Brain Flotsam V2.007

evening out

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:53:37 GMT

This evening the lovely alisanne was in town, so we met up for dinner and tea and much chatter of fandom and other topics. It was quite a nice time.
Now I must prepare for my weekend adventure in Austin, plus try to make some progress on my art coming due.

ART: The Duellist (Godric, Salazar, PG)

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:20:41 GMT

Title: The Duellist
Artist: zephre
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Godric, Salazar, unknown wizard.
Rating: PG
Warnings: implied mild violence
Genres: friendship, could be romance
Artist's Notes: Drawn for vega_pandanina for the Founders' Gifts exchange. I went with a Norse-looking Godric as per the request.
Summary: Godric always won. Soon there would be no one in Alba but Salazar willing to duel him.

At the Faire

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 01:04:11 GMT

Keri and Donna
Originally uploaded by zephrene.

I ran away to the circus.. er, Renaissance Festival today!
It was pirate weekend, so I got into a pseudo-costume (I wore jeans), and met Donna, Jon, Lando and some friends.
It was a long drive, by the way. Geez. It seems so much shorter when there is another person in the car.
This is us in front of the waterwheel by the carousel, which was the designated "let's all meet here" location.

ART: His Father's Throne (Arthur/Merlin, NC-17)

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:56:56 GMT

More quick meme art...

Title: His Father's Throne
Artist: zephre
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters: Arthur/Merlin
Summary/Notes: Er, I suppose after all my kinky HP art saying this one kinda squicked me seems bizarre, but I surely hesitated before posting. Drawn fast for cherrybina's Merlin Rimming Meme Also, the throne is based on the super fancy one in the S2 trailer images from episode 2x07, I think? The Witchfinder one. It may have been featured before, but I don't recall.
Kinks/Warnings: Rimming, magical bondage

ART: Morgana's Maid (Gwen/Morgana, NC-17)

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:55:13 GMT

Got some quick meme art...

Title: Morgana's Maid
Artist: zephre
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters: Morgana/Gwen
Summary/Notes: Er, I suppose after all my kinky HP art saying this one kinda squicked me seems bizarre, but I surely hesitated before posting. Drawn fast for cherrybina's Merlin Rimming Meme, and also posted as a kink meme fill.
Kinks/Warnings: Rimming

Quilt Show Day 2 + politics

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:22:27 GMT

More from the Quilt Show:

This one made me think of my friend E:

And these two made me think of Lisa:
Tolkein tribute: (I took a lot of this one - the details are just amazing)

Painted whole cloth:

And last night was the annual Johnson Rayburn Richards Dinner for the Harris County Democratic Party. Mom and I dolled up with lovely fancy scarves from a weaver selling at the Quilt Show.
The dinner was huge this time - they had to get a bigger ballroom to hold us all.

Quilt Festival Day 1

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:56:21 GMT

International Quilt Festival, Day 1:

Totally awesome!
I blew half my festival budget on amber jewelry, but the highlight of the show was still the quilts.

This one is pieced, not painted - I swear. It's huge, taller than I am, and gorgeous in person. "Medea Escaping".
My flickr set for the show includes the card for this one, and some detail shots.

ART: Chasing a Dream (Merlin/Morgana, PG-13)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:53:44 GMT

More Merlin art, because most of that is not under anonymous posting rules for fests. :P
I've been thinking about this pairing since 2x03 aired, but there are no actual spoilers in the pic.

Title: Chasing a Dream
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters: Morgana/Merlin
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Medium: photoshop

ART: Embrace (Arthur/Merlin, PG)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:29:46 GMT

Title: Embrace
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG
Fandom: BBC's Merlin
Characters: Merlin/Arthur
Notes: For the Merlin/Arthur Hug Meme

ART: Recovery (Hermione/Lucius/Severus, PG)

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:42:45 GMT

Title: Recovery
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG
Characters: Hermione Granger/Lucius Malfoy/Severus Snape
Note: for hermionebigbang

ART: In the Kitchen (Hermione, Narcissa, G)

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:40:25 GMT

Title: In the Kitchen
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Hermione Granger, Narcissa Malfoy
Note: for hermionebigbang

