance. We take photos of all the things we love, but so often leave ourselves out. We all struggle to accept our own skins, and often give up, but as Carl Sagan said, "We are made of starstuff," and we are all worth photographing.

A far-too-common archetype that i have observed frequently in people as they converse with another is one in which an individual uses two layers of defense to protect an otherwise unexamined confusion or emptiness. This relates to a defense of the ego and does not apply to all situations involving anything discussed. First posturing: -A mask (or wall) of mockery is sustained in which the defensive individual behaves flippantly as if in jest. This positioning is a way to be aloof from the situation, using incredulity and belittlement to keep a person or their ideas away from the defensive individual. Second posturing: -A mask (or wall) of rage is revealed after a certain level of perceived threat is achieved internally. This positioning is usually the one the defensive individual maintains when they have given up the argument or the introspection. Not risking an ontological or existential crisis, the defensive individual lashes out with anger, often accusatorily in manner, potentially belittling others further or just plain rushing away in a huff. This is usually the end of the engagement. Third posturing: -The masks (or walls) both come off, leaving the defensive individual to examine the thoughts or behaviors involved in the situation more critically. The defensive individual may find themselves feeling deeply uncomfortable, sad, uneasy, lost, or confused. This position leads to introspection and to a genuine openness, which is not something that the defensive individual had been prepared for. They may find that they were incorrect, only partially correct, or that the perceived rightness of their idea/behavior now has an expanded context, all of which may seem frightening. Individuals may become mentally paralyzed at this point. It takes a strength and an honesty to reflect in this position, which is not something that everyone expressing this archetype will be capable of doing. (Based on my professional insights as: a cashier, as a member of various technical support staffs, as an occasional minister, and as a peer counselor. Also based on my casual and repeated interactions with both strangers and with more intimately known persons over the course of my lifetime. Observations are my own.)

So doodling is truly an obsession w me. I always try to draw w-out thot & w unabandoned freedom... so trying to draw something that doesn't exist or creating odd critter scenarios is the goal yet my wit & craft always get in the way since after seeing things unfold that i can't help but to redefine & give them a definitive humorous caption. My sense of humor is constant. So here r a few things that revealed themselves to me... There's a bullet turtle [Ironic & similar to a bullet train] There's a piece of Indian corn bread which produces popcorn bread; In the back ground is a 'full' moon [Hence the burping & a Moon Wok. I like aesthetic things but my witty mind just won't leave enough alone!

I have to draw elves a lot for work, so I also wanted to draw one for my uni sketchbook :)

Moon elf, drawn on Autodesk sketchbook by me.

Sometimes we see ourselves in a labirinth in which it's hard to make just one choice among many others and how it can affect our future. It's like going to the supermartket and seeing so many products of the same type and either you pick the same old or you just stare at them not knowing which one is the best and you waist your time reading the composition of each one to choose the one that suits you better.

With our words in sentences With our ideas in motion With our social customs in our lives With our practices and habits We force things upon ourselves and others Within each of these realms Instead of developing understanding Instead of searching for meaning Instead of exploring their functions And discovering the shapes that fit.

Fanciful creatures, beautiful and wonderful

We often have the habit of hearing something or seeing something and then believing that we understand what we just witnessed. This latter sentiment is not always the case. Thoughts, ideas, concepts, philosophies - simple, great, complicated, deep: they all present challenges to our faculties of perception. We struggle to understand one another, often without considering these challenges though they are certainly there. We also struggle to communicate those things to others, and sometimes even to ourselves.

My Art is a form of prayer. I need the Flying Friar's intercession! He is the patron of Students and Exams! Exams are on the way and I feel so underprepared. Please pray for me everybody! St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us! So someone might ask how could this man fly? Well I'll answer that with a quote from someone on why the angels fly: “Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. This has been always the instinct of Christendom, and especially the instinct of Christian art. ...The tattered cloak of the beggar will bear him up like the rayed plumes of the angels. But the kings in their heavy gold and the proud in their robes of purple will all of their nature sink downwards, for pride cannot rise to levity or levitation. Pride is the downward drag of all things... One "settles down" into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a [joyful] self-forgetfulness. ... solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.” - G.K. Chesterton So let's be little, forget about ourselves and make a leap of laughter! and one day we will fly with the angels! ^_^ #stjosephofcupertino, #saint, #joseph, #cupertino, #catholic, #saints, #christian, #flying, #fly, #levitate, #levitation, #angel, #angels, #G.K.Chesterton, #Chesterton, #gkchesterton, #laugh, #Laughter, #littleness, #spiritualchildhood, #art, #digitalart

Featured removal in this valley of roaming fears, the truth in dreams haunt this region. Compose mind, down the holes of madness present themselves. Tears and insanity follow his pleasure.

