An Import of my Tumblr Blog
Statuette of Thoth as an ibis
Thoth, as the embodiment of wisdom, and the art of writing, was the patron of scribes.
The ibis is next to the baboon the sacred animal of the god Thoth.
The body of this statuette is made of wood, which was covered with fine stucco. The head with the atef crown, the neck, the tail feathers and the legs are made of silver. The eyes are in stucco with black glass.
Late Period, 26th Dynasty, 664-525 BC. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Anastasios Gionis was an artist that I recently discovered through a friend’s post. He is already an accomplished CG artist and sculptor and has worked on a wide range of movies and cartoons. I originally saw the post here but I decided to repost only a select few of my favorites. My friend said that his works are reminiscent of Silent Hill’s and Guillermo del Toro’s monsters, and he is absolutely right. I wouldn’t be surprised if he worked on the movies too.
But what makes these creatures so terrifying? Well, one thing these monsters all have in common is their tall, pale visages and disfigured bodies. A good number of the creatures have long sharp teeth too.
Our fear of sharp teeth is a normal evolutionary fear. It’s the fear of being eaten alive, of becoming the prey despite being the world’s top predator. It’s a primal fear, and sharp teeth and claws coupled with a menacing snarl is enough to have us running away screaming. For example, we have the same response when faced with a feral dog.
While the teeth are obvious, why are pale, gaunt humanoid creatures so terrifying to us? I mentioned before that our fear of clowns is probably associated with the Uncanny Valley response, but these creatures here are hardly human to begin with. This kind of extreme distortion is too inhuman for us to associate with mere strangeness. No, the reaction is much more visceral and our collective terror of skinny pale things is linked to another old evolutionary killer: disease.
Pale, pasty skin and a skeletal body have always been associated with disease. Diseased individuals, especially those that carry contagious illnesses are pariahs of society. We don’t want them near us, and we fear being in their general vicinity. Gionis’ creatures look diseased: not only are they pale and skinny, but many of them seem to be missing limbs and other body parts. It’s so easy to lose a limb from certain diseases such as gangrene, and their jaunty, awkward gait reminds us of what would happen to us should we ever succumb to illness. In fact, one of the sketches here show an obvious hospital setting, complete with a monstrous nurse.
Gionis’ monsters aren’t only sick in body, but seem to be sick in mind too. Stretched skin and bound arms and legs are reminiscent of straight jackets found in mental asylums. We associate this with violent lunatics and psychotic serial killers, again reminding us of our own human fragility. These monsters are inside us, ready to spring the moment our bodies and mental foundations crumble.
Finally, many of these creatures lack complete faces, especially the eyes. We have always been distrustful of people in masks or those that have hooded faces. They are associated with mystery and dishonesty, because the face, especially the eyes, are the windows to the soul. Without the face, it is difficult to gain insight into a person’s intentions. It’s a classic case of Stranger Danger.
These creatures are faceless altogether and take our paranoia to surrealist extremes. Gionis perfectly plays on our fears with his monsters, making him a true master of horror art. True nightmare fuel for our fragile souls.
@staff this is art, why is it explicit?
painting of Martin Luther nailing his 96 theses to the door of the Tumblr offices, 2018, colorized
ScrollofTumblr – An Import of my Tumblr Blog
Reminder, you can find a back-up of my blog here.
In response to the NSFW ban being enacted by Tumblr Staff, on December 17th 2018 I propose that we all log off of our Tumblr accounts for 24 hours.
The lack of respect and communication between staff and users is stark. Users have been begging staff to delete the porn bot outbreak, which has plagued the website for well over a year. The porn bots oftentimes send people asks and messages, trying to get them to go to a website full of viruses. They also spam advertisements on others posts.
Users have also begged that Tumblr ban neo-nazis, child porn, and pedophiles, all which run rampant on the site. The site/app got so bad that it was taken off the app store.
However, instead of answering the users, Tumblr has instead taken the liberty to ban all NSFW content, regardless of age. But users have already run into issues of their SFW content being marked as sensitive and being flagged as NSFW, not allowing them to share their work.
Not only does this discriminate again content creators, but it also discriminates against sex workers. Disgustingly, the ban will be enacted on December 17 which is also International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.
This ban is disgusting, and while I (and plenty of others) welcome porn bots and child porn being banned, the Tumblr filtration system is broken. It tags artistic work’s nipples as NSFW (when it is art), it tags SFW art as NSFW (when it is not), and does not stop the porn bots, neo-nazis and dozens of other issues.
This ban is discriminatory. This ban is ineffective. This ban is unacceptable.
To protest, log off of your Tumblr account for the entirety of December 17th. Log off at 12 am EST or 9PM PST and stay off for 24 hours. Don’t post. Don’t log on. Don’t even visit the website. Don’t give them that sweet ad revenue.
Tumblr’s stock has already taken a hard hit. Let’s make it tank. Maybe then they will listen to the users.
Reblog to signal boost! We must force change.
First one learns methods of magic.
Then comes doing by prescription.
Then comes adaption to means and circumstances.
Then drafting your own poetry, ritual, expression.
Then thinking upon one’s feet and altering the course/action of magic, and flipping the script when it becomes clear, mid-process, that things aren’t going to turn out the way you’d intended.
We continue to grow, explore, expand, and refine.
The journey is a blessing.
Everyone reblog this as much as possible over the next two weeks for good luck
Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs (Gabrielle d’Estrées and one of her sisters) is a painting by an unknown artist circa 1594. It now hangs at the Louvre in Paris and is usually thought to be the work of a painter from the Fontainebleau School.
Reblog this famous 16th century painting for good luck.