ART: Confrontation (Draco/Hermione, PG-13)

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:17:34 GMT

Title: Confrontation
Artist: zephre
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Draco/Hermione
Notes: for the hermionebigbang

Art: Sanctuary (Snarry, PG-13)

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:58:56 GMT

My art for the gold-medal-winning Team Snitch in this year's mixed Snarry Games:

Title: Sanctuary
Artist: zephre
Team: Snitch
Genre(s): Literary/Historical
Prompt(s): Man in Uniform, Sanctuary
Rating/Warnings/Kinks: PG13; Highlight if you wish to know: * *mild battlefield gore**
Artist's Notes/Disclaimers/Thank you to Special thanks to K who probably won't ever see this, but helped break my block. The Literary and Historical influence for this piece is the "Sharpe" series by Bernard Cornwell, about a British rifleman during the Napoleonic Wars (thus the green uniforms).
Media used: photoshop.

a spiritual experience

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:51:44 GMT

This evening Mom and I attended the Progressive Forum again.
Tonight the speaker was Karen Armstrong, and she was amazing. Brilliant. Incredibly well-spoken, fun to listen to, grounded in her knowledge, and beautifully eloquent. Plus bonus British accent.
But seriously, I was so moved at times during her lecture, and her answer to one of the questions during the Q&A portion had me choked up.
It reminded me with deep, loving nostalgia of the best of my class in Seminary.

Her talk was about god, in a very early sense of the word. She spoke of traditions having a special language and breathing to discuss god, the concept beyond realization. About finding the moment when one's word become too much and one is reduced to silence and awe. (Like the moment, the beat at the end of a symphony, the breath before the applause begins.) The goal of the practice is to breathe in the silence, in the presence of that awe.
She spoke of creation stories or cosmologies as therapeutic exercises, guides for personal creativity with an emphasis on personal sacrifice. Never does something come from nothing; something always from something.
She spoke of revelation as an ongoing process. Scripture, in the Rabbinic tradition, as something to be re-interpreted for and by each generation.
She spoke of the complementary relationship in pre-16th century society between logos and mythos. Logos as knowledge, science, the physical reality. Myth as a way to deal with inner issues, emotion, pain, despair, psyche. Myth as a program for action. Religion, she said, is like dancing - a skill requiring practice. A belief is not enough. And belief as a word did not mean then what it did now, but represented a commitment, love, dedication, a doing.
She spoke of dialogue as a spiritual exercise in the Socratic tradition, its goal to realize the profundity of human ignorance, and from there begin to seek wisdom. She said that one difficulty we have now is that instead of proceeding in the dialogue with gentleness, as Socrates said, these days we feel the need not only to win, to prove our knowledge, but also to humiliate our opponents.
And of course, she spoke of compassion. She is developing a Charter for Compassion online. (See the page at the TED prize about her wish.)

One of the most intriguing and resonant things she said, to me, was about the need for silence. Specifically inner silence as a place of spiritual revelation and knowing. This reminded me so much of one of the books that was formative to my young spirituality, Sati by Christopher Pike. We are all god, and this can be discovered in silence.

When asked to describe her idea of god:
"I try not to have any ideas of god at all." She does not wish to 'domesticate the transcendence', but to keep it in the realm of music, poetry, etc. She feels intimations of awe and wonder during the day: "I do feel touched within, but what that is I don't know - and it's better not to ask."

At the very end she spoke about hope for the future in the face of so much misunderstanding and upheaval.

In short, it was an awesome evening.

Also, happy happy birthday to my awesome Dad. :)

art recap

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:15:49 GMT

Ok, so I've been remiss in tracking my art lately.

I did three pieces for the Snupin: Bigger, Longer, Uncut fest, a Big Bang that ran earlier this summer. This is my artist page.

I did three pieces for the Hermione Big Bang, which just published last month. This is my artist tag on that LJ community. All links go to the Big Bang fic archive.

Also, just to repeat, my Snarry Games entry is over here, and the Games are almost over!

I'll have to get my stuff together and post those to my personal archives shortly.

