lepidopterium

[lepidopterium]

Taken during the second Intifada, this black-and-white photograph of a man with his son walking in the streets of Jenin Palestinian Refugee Camp.

Jenin Palestinian Refugee Camp, Second Intifada. April 2003.

#palestine

[lepidopterium]

Diana and Endymion, 1891 by etcher Frank Short (English, 1857–1945) after George Frederic Watts (English, 1817–1904)

#this goes hard #mythos #art

[lepidopterium]

Palestinian artist Asmaa Aljueithni shares a photo of the only thing that survived the airstrike that left her Gaza home in ruins: one of her paintings.

#palestine #art #palestine genocide

[lepidopterium]

Is anybody out there?

#lighthouse

[lepidopterium]

"Pictures drawn in blood link decades of legacies of people who have been imprisoned and tortured by Israeli guards. A hidden archive of poems, letters, drawings, and handmade objects—containing stories of resistance, messages of despair, and hope—amass behind prison walls. Throughout each resounds a pulsing call for freedom.

I asked my uncle about the first piece of art he produced. "It's not easy to handle where to start, but what I can tell is that Palestinian detainees inscribe their emotions and resist through crafts," he said.

Sometimes prisoners draw on handkerchiefs, or embroider different symbols of life and hope: broken chains, olive branches, white pigeons, Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Dome of the Rock.

Khader showed me what he painted in 1995 in the Asqalan prison as a gift to my mother because he couldn't celebrate her graduation with her. In the piece, a white pigeon holds a letter as it flies to Rafah—my uncle's city. The letter frame is colored blue and red.

"I always used blue in my art," Khader explained. "It reminds me of the blue, wide sky—the sky I couldn't feel for years in prison..."

With all this potential to create, if those detained were free, what creative inventions would they contribute to humanity? How many stories would be released?

"I think I produced more than 100 pieces [while detained]" Uncle Khader said with pride. 

Amazed and excited, I asked Khader to show me more handmade art. Suddenly, the conversation changed. His voice faded, his smile disappeared, and his eyes shrunk a little. The wrinkles of age and sorrow were clearly painted on his face.

"Israeli bulldozers entirely demolished our old home in 2004. You were only three years and don't remember. There, under the rubble, I lost all my photos, memories, and handicrafts —the ones I made and the ones my detained friends gifted me after release."

Israel chases Palestinian crafts inside and outside prison. They fear our art. They fear our memories."

-DIARIES OF BLOOD: The secret artists within Israeli detention facilities

by Eman Al-Astal

#palestinian resistance

[lepidopterium]

this is how Palestinian prisoners have passed messages to their families and loved ones for decades. most often, the piece of paper is tightly folded, wrapped in plastic and swallowed by a prisoner due to be released.

photo by me from a meeting with Khalid Ashour, Palestinian ex-prisoner who spent 12 years of his life in Israeli prisons.

#palestinian resistance

[lepidopterium]

#sudan civil war #darfur genocide

[lepidopterium]

#sudan civil war #darfur genocide

[lepidopterium]

Source

#this + cop cities everywhere. #police brutality #prison industrial complex #us pol

[lepidopterium]

"It sickens me that it is the spectacle that has finally moved the people of the world to listen to Palestinians about our struggle. Somehow, we needed to have our guts on display, disemboweled on the ground, before our humanity can be proven by vivisection." -Sonia Sulaiman

[lepidopterium]

Resistance is the deepest form of love

- Areej Kaoud

#palestine

[lepidopterium]

by Kiel Murray (2019)

#serotinous cones....like my good friend pinus serotina #ecology

[lepidopterium]

[lepidopterium]

loneliness

[lepidopterium]

Nikolai Dubovskoi (1859-1918)

The Mediterranean

[lepidopterium]

Ummmm sometimes you dread the weight of your life and other times it is an early morning in april and there are 5 species of birds singing and also the sun is shining through the baby leaves. Btw

#sometimes both

[lepidopterium]

Resources for Mending Clothes

We toss out over 80 pounds of textiles each year. These textiles are often made of plastic materials (polyester, nylon), made in unethical conditions, dyed with harsh dyes that often get put into the rivers, etc. Even a single cotton shirt releases carbon emissions and uses tons of water. 

So the best thing to prevent the unsustainable growth of the fashion industry is to make sure that your clothing lasts as long as possible. To do so, mending clothing is a must. So here are some resources to help you learn how to do various things, such as sewing a button, to tailoring clothes, or even upcycling old clothing into new styles. 

* How to sew on three different types of button

* How to hand sew on a patch on a torn pair of jeans

* How to sew up a hole in an old shirt

* How to sew a simple T-shirt

* How to upcycle old clothing into new clothing

* More upcycle and sewing techniques

* How to repair a damaged sock

* How to do an invisible stitch

* 3 different stitches to work with for different results

* How to make a T-shirt smaller so it fits you better

* How to make repairs to your shoes

These are just a few of the things that you can do in order to make sure that your clothing lasts for a long time. Nobody wants to keep buying new clothing, as it is expensive and wasteful. 

So making alterations to your clothing, or fixing small holes hen you see them can be hugely beneficial to your wallet, to garment workers, and to the environment in the long term. 

#craftwork #sewing