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multimetaverse · 3 years

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Riverdale 5x09 Recap

I like that Alice is being realistic about whose blood it is (also why do women on tv who are falling apart only ever drink wine to drown their sorrows?)

Ngl I like the Friday Night Lights knockoff they’re doing this week

Not Veronica storming into a changing room of underage kids without even knocking

Studies have shown that the fastest way to destroy motivation in kids is to pay them to do something, like play sports, that they had already been doing and then after a while you stop paying them and they’ll lose any passion they had in the activity. So hope Veronica can keep paying for points

God Jughead looks rough, even FP at his worst never looked this bad

Lmao is Cheryl really gonna try and fix Kevin and Fangs?

Damn Betty was ice cold to Glenn

Well mole people would connect with the old mines much better than aliens would. Waldo should know better by now, stories are never just stories on Riverdale

Many recaps ago I joked that Hiram would eventually be reduced to showing up to PTA meetings to try and thwart Archie and honestly sending Reggie to tell Archie to withdraw his football team from the local league is barely a step above that

Lmao Reggie walking out of pop’s and calling each bulldog loser was so petty

Oh wow Sheriff Keller gets to have a scene with his son

Well it’s a good thing that your father has never reneged on a deal before Veronica!

Lerman looks like he’s freaking out (these close ups of Jughead are not flattering). I wonder if the aliens were at all connected to the Farm? We know they were stealing organs from cult members there which could tie in with these alleged alien surgeries

Cheryl actually giving good advice

CW is letting Veronica take her bra off for sex scenes now

Ooof Betty. Although knowing Riverdale they might actually have Polly make it out alive even though it’s completely unrealistic at this point. Especially since they’ve left themselves the loophole of only testing for blood type rather than Polly’s DNA specifically

Lerman Logan? is RAS a fan of Logan Lerman?

Only Cheryl can get away with earnestly saying ‘’#kangs”

Also Fangs is right, Cheryl’s party might have been the ultimate trigger but there were clearly deep issues in the Kangs relationship

Fangs sinking his, uh, fangs, into Kevin’s long history of hooking up in the woods with random dudes

It’s nice that Jughead can just ditch his shift at pop’s whenever he needs to

I have no clue if this dude is a real life football player or not

Hiram really needs to learn how to delegate, this is not the kind of shit a mafia don should be dealing with

Nice to know that Reggie draws the line at injuring children

Sure old man Dreyfus looks crazy but he sounds crazier

Love that clearly photoshopped picture of Betty and Polly

Uh oh looks like Dark! Betty is back (how very American of her to have her ammunition stored with no protections)

Yikes we haven’t seen a gay bashing in Riverdale in quite some time

Betty would honestly be more effective at scaring off these truckers if she just flashed her FBI badge rather than going vigilante

Oh man are they really trying to pull a Kevin is ashamed of being gay plot now? After all this time?

Great acting from Casey but this scene really falls flat. For one, Kevin’s character right from the pilot has pretty much just him being gay and there really never seemed to be any issues he himself had with it, even when we saw characters like Moose or Moose’s father struggling with their sexualities. Secondly, when was the last time we even heard of Kevin’s mom? Back in S2 when it’s revealed that she and Tom were getting divorced? We’ve never met this lady who’s now revealed as homophobic and yet it turns out she’s the root of Kevin’s trauma, which is also just being revealed 85 eps into the series

Again Betty all you need to do is flash your FBI badge, you don’t have to go full Serpico on these truck drivers

Credit where due, this sleepwalking excuse is actually plausible as are his parents being the mole people since they lock him in the basement at night to keep him from hurting himself. A week is a long time to vanish with no memory

So looks like someone or some group is abducting adults and kids over the decades but letting them go while someone else is abducting and murdering women specifically

This Cheryl performance lacks the usual razzle dazzle

Yasaas Britta get that point

Poor timing Glenn

At least Hiram is getting back into the destroying Riverdale business next week rather than his pissing contests with Archie

Until next week Riverdalers

#Riverdale #Varchie #Bughead #Archie Andrews #Veronica Lodge #Hiram Lodge #Betty Cooper. Jughead Jones #Alice Smith #Kevin Keller #Riverdale Recaps

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skeletorific · 5 years

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Do you think alien is now popular in the marvus fan base cause of all the quick sec appearances they make in the background of marvus tv interviews? Like now the camera guy asks him how the alien is doing or if the alien and marvus hangs out together? Imagine if it becomes a “where’s Waldo” situation where viewers are trying to find the alien appear in the background then like run off.