I have a few original pieces in the works, plus more illustrations from the Far Away as Moonshine 'verse, and those will also get posted soon.

In the meantime, who wants to give me suggestions for steampunk/cyberpunk/otherpunk fairy tales? (Images, please, although story adaptation ideas might also be fun for my writing exercises.)

sick day

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:13:56 GMT

As some folks already know, I spent today being sick. Ugh. I still have a low-grade fever, and the persistance of that will determine whether or not I go to work tomorrow.
I spent this morning at the emergency clinic with Awesome!Chauffeur!Dad, and then the rest of the day in varying stages of sleep or eating under Mom's eye.
Now I'm taking advantage of brief moments of concentration and hoping that I can sleep through the night. Or at least large chunks of it.

friday of a long week

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:49:00 GMT

Had a lot of stuff going on this week. It's just been terribly busy, and I haven't slept well.
Thought about going to the memorial concert tonight, but wasn't up for it. Spent the whole day reading various bizarre social networking posts about where people were in 2001. There was a hashtag for it, for goodness sakes. Bizarre, and yet I suppose completely human.
I doubt I'll ever forget, but the memory seems to change with each telling. And more than the day itself, the days and weeks immediately after stay in my mind. It was a hard time, but one that has faded with the passing of years so that its immediacy is lessened but certain indelible images and feelings remain, worn into the psyche beside all the rest of a life's traumas.

Hm, I seem to have gone a bit introspective despite my effort to avoid same this year.

I've finished two actual novels this week, though, which was great. And they were both awesome in totally different ways. Lavinia by Ursula K LeGuin, and The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop.

Now I'm really tired and looking forward to a fun weekend, so I'd best get to bed and try to actually sleep.

ART: Star Trek Love #1 (Spock/Uhura, G)

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:37:12 GMT

Title: Star Trek Love #1
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Characters: Spock, Uhura
Notes: Spock/Uhura gets to be #1 because I got tired of all the Spock/Uhura-bashing and general Uhura-bashing in various ST forums, and made art to feel better. I may actually finish a whole series of free-for-all pairings, slash and het. We'll see.

it's tuesday

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:31:18 GMT

So begins my quest to blog more frequently...

Last night I visited the ancestral homestead, where I picked up various fun things like my laundry, a box of things Mom wanted to get rid of (mostly my bookends - two of them are carved stone figures that are bloody heavy, even for bookends), and some of Mom's lentil soup, this time the cumin and coriander variation.
I am eating the soup right now and it's awesome, but I do wish I'd had the forethought to add some cheese to it before I left. There are so few foods that cannot be improved by the application of some extra sharp cheddar.

It's a rather nice change to have so much of my floor visible at home, although I still don't have all my flat spaces cleared. I can't sew yet, for one thing. But I'm close, very close.

Yesterday I did actually draw something, too. It may or may not morph into a full-blown illustration, we'll see.

Also, I took a Democratic Party political survey, the mail-in kind, and I mostly wished I had a big red marker to strike through half of it. "Mark the issues most important to you right now" - well, it's hard to do when they aren't even on your stupid list, Democratic Party. I added some write-ins.
"Which party do you trust to look after your interests?" NONE.
I hope they don't just throw my survey away because it has so much writing on it, outside of the "Please tell us anything else you think we should know" box. I have extremely neat handwriting, Democratic Party interns, you can handle it!

bullet points

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:50:56 GMT

my best friend really really really wants me to read Twilight. sigh. I probably should read it just so I'll have a point of conversation with my younger cousins, who aren't readers but have apparently all finished the series.
she also spent some time discussing the ways that she thought my characterization of Draco Malfoy in Far Away as Moonshine echoed that of Michael Corleone in The Godfather series.
and we spent our lunch talking racebending and white-washing in film, something she's been aware of and talking about for longer than I.
good times, despite the sparkly vampire complication.

