M. Cromwell 🌹

@marandart.bsky.social

Independent Artist & Author. Zen Animal. 420. Tending 5 acres of Squaxin land, Turtle Island. KILL CAPITALISM. 35 • 🏳️‍🌈 agender: they/she/he 🏳️‍⚧️ • Gallery & Shop: www.marandart.com

> capitalism > guys can own stuff, like land and cattle > they graze their cattle on their land and sell the cattle > a ton of guys do this > this is not how grasslands function: grass dies, erosion time > carbon cycle in grassland stalled AF > now your cattle ranch is a desert, sorry not sorry

"Wing Span" 12"x18" Acrylic, conte crayon, colored pencil, paint pen on reclaimed wood Are they spreading their wings to dry, or flicking water off their hands? And also: what's the difference? A slightly different arrangement of particles is all that separates us from our animal kin.

A heron in red and blue stares fiercely while it shuffles its wings and a human arm superimposed over the top, as if it is the heron's arm and wing at once.

"Wing Span" 12"x18" Acrylic, conte crayon, colored pencil, paint pen on reclaimed wood Are they spreading their wings to dry, or flicking water off their hands? And also: what's the difference? A slightly different arrangement of particles is all that separates us from our animal kin.

A heron in red and blue stares fiercely while it shuffles its wings and a human arm superimposed over the top, as if it is the heron's arm and wing at once.

Ancient little guys of the day! These prehistoric baby bottles in the shape of little creatures were found were found in Bronze and Iron Age graves in Vösendorf (Austria). Actually, a study was conducted on these bottles around 2019 and they found traces of ruminant milk!

Ceramic baby bottles in the shape of animals or mythological creatures. Bronze and Iron Age (1200–800 BCE). Found in Vösendorf (Austria).
Wien Museum. Vienna.

I did not do as much Art Fight this year as I hoped to, but I'm not dissatisfied. We just got hella busy with important things all of a sudden. Life happens, and there's always next year. Hope everyone had a fun time!

Prepping wild clay, cleaning the pantry, sweeping, dishes, reorganizing collage material for more room in the studio, journaling, boiling eggs... I get a lot done when I let myself do whatever! It seems like the more I try to channel a "you should do This" I just want to do This less and less.

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

My family visited last week & it was a lot. My relationship with them is extremely complicated, but I think that was the first time that nothing had gone painful. I'm not really seen as who I am by them & having something that WAS me and something I valued looked at was...weird. #art #comic #artist

Page one of a multi panel comic. Panel one: anthro tiger character thinking to themselves, "One of my parents did something weird recently. I'm 39. I've been an artist a long...long time. Done it as a job for ten years. My parents do not ask me about my art. One of them a few years ago asked if I still made art. You know. My job. That one hurt."

Panel two: The anthro tiger character continues to think while staring at the sky, "For some strange reason I cannot fathom one of them actually asked me about my art. They said my other parent had told them my art was making money. They were impressed. It made money the whole time."Page two of a multipanel comic. Panel one: the tiger anthro has a confused expression surrounded by question marks. They narrate, "I didn't get mad. I think I was too confused to register what was happening. So I showed them. The pewter. The mask patterns. The work files. The pyrography and carvings. They started asking questions. Showing them one thing prompted more questions. Often asking how I do it. So I answered those questions too. At one point they exclaimed in awe that the patterns had to be hundreds of hours of work. They are. None of it was new."

Panel two: a closeup of the tiger anthro's hand working on a cool skull drawing. They narrate, "It was really weird. I can remember being "warned" of calling demons with my art in middle school because I drew tiger skulls with blood tears. Cringe maybe, hardly demonic. I learned not to share and had no real interest in their approval anyway." A speech bubble from the tiger says, "Hee hee this is going to be so cool <3"

Panel three: The anthro tiger shrugs leaning upwards and thinks, "I have no idea what they thought I'd been doing these last 27 years. Decided it ultimately didn't matter."Third and final page of a multipanel comic. Panel one: The tiger anthro sits upright and thinks, "It was nice. I didn't need it. I was put on this earth to make art whether it was seen or not."

Panel two: The anthro tiger character is running across grass and calling their two dogs, "You boys wanna go inside?". A final thought narration from the tiger is, "I didn't make all that stuff sitting around. If I wanna make more then I better get inside and get started."

Between being on the phone for two hours, first thing in the morning, with food stamps, and freeing a stuck chicken from stabbing brambles, and Mothra's needle claws in my lap... I'm feeling very poked and prodded today.