Ok so here’s the thing.

the reader already has an online internet following. Partly due to crossover interest with Cirava. But a good chunk also have to be people lke Mallek, people who are just trying to figure out what the fuck is happening. Like, there’s an alien??? Here????? Are you sure???

Like, are they even real? How the hell have they survived this long? And based on their photos how do they keep getting into these unlikely places? How has nobody culled them yet???? A good chunk of people are convinced the alien isn’t even real, just an elaborate modern art project involving some pretty impressive photoshop. For the others, they become obsessed with retracing the reader’s steps, trying to figure out their intentions.

Then they start popping up in the background of some of Marvus’ photos. Like, a lot. Marvus’ fans are ever vigilant for potential quadrant movement, but none of them know what to make of it. It becomes practically a ritual every time he has some kind of press event to log on Chittr and see roughly fifty different photos with the reader circled in the background with a caption like “????HELLO????” This leads to a fanbase collision and a massive conspiracy fervor that hasn’t been seen since Trizza started posting out of context photos of severed limbs.

Now, generally its just considered good sense to not ask a clown anything. Never know what could end up throwing you in the heresy category, even for a relatively demure clown like Marvus. Eventually, though, someone does work up the nerve to ask him. In that kind of hushed and reverent tone one uses when you ask if the stories, you know, the STORIES, are true.

And because he’s Marvus, man of the people....he plays along.

“what alien lol”

this becomes his m.o the more questions are asked. Asked who they are? No idea what you’re talking about. Show him a picture of himself with the alien in the background? His eyes will briefly glaze over, confused and maybe a little bit afraid. Then he’ll give a nervous laugh.

“sorry bruh take a lotta sweet pics u know how it is. don’t remember that 1 lmao”

It throws the conspiracy into a fever pitch with how shamelessly he feeds them. Reader gets wind of it when they get a sudden Chittr dm from Zebede

“omg are you actually brainwashing marvuz and harvesting his thinkpan in order to take over? itz totally cool if you are but Z:O!!!!”

He tries to keep it at least a hint under the radar (can’t have someone actually coming to get them) but he can’t resist starting shit sometimes. Probably the worst incident? When he decided to take a social media break for a week and instead of just posting about it like a normal person, he chose....a different approach.

“hey b look up real quick :o)”

“what-”

click

And then immediately logged the fuck off.

In the aftermath of the riots, you had to admit, it was a pretty good goof.

#I SPENT WAY TOO LONG MAKING THE FAKE TWEET SAFHSDFKJA #marvus xoloto #hiveswap friendsim #hiveswap #headcanon #Anonymous

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imaginefanganronpas · 4 years

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Hey guys! I’m really sorry about the inactivity lately, I have not been doing well as of late and I would completely burn out if I kept going like I do, so I decided to take a little break. But I am still excited to show you a new character from my own cast, so I hope you like her! ^^

Name: Lucia Tempest

Age: 16

Talent: Ultimate Bomb Diffuser

Height: 5′8

Lucia is tired, as you can probably already see, and paranoid, so please don’t yell at her, she is not great with this stuff. Social interaction is a bit difficult for her, but isn’t it for everyone? But she is also kind of a dork and a chaotic neutral at your service, ready to spread mischief whenever she so desires. She has her own head and only follows orders if she wants to follow them, so good luck trying to command her around. Sometimes she wants to do something but didn’t hear you properly because of all the other noises in the room, you need to be patient with her, she is easily distracted.

She is patient with people but she has to tolerance for any kind of bullshit, so if she decides she doesn’t like you, then you have pretty much lost because she usually doesn’t change her mind about this stuff. She might hide a bomb in your room if you really puss her off, if she likes you she will only occasionally play harmless little pranks on you that don’t inconvenient you, like smearing something on the doorhandle or giving you a picture of Where’s Waldo with Waldo photoshopped out of it.

Alright, now a bit of backstory for her: Lucia is very very very poor and works hard to keep her apartment. Her parents used to provide for her, but when they died she had to find out that she couldn’t heir their fortune because there were millions of debt in their name, so she would have screwed herself over even more if she had taken the money. So now she struggles to provide for herself and her pet rat Roy. People are often condescending to her because of her gender and her job and she had a bad accident which gave her nerve damage and doesn’t stop her hand from shaking uncontrollably.

But she tries her best to somehow keep her job and do a good job, which she does. She is just...terrified of losing her job and therefore her only source of income, which would result in her getting evicted. She wears the headphones to drown out the noises around her, as they would overwhelm her. And with her job, the has the mentality that she is either right or it is not her problem anymore.

