look at all the art and cultural detritus you love, or whatever most compells you (even if you dislike it, maybe especially so!). see if there are poses, objects, creatures, ideas etc that keep popping up. these are your prompts!!
𓅽 to use my own expierence as an example:
i kept finding human-bird hybrids everywhere in the stuff i return to. angels, harpies, Sirin & Alkonost, etc clearly something about the union of beast/bird with (often femme) humanity to create something either deceptive and dangerous or divine and distant made me excited! so that became my prompt. it made me start having questions i could only answer through making art: how many ways can i depict a human-bird hybrid? what details transform it from an angel into a siren, or perhaps into something all together new and different? etc
this leads me to:
𓅽 explore mythology, fairy and folktales! i personally don't buy into the jungian shit AT ALL (and don't even get me started on joseph campell, booo) but! there's a reason these stories and their imagery have stuck around! they're endlessly fascinating and adaptable, and they make for a great first step to take in creating something that speaks to you and so many others across time and space
Jan 28, 2025
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study the folklore and myth of your actual local region. live your daily life under the logic of fairytales. communicate as heavily as possible in proverbs and riddles. humans are a storytelling creature and there is a reason these archetypes and motifs appear to humans across times/cultures/places
Feb 13, 2024
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I’m making a zine about it
Waterfalls
Sunsets
Kung fu masters
Flamenco
Disgusting and rude people
People who write songs with complex structures
Stories of how people met
Faces, what they show and what they hide
Light and color
The present, what we're living now
Infinity, spatially and temporally
Surrealism
Space
Time
Violence
Sects
The human mind, mental disorders
Women
Stars, the infinitely big, the infinitely small, but it's scary
Animals
Very big books
That I could never read them all
Mythology, where it came from, how it started, the fact that it was passed down orally
The sea, the ocean
Murder stories
The maritime world, its shapes, fishing nets
Coincidences
Mathematical probabilities
Philosophy
Reflections
Felines
Laws of physics
Love and human relationships
Hands
Thoughts
Dreams
Group effects, crowds
Fire
Dec 5, 2024
Basically just choosing an archetype to embody and letting it guide you through lifes little narratives. For example if I want to feel more powerful and strong I’ll just start identifying with .. the Northman. Or the “strength” card in tarot. I’m not great at doing this consistently but when I do, it feels really progressive and like a light in the darkness.
Jan 24, 2024
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21h ago
Lately I've been spending too much time scouring every corner of eBay I can for the cheapest and most delightful soviet era porcelain figurines available
I didn't even realize it until diving head first into this rabbit hole, but I have had soviet era porcelain figurines my whole life (a bunny and a bull for those curious), so I guess I was always destined to develop a fondness for the form, and eventually dig a little deeper into it.
There is something so incredibly charming and also incredibly interesting about these porcelain pieces! These little guys!
There's a lot of history to dig into that I've barely scratched the surface of AT ALL, but I'm fascinated by how porcelain reflected the common sentiments* of the times, the economic conditions, the artistic movements and ideas of the day, and also the ability (or lack thereof) of people to stay in one place and hold onto something so "useless" and easily broken.
I have very, very few things from any of my ancestors. Figurines like these make me think about the way history and art are passed down to us, forgotten, broken, left behind, sold in thrift stores and online, if they survive at all.
Figurine collections are kind of a barometer of safety and stability, or at least how dedicated to the illusion of it you might be.
They also make me think about how useful "useless" things can be. How even art that is purely decorative can be thought-provoking (by for example valorizing "folks"), or just make you happy (via being very cute! Or expert use of color and form!).
Grannies collect this shit for many good reasons and I'm starting to catch on.
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* Notably the $$$ collectors type ones are the ethnographic figurines, something I NEED to read an academic paper about.
Especially, because Ive noticed some of these figurines depicting "ethnic types" are inaccurate copies of earlier prints, which themselves should be placed under immense scrutiny! This is all extra interesting in the context of the porcelain industry transitioning from imperial rule to the soviet era. The ways of talking about ethnicity changed, (in addition obviously to y'know, everything!) but the products produced largely remained the same. Lots to think about!!!
Jan 31, 2025
Feb 8, 2025