Frogs and critters of the resistance
Beauty, whimsy and the world we want
The cooler rainy fall season is beginning where I live in the Pacific Northwest about 10 miles from the city center of Portland Oregon. Frog costumes1 are multiplying in Portland now despite the cool temps or rain. Also multiplying are costumed chickens2, racoons3, unicorns, pickles4 and bananas. Additionally there's been an emergency naked bike ride5 (FYI: some of the video links in the footnotes show the human dangly bits6 and some don't7.) All of the protestors whether costumed in an inflatable or simply dressed absurdly8 or not dressed at all have been singing, making music9 and dancing. Outside of the protest ordinary life10 goes on and yet the silliness, smiles, kindness and love seem to flow now throughout this region like a monsoon! It's a beautiful thing. It's a necessary thing. It's an honest thing. That's why I drew a frog dancing in the rain over several mornings in my sketchbook.
Another morning I woke up thinking that beauty, whimsy, kindness, empathy, all of the human virtues11, our community and our personal stories are partners that help us get through things in this life. As I got coffee I saw a rabbit in our backyard…
… and I began a sketchbook page of rabbit character reading which I worked on until lunchtime. (I'm still on a semi-break to rest after my one-person exhibit opening at the Caplan Art Designs gallery in Portland Oregon - details here - my exhibit is still available at the gallery.) I think both books and art are links to civilization in times of barbarity but for the sake of clarity in my drawing I focused on books.
Another day I thought of the quote by Dinos Christianopoulos “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds”.12 And I worked on this sketchbook page.
As I drew I thought of how our stories - especially written in books - are seeds. Books are where we make a conscious record of our awareness of what is right and wrong, i.e., moral, helpful and kind.13 These seeds of thoughts are essential to write down and to read because we simply can't remember and think of everything. We need other people's words and images and we also need our own words and images - that's how we create the world. By reading, writing and participating in all of the arts we self-seed and care for our seedling-thoughts, our own chosen responses to life.14
Here's a paraphrase of Viktor Frankl: “…when every right has been stripped away, the last human freedom that endures is the freedom to choose how to respond.”15
We nourish our responses to life by writing, reading, talking with each other and by participating in all forms of creativity. During difficult times extra care is needed to remember to take deep breaths, to participate in community, to remember to look for beauty, whimsy and to take time to think about and imagine the world you want to create and reaffirm. Here's some of my thoughts in one of my notebooks…
… and cat wanted some attention so I stopped writing in my notebook for a bit and I include his photo here because of his cuteness …
… then I continued writing.
After sharing the above sketchbook pages on Bluesky some people reminded me of other values of democracy that I'd forgotten to list initially - items which are what I value too - so I added them.
Yep. I'm using my blue fountain pen ink to write my pro-democracy list!! 😁💙
Anyway, being fully oneself and being creative is inherently humane/kind. I use the word ‘creative’ here to mean ‘able to imagine a good future and take steps towards it’ rather than how well one is able to write, draw, dance or make music. Every single day we’re actively creating life together and that's an important awareness to have and remember.
Speaking of making the world together: This week I took some of my fore-edge book art (aka “Edgy Art”) to Eryngium Paperterie. I love well-made blank books with good paper in them and I'm honored that Eryngium is letting me share my edgy thing with her customers!! Here's a video look at one of the books I took …
… the title on the spine reads “Best Children’s Stories of the Year”. The old book cover was rebound and filled with new blank paper suitable for writing and sketching by About Blanks. I let the title inspire my 3 fore-edge artworks.
On the front edge I nodded to Beatrix Potter and other kids stories with rabbits in them.
Along the bottom edge of the book I nodded to Mother Goose.
And on the top edge I nodded to the cow who jumped over the moon. (BTW I really love that story and did my own version of it in which depicted exactly how the cow went from earth around the moon and came back. Link here. 16 )
Here's Cricket, the owner of Eryngium, holding two of my books. She's including the edgy art I did on Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas (as seen in an earlier post) and having it available for her customers too! And she wants me to do more! How fun is that?! She also told me that even though she doesn't do online sales if any of you - subscribers to my newsletter - want one of my edgy art books that I share here you can call the store and she'll ship it to you. Isn't that nice of her? Here's her website with the store contact info:
https://www.eryngiumpapeterie.com/
In solidarity with the frogs this week I put one of my nonsense botany artworks from my current exhibit at the Caplan Art Designs on a mug. Link here.
Oct 18 is the big No Kings protest nation wide! Please find a protest near you and support in person if possible and please help spread our successes online!17
Stay peaceful!! Go forth and spread joy and silliness!!
Why the frog costume is important (screenshot from Rebecca Solnit)
Interview with the Portland Chicken who stared down Kristi Noem:
“Discipline and whimsy: staying peaceful even in challenging circumstances, and finding ways to convey the humanity that ICE and the Trump regime want to crush. Using humor and creativity to get eyes on our actions so we can reclaim the truth about our communities and people.
We are precious beings who deserve good governance, not misrule by thugs who trample on our rights and our bodies to demoralize us and get us to internalize the eternal strongman message: “I am everything and you are nothing.”
As we engage in nonviolent righteous protest on October 18, we can know that our actions will inspire others around us to stand up for justice and freedom in America and the world”
Here's more about the Kristi Noem face off with a chicken costume while trying to make a propaganda video of herself looking tough. There’s only a few protesters on the street one of whom is the chicken. Noem is wearing a t-shirt. If Portland was so dangerous wouldn’t she wear body armor? Article here:
https://newrepublic.com/article/201669/kristi-noem-chicken-suit-maga-implodes
“ Because that is what Portland does. It fights fear with absurdity. It meets authoritarianism with art. It takes propaganda and turns it into parody. It looks power dead in the eye and says, ‘look, if you’re gonna call us anarchists, we might as well give you a fucking show.’
The so-called No Pants Peacekeeping Force rolled through downtown like the world’s happiest apocalypse, bells ringing, colors colliding, joy on full blast.”
The Naked bike ride (human dangly bits are visible)
Here’s a video via Steven Colbert with a glimpse of the naked bike ride with dangly bits blurred
This newsletter from A. R. Moxon describes the human virtues and why they're essential to hold on to - especially when the virtues like empathy or truth are deliberately mislabeled as crimes - and how knowledge of the virtues strengthens us. https://www.the-reframe.com/the-crime-of-human-virtue/?ref=the-reframe-newsletter
Dinos Christianopoulos quote source and more details - https://quotesoftheowl.com/they-tried-to-bury-us-they-didnt-know-we-were-seeds-dinos-christianopoulos/
More from Viktor Frankl about getting through hard times. https://thehumanitieslibrary.substack.com/p/issue-31-do-we-exist-to-seek-pleasure?r=47p4r&triedRedirect=true
Here's a link to the printed book (the link in the text above is to the free ebook on Storyberries) https://www.blurb.com/b/11033023-how-the-cow-went-over-the-moon-and-tiny-notes-to
You gotta love the creative energy from the people of Oregon,Sue, and you're right up there with your Democracy List and wonderful Artwork. Thank you for sharing this Morning ☕ TGIF and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
I love your edgy art! And this quote: “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”! Very good news that Kermit is leading the frog dissent in Portland. Brilliant!