#danganronpa kd #lucia tempest #introduction post #my sprite

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shmreduplication · 5 years

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meme update:

“this post was marked as explicit” is already dead

“you know I had to do it to em”’s revival w/weird “where’s waldo?” photoshopping has been revived after not being seen for a while, and seems to be going strong

the Current Big Meme is “constructing intricate rituals to make physical contact”

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meme-aesthetics · 4 years

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what memes had to do to us: breakdown for the meme-illiterate

What is a meme?

We talk about them all the time, but does anyone actually know how to define a meme? The most common form of meme is the image macro (pictures that get passed around with edited text/captions on them). But what about reaction gifs, planking/dabbing, Photoshop memes, Twitter hashtags, etc.? The image macro is only one kind of meme, though it’s the most archetypal kind of meme there is. How would one define “meme” in a way that encompasses all of these?

Time to dive into meme theory.

I’ll be basing this first part on a paper called “The Anonymity of a Murmur: Internet (and Other) Memes” by Simon J. Evnine. According to Evnine, a meme is a set of norms (Evnine 308). Or, more specifically:

Memeₒₙₜ: A meme is an abstract artefact made out of norms.

Meme𝒸ₒₙ: M is a meme if and only if M is made, as part of memographic practice, out of norms for producing things as parts of that memographic practice. (Evnine 315)

Where memeₒₙₜ = meme (ontological) and meme𝒸ₒₙ = meme (conceptual).

The ontological is just a more general definition answering what kind of category a meme falls under, while the conceptual specifies the exact thing within that category. For example: What is a teenager? Teenagerₒₙₜ = A person. Teenager𝒸ₒₙ = A person from the ages of 13-19 (Evnine 304).

Now...Unless you’ve read the paper, chances are that means next to nothing to you. Let’s break it down, starting with the ontological definition.

By "artefact", Evnine is referring to the result of someone imposing a concept onto some sort of matter in an intentional act of creation (Evnine 314). Basically, if you take matter and have a specific concept of what you want to make out of it, then go and intentionally create that thing out of that matter, you have an artefact. The meme is an “abstract” artefect because the "matter" it is made of is a set of norms—aka, it is made out of something that is not real.

How is a meme made out of “norms”? Well, take for example the distracted boyfriend meme, one example of the image macro. For the meme-illiterate, an example meme:

(Source x)

The “norms” of the distracted boyfriend meme is to use this picture, place text over the three figures, and have the relationship between the 3 labelled figures be that the boyfriend is distracted by/appears to prefer the girl in red over the girl in blue, who is presumably the girlfriend.

Now for the conceptual definition.

Meme𝒸ₒₙ: M is a meme if and only if M is made, as part of memographic practice, out of norms for producing things as parts of that memographic practice.

“Memographic practice” is kind of like the "meta-level" activity around a meme (Evnine 305). It is the process of sharing it, recreating it, riffing upon it, transforming it, etc.

Here are some examples of the distracted boyfriend meme that participate in memographic practice, which I found just by searching “distracted boyfriend meme” on Tumblr:

(Source x)

So basically, a meme is something that someone intentionally makes by imposing the concept of a "meme" onto a set of norms that were already pre-defined by memographic practice for the purpose of continuing memographic practice. Continuing the tradition, so to speak.

What about the first instance of a meme? When/how does a meme actually become a meme? Evnine has an answer for that, too. The first instance of a meme, i.e. the first time someone used the distracted boyfriend picture before there was memographic practice surrounding it to establish it as a meme, is part of a more general instance of meme that the Evnine calls MEME (Evnine 313).

MEME is just a meme𝒸𝒸 that results from the overall general existence of memographic practice, where meme𝒸𝒸 = meme common contents (a specific kind of meme, like the distracted boyfriend meme), and memeᵢ = one instance of a meme𝒸𝒸 (the example meme that I showed above).

So MEME covers initial instances of different kinds of meme𝒸𝒸 by being an overall meme𝒸𝒸 where its norms is the existence of memographic practice in general.

A diagram I made to illustrate this concept:

Additionally, a memeᵢ need not comply with all the norms in meme𝒸𝒸 (Evnine 317). For example, other photos of the same people in the original distracted boyfriend picture can be used, or a completely different picture could be substituted in if the relationship and positioning of the figures in that picture are recognizably similar to that of the original picture. Sometimes it isn’t text that is put on the figures, but the heads of characters from someone’s favorite show.