Not all of us get to grow older. And not all of us that do get to grow up. Let's do what we can to be good to one another and to ourselves. Let's make the most of this life while we have it.

Tao Te Ching “A great nation is like a great man: When he makes a mistake, he realizes it. Having realized it, he admits it. Having admitted it, he corrects it. He considers those who point out his faults as his most benevolent teachers. He thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts.” ~~~~~~~ CIM Chapter 10 88 Children perceive terrifying ghosts and monsters and dragons, and they are terrified. Yet if they ask someone they trust for the real meaning of what they perceive and are willing to let their interpretations go in favor of reality, their fear goes with them. When a child is helped to translate his “ghost” into a curtain, his “monster” into a shadow, and his “dragon” into a dream, he is no longer afraid and laughs happily at his own fear. You, my children, are afraid of your brothers and of your Father and of yourselves. But you are merely deceived in them. Chapter 12 35 It is through these strange and shadowy figures that the insane relate to their insane world. For they see only those who remind them of these images, and it is to them that they relate. Thus do they communicate with those who are not there, and it is they who answer them, and no one hears their answer save him who called upon them, and he alone believes they answered him. Projection makes perception, and you cannot see beyond it. Again and again have men attacked each other because they saw in them a shadow figure in their own private world. And thus it is that you must attack yourself first, for what you attack is not in others. Its only reality is in your own mind, and by attacking others, you are literally attacking what is not there. 36 The delusional can be very destructive, for they do not recognize that they have condemned themselves. They do not wish to die, yet they will not let condemnation go. And so they separate into their private worlds, where everything is disordered and where what is within appears to be without. Yet what is within they do not see, for the reality of their brothers they cannot see. 41 Vision depends on light, and you cannot see in darkness. Yet in the darkness in the private world of sleep, you see in dreams, although your eyes are closed. And it is here that what you see you made. But let the darkness go, and all you made you will no longer see, for sight of it depends upon denying vision. Yet from denying vision, it does not follow that you cannot see. But this is what denial does, for by it you accept insanity, believing you can make a private world and rule your own perceptions. Yet for this, light must be excluded. Dreams disappear when light has come and you can see.

Sometimes, We have our hands so full of Ourselves That we have no room for others. Sometimes, We have our hands so full of Others That we have no room for ourselves or others.

Raphael the Archangel. Why Green? Healing. Why Ears? Homage to Tolkien (similarities between elves and angels).

I have been reading Seth Godin books lately and he believes we shouldn't wait around hoping to be picked. We need to pick ourselves.

I highly recommend the book, Gender and Competition: How Men and Women Approach Work and Play Differently, by Kathleen J. DeBoer. In it, among other things, she elucidates that those with a conceptually masculine perspective (regardless of sex) are drawn to thinking of the world in hierarchies, which I have represented here with a triangle in the mind of the spotter on the left. She elaborates that those with a conceptually feminine perspective (again, regardless of sex) are draw to thinking of the world in webs, which I have represented here with a circle. Those that think more masculine-ly are more likely to expect beginners in a sport or field to prove themselves in the group. They will often not "hold their punches" (i.e. curb their ability) to make newcomers comfortable. All members of the group are expected to "earn their keep," in a sense. When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they move up in the hierarchy. Contrary to that, those that think more feminine-ly likely show acceptance and approval to beginners in order to foster an environment in which they will perform. They will often adjust their skills so that newcomers can more readily "keep up." When a member of the group exceeds expectations, they are expected to raise the status of the group as a whole. The playing field is "flattened" in that sense. I am not advocating for either perspective, but I will share that I have a more conceptually feminine perspective, and that I have previously left groups whose members have a more masculine perspective. Kathleen's book really helped me personally to understand the motivations of people that I genuinely did not understand prior to reading the book. It put a lot into perspective for me, and I hold fewer grudges these days. Cheers, fam~

