A Year in Pictures – Highgate Trio

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This gives you a notion of how closely packed the monuments are in Highgate West. (Although there was a recent burial there — as in, within the past few years — the place is almost completely closed to new additions.) I very much liked the three-tiered effect these had, all in a row; the only thing that would have improved it was if all three used the draped-urn motif. The Victorians may have had a bunch of different funerary motifs, but pile up enough of them in close proximity and you start to realize how repetitive they got . . . .

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

two Kickstarters

These both came to my attention recently, and deserve a signal boost:

Daughters of Mercury — this is an art project, creating portraits of trans women “how they want to be represented, either complicating the conventional portraitist’s art of flattery with the dynamics of gender dysphoria, or celebrating features stigmatized as masculine as a woman’s features.” I know the woman behind the project, and I also know an increasing number of trans women (one of whom brought the campaign to my attention), so there’s a personal weight to this one: I’ve been thinking a lot lately about gender identity, passing or choosing not to pass, etc, and there aren’t any simple answers. But we can accept trans women for who and what they are, and I think projects like this one are part of how we can do that.

Not Our Kind — this is an anthology built around the theme of “outsiders.” Not only does a friend of mine (Marissa Lingen) have a story in it, along with several acquaintances of mine, but the topic sounds pretty dang appealing. I’m pretty sure I’m going to love the heck out of it . . . but first it needs to be funded, so.

Go forth! Support!

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.