Friday evening I actually went out. Yes, really. Had dinner and then drinks with friends. I visited a new bar I'd never been to, and had some lovely Scotch.
The lightning on Friday was apocalyptic. Made me wish I had a camera with instant shutter speed, to capture it.
Saturday morning at the gas station, a lady saw my "I'm blogging this" t-shirt and said, "Hey, can I ask you about blogging?" So we ended up having a conversation about social media while my tank filled. Bizarre.
Spent Saturday evening at my aunt's house. We had dinner and conversation and played two rounds of Scrabble. Fun times.
Today Mom and I made a HUGE dent in my cleaning. We moved the sewing cabinet, and put away almost all the books, although actually really they're all thrown willy-nilly onto shelves, not actually organized. It'll take me weeks to get them organized.
I hung two more pictures on the walls, too.
Baking soda really is a miracle cleaner.

I have two more bigbang arts to do, and then a fest to illustrate before Snupin Santa hits.
I'm working on a concept for a series of fairy tale illustrations in Prismacolor and ink, for my Advanced Visual Arts studio class this semester.

home again!

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:15:03 GMT

I'm back from the adventure that was WorldCon, ready to read the great entries in the Snarry Games that I missed, and catch up with the BLU and Merlin Big Bang entries. w00t!
I should also go grocery shopping.
My travel season has come to an end, except for short weekend drives to local events. No more flying for a while, not until Christmas in all likelihood.
It's been a fun summer, though, full of great people, exciting places, and gorgeous fun.

Now I really do need to concentrate on unpacking my apartment into something more livable. And finishing this wedding quilt that's been sitting on the shelf all summer.

Also, Jim Kirk is a total manwhore. (It made sense in Montreal.)

WorldCon Day 1: The short version

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 13:45:21 GMT

-- Jaye and I are going to hell.
-- Jaye fell asleep in the panel on Consciousness. (I fell asleep in the Putting the World in WorldCon panel)
-- I feel like I walked several miles along the corridors at the party hotel.
-- the Polish restaurant in Old Montreal is awesome, as I remembered it, and I really must get back there for dinner.
-- We are still in search of decent coffee, but the place in the Palais serves "cafe mocha" ghetto-style, which is hot chocolate with regular coffee poured into it. OMG, it is So Damn Good.
-- became a pre-supporting member of the Texas 2013 bid. Yay.
-- found Jake randomly by the elevators at the party hotel.
-- random guy in the panel about Genocide in Literature spent 5 minutes of panel time summarizing the most recent Star Trek movie.
-- Charles Stross predicts human drivers will be illegal in 30 years...
-- Paul Krugman to Charles Stross: So where do you get your ideas?
-- Opening Ceremonies included a really good contortionist. Those folks always make me cringe a little, though, when they fold their spine backwards just below their diaphragm. Eep.
-- Neil Gaiman seemed shorter than I am when I ran into him (almost literally in a narrow doorway). That is so weird. Also, he did not offer Jake a blow job. (But hey, it's only Thursday.)
-- Margarita ok. Aquavit excellent. La Fin du Monde local microbrew AWESOME.
-- Now Jaye and I are going to bed.

gone to WorldCon

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:52:59 GMT

I'm off to Montreal for WorldCon, be back next week.
I'll try to get net access, but for the most part I'll be off the grid.

ART: Snapshot for Alice, 2018 (Draco/Luna, G)

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:47:43 GMT

Title: Snapshot for Alice, 2018
Artist: zephre
Rating: G
Characters: Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy
Summary: Every so often, Luna drags Draco out of the university to play tourist in Berlin, and sends the photos to her goddaughter at Hogwarts. Part of the Far Away as Moonshine universe.
Artist's Notes: Black and white sketch version. NOW with color version! They're at the Berliner Dom.

Azkatraz photos

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:02:06 GMT

This is actually not so much a report as a Yay! Photos! post, with occasional commentary. That link goes to my Flickr set, which will in turn sometimes sync up to the Azkatraz Flickr Pool.
Here's my Mug Shot:

Snupineers at the SFMOMA:
xterm, drusillas_rain, karasu_hime and me

Prison AU Lucius and Snape get a bit friendly at the Prison Break Ball:

Scene from the Drink n Draw:

I've forgotten the LJ usernames of half the people I met already, but if anybody wants to pop in and remind me, feel free!