zOMGs

Hydra Head Studios has a blog/site now!

http://hydraheadstudios.wordpress.com/

I am very excited, even though we are still VERY much in the development stages. As things move foward, I'll make sure to update you all. Not much there right now, but if you'd like to take a look be my guest.

As for this blog, this is my personal blog, so it's not going anywhere. I haven't posted anything really in a while but you can thank school for that.

FINALLY

Blogger is once again working on Chrome, so hopefully soon I'll have new posts to publish :3

College starts back in a week...

And...yeah. To be honest, I'm excited, if only because it means getting out of this damn house.

You know, Idk if it's ever hit me that I'm in college. I try to think of that when I get depressed (TRY at least) because for my family, for my social status, that's a big deal.

I grew up poor. I grew up with all the odds against me. I grew up in a house where I would come home everyday worried that the electricity might (still, on occasions) be off. I'd go to school, get teased and bullied, go home, got teased, bullied, and emotionally abused by my older siblings, and found no comfort. I was made to believe I was worthless. For a while I was convinced I was better off dead...this, mind you, was back when I was, like, 8. Yes. EIGHT. And it only got worse. 

And yet, I'm still here. In fact, if someone ever needed proof that the Wiccan law of three had some truth to it, I'd have to share with them my life story. Those who bullied me are-from what I've seen-the very failures they told me I would be. And I am here, getting ready for my third semester of college. I'm on my way to accomplishing my dreams, and they've never been or even felt closer. 


(Also posted on my dA account, but I felt it was also relevant here ^_^)

Son of a biatch

Blogger is being a dick. My entire last post wasn't published ><

Start of a Dream and changes

Years ago, before graduating High School, I had an idea: start my own comic studio. Inspired by various websites and companies/studios like Rooster Teeth, I had this whimsical thought that maybe someday I'll have a studio, with friends, making what I love, and people enjoying it. At the time, I "knew" this was fantasy. I've been one who starts things and never even gets them beyond planning faze.

But, as the years have passed, things have changed. I've changed. I'm terrified of change. Just now reading a friends blog about her own change scared the crap out of me, and has my heart racing. Yet, right now, I still don't know why. Change has, historically, usually been good for me. Changing faiths, changing ideas, changing styles, changing behaviors...they all have, in the long run, been good. But good gods are they scary. And when major changes happen to people around me, I freak. I suppose part of me thinks I'm going to change, too. But, it never really turns out that way. In a day or so, I'm fine, and soon, it's the norm.

So what does one have to do with the other? When this dream started, I had begun to loose every sort of crutch around me. It was scary. It was the Year of the Bawy. The next few years were years of creativity, of beginning....and, changing. I became a Shemsu, divined as a/the daughter of Heru-wer and Hethert-Sekhmet, beloved of Set, Ptah-Sokar-Wesir, Aset-Serqet, and Heru-sa-Aset. The next year, I discovered Wicca, and a few new faces. This past Kemetic year, I started college, discovered Hera and Her influence in my life, and friends. Friends who are like me. Artists, outsiders, people who, like me, have dealt with changes in some scary ways. We've begun building on one another, using each other to better ourselves. We've become a unit. And we've begun to start our own comic. We look at each others work, read, smile, and make it more than it was.

So, to this unit, I suggested the idea of our own studio. And we all like it. No "What?" or "Huh?" or "okay." It was "That sounds AWESOME!" Suddenly, that dream from years ago is so close to reality, it's breathtaking. But, it took years of change to come to. Nothings done in an instant. I suppose this entire blog is more a reminder to myself of that. One of my favorite vampires-Marius-once said that we never truly change, we just become more of who we're supposed to be. So may this be true here, too.

May this be the start of something great.

Comics and whatnot

So I have a comic called KV Chronic. Been around for a few years. Not very popular, but seeing as few people get most of whats in it (save for maybe the last two), well, it happens.

But that makes me think of something: How do pagan artists get popular? I mean, certain ones have followings well and far outside of the pagan community. And by Pagan artist, I mean both pagans who do art and artists who do pagan work. I mean, we all kinda grow around fellow pagans. So, what jets people off?

Better question: How could I promote my art? How could I gain a larger audience?

Nudity V.S. Pornography in Pagan art

Nudity does not equal porn. I think this is an argument we in the art community have been trying to say for decades, if not longer. Pagan art is no exception. Nudes should be viewed as beautiful, and nude deities should never be censored or be considered blasphemous.

Except, of course, when it crosses the line of "artistic nude" to "porn." And yes, it has happened.

For the record, I believe sensuality has a place in art. I will say I'm not as comfortable with sensuality and religious/pagan art, but I understand that when it's there, it's there for story telling purposes. However, there's a huge difference between sensuality and explicit porn. And quite frankly, I don't want to see it in my religious iconography.

I've been an artist for years, and at this point I've drawn plenty of artistic nude models. So I feel it's okay to say I understand artistic nudity. In many cases, going back to ancient times, nudity has helped emphasize both time and purpose in pagan art. The goddess Nut was almost always depicted as completely nude. Several images of Aphrodite (which includes the Venus de Milo, which is a Roman marble copy of a Greek bronze) are nude. This extends to male dieties as well, with several Greek gods (prominant ones, at that) shown nude often. The god Min was always shown with an erect penis, as well, extending this imagery into slight sensuality, however He is a god of fertility. Several images from Ancient Egypt will depict sexuality, however they are almost always telling us stories, myths, or they have magical properties.

So, with that laid out, I should tell you where this rant started. On deviantART, I'm a member of the group "GoddessLove" and enjoy some of the beautiful imagery devoted to the Goddess. However, one day when checking my messages, an image appeared (because I watch the group, all images submitted and approved there shows up in my messages) that I was quite frankly disgusted with. It was an image of Aphrodite, in a very explicitly sexual pose. I decided to go and click on it, and the artist EXPLICITLY states it as hentai, and all of the comments it recieved disgusted me. I looked at the folder it was located in and just about lost it. "Skyclad Goddesses." There were images contained in it of what I would consider classic skyclad goddesses, yes, but it also contained images of the goddesses that weren't just sensual-they were porn. Their pose, stance, and overall appearence wasn't "skyclad," it was sexual. I commented on the folder, suggesting some of these were "tasteless" and was told I didn't have to look if I didn't like it. 

First, it showed up in my watch you dumb bitch. Second, how the hell do you justify this crap? That's like coming into my room, smoking a cigarette, and telling me "You don't have to breathe over here" when I complain. Sure, I wouldn't if YOU WEREN'T IN MY PERSONAL SPACE WITH IT!!! So, I'm irked, to say the least. Perhaps it's just me who likes to keep their icons clean of porn. I'm sure someone's going to bring up something about censorship and leftover Christian stigma, but I've encountered a "We don't need to see that shit!" sort of vibe concerning sexuality in shrine. But even in magic that uses sex, there's classy and there's trashy. This crap is trashy. And I don't want to see it in my art.