I take a lot of Genesis as an allegory for birth and maturation, both individually and collectively. The Garden of Eden could easily be interpreted as the womb, and we are all cast out of it at some point. Genesis 2:24 says "This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh." Though people use this passage to refer to the tradition of marriage, I think that it speaks to something much, much deeper than that. Literally, when two people copulate, they create a child that is of one flesh. They do not "become one flesh" because they engage in a ritual institution and are now "to be viewed as comprising a single identity," but they literally become one flesh because their genetic compositions are joined into a new being (Mark 10:8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”). That being said, I read somewhere once that babies born in every part of the world make phonetic sounds from pretty much every language in the world. It is only after a period of time that they start to key in on certain sounds that the people around them are making, and it is only after that that children key in enough to start developing more advanced language skills (typically). However, in this original state, there is a freedom. There are no assumptions. There is an innocence in that state. There is a lack of judgement. There comes a point at which babies/young children begin to mimic and to incorporate what they are experiencing from the creatures around them into themselves. To small creatures with an undeveloped sense of self or reality, the caregivers around them may as well be gods, at least from their perspective. They will learn from these gods around them and will begin to embody their cultural beliefs, their language, their idiosyncrasies, and their perceptions, often on a deeply unconscious level. Adults contribute to that quite thoroughly and somewhat consciously. (Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness..") (Genesis 11:7 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.) In our own way as individuals, we are each a Tower of Babel, and at some point, for each of us, that Tower fell. Barriers to communication of so many kinds were created for and/or by us. Perhaps we still spend time constructing new barriers and thinking up new ways to distance ourselves from the rest of our kind. I chose to use the phrase "materialism" to express how children engender these attributes of caregivers and others alike. However, this can easily be exchanged for a phrase like "socialism," or "corporate capitalism," or nearly any other thing that you can probably think of. Children are like sponges. They soak up even more than we realize. Most widespread religions in the world have some form of renunciation belief or ritual wherein an individual must 'cast off' the old self and put on the new. This is because, regardless of where or when a child is born in the world, the perspectives of the people around them raising them will likely leave much to be desired. It is necessary for beings to continue to learn, and this often entails a serious consideration of what was instilled into them at an earlier time. It is quintessential that we question and evaluate these things since the state of the world will have changed by the time that we reach maturation. The ideas that people gave us may apply to a world that is already different. The story of the Tower of Babel may refer to a state that earlier humans lived in, perhaps on a shared continent, in which the manners in which they communicated were similar. Then, at some point, perhaps these same peoples went off on their travels and developed new languages. In a funny way, we seem to do that as individuals. At some point, we strike out on our own, even if only a little. Though we may differ on surface level behaviors and in the symbols that we use to describe the human experience, human beings are more or less fundamentally the same. We let our differences create so, so, so many barriers between ourselves and other beings. Just think of all of the harm that things like xenophobia, racism, intolerance, and a lack of an ability to communicate verbally with one another have done to our species. Even beyond that, just think of how easily we dismiss the inner lives and inner experiences of creatures different than ourselves simply because they do not communicate verbally with us in our preferred tongue. Research is overwhelmingly in support of other beings communicating with others of their kind, whether we as individuals acknowledge it or not.. Some of us are just really into denial about it. We could achieve remarkably wonderful things, if only we would learn to recognize the similarities of our experiences. (Matthew 19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”)

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We take things in and digest them before regurgitating them or expelling them again through our being. This is true of many aspects of our reality, not just of caloric intake. We take things in through the senses, through the person. We digest with our intellect and with our perception. Then we are able to share that back out through the senses, through our behaviours, and through our being. Food builds our body even as our experiences build our character. The real mark of a mature human being is developing deeper levels of discretion and recognizing more intimate forms of subtlety. Not everyone likes grapes, but to condemn grapes as evil is not prosperous to our species. Some like cherries, but not all enjoy their flavour. Grapes and cherries are still nutritious even though some have allergies to them. And not all cherries and grapes are ripe and nutritious at all times in all places. We must carry this knowledge into the development of our judgement. If it is important and worth while to discuss food and material nutrition, then it is much more essential that we evolve a greater sense of discretion for experience and for the holistic palette of our physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual tongues. We do that through consumption and digestion. But be aware that a human being can not live on grapes and cherries alone. We should also do our best to not condemn the taste buds or stomachs of ourselves or others. Namaste.

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