Some more examples:

(Source x)

The point is, not all of the norms must be followed—just enough for it to be recognizably part of that meme𝒸𝒸 tradition. Thus, the norms within meme𝒸𝒸 may change/transform over time (Evnine 318).

So that’s what a meme is. Or at least, one conception of what a meme could be. What about memes in the wild? How do they function, what is their appeal?

How memes work

What’s unique about memes, then, isn’t that they’re participatory, or that they remix visuals and stock figures. What makes a meme a meme instead of a cartoon, a joke, or a fad is...a meme is an atom of internet culture...Creating, sharing, or laughing at a meme is staking a claim to being an insider: I am a member of internet culture it says, and if you don’t get this, then you aren’t (McCulloch, location 3668)

The above quote is from Gretchen McCulloch’s Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language (which, by the way, I highly recommend.)

The in-jokes, the drawing of boundaries between those who “get it” and those who don’t, the group-bonding—that, is essentially, the heart of memes.

According to McCulloch, the internet is a “third place”:

The first place is home, the second place is work, but people also need a third place to socialize that’s neither home nor work, like a coffeeshop (McCulloch, location 3161)

This makes the internet a major site for linguistic change and innovation. It’s a place where people who may not have had pre-existing strong ties come together and socialize or exchange ideas. This aspect of the internet is also what allows the meme to thrive: ideas that catch move fast, and they spread further than they would have if they were otherwise confined in tightly-knit groups.

However, despite the fact that the internet functions on a network of (mainly) loose connections (I’m not saying that internet friends aren’t real friends—I’m simply referring to the fact that you probably follow more people and have more mutuals than you have internet friends), memes gain popularity because they create a sense of community.

Popular posts tended to strike a balance between somewhat obscure but not too cryptic—in-jokes and references that appealed strongly to a distinct subset of people (McCulloch, location 3292)

But what makes a popular post a meme? After all, it’s not as though any post that reaches a certain number of likes, reblogs, replies, retweets, upvotes, etc. automatically becomes a meme. Well, according to McCulloch:

A meme in the internet sense isn’t just something popular, a video or image or phrase that goes viral. It’s something that’s remade and recombined, spreading as an atom of internet culture” (McCulloch, location 3431)

In this sense, McCulloch’s idea of a meme aligns with Evnine’s. What makes a meme a meme is the existence of memographic practice surrounding the meme.

What was unique about the memes that took off was not the in-jokes, but the scale: in a world where in-jokes happen all the time and distribution costs are zero, a few of them can get really big because their in-groups are actually very large, like “people who agree that this particular cat looks very grumpy,” or “people who saw the previous very popular in-joke.” (McCulloch, location 3537)

“People who saw the previous very popular in-joke” is key. A lot of memes have a kind of absurd, incomprehensible humor to them. Why are they funny? No one knows. You can talk about dada-ism (or e-dada, like this Tumblr post suggests) and the state of the world but really, the humor behind the most popular memes are self-referential. They’re funny only because you get the reference, even if the reference itself doesn’t make sense.

Aesthetique™

Now that we have a working definition for what memes are and how they work, I would like to talk about what memes do. The affective qualities of the meme. Or, the aesthetic.

To explicate this, I will be using, of course, loss.jpg and Lucky Luciano (aka “you know I had to do it to em” guy).

Since this is written for the meme-illiterate, I'll be using copious examples of memographic practice in an attempt to illustrate the way memes overall affect us.

Let’s start with loss.jpg.

Loss.jpg starts with this comic, drawn by Ctrl+Alt+Del:

(Source x)

According to the KnowYourMeme page, the meme started out as “mockery” of the strip, generating countless parodies across the web. Though, at this point, I’d argue that loss has become so ubiquitous that even if it started out as mockery, it’s looped right back around to a kind of awe.

(Source x)

Most notable, however, is the fact that “norms” that make up loss have expanded and transformed to include minimalist portrayals of the comic.

(Source: the KnowYourMeme page)

Some examples:

(Source x)

Lucky Luciano started out on Twitter, in a post that is no longer available to the public. Of course, the internet being what it is, it has been preserved for our viewing pleasure:

(Source: the KnowYourMeme page)

KnowYourMeme classifies this meme as type “Character, Photoshop”. The common norms of using this meme is to take a picture that someone else posted, and then repost it while hiding Lucky Luciano somewhere in the photo, “Where’s Waldo?” style. The meme became so popular that several blogs dedicated to documenting and furthering its memographic practice were created (wherethefuckishe, where-the-fuck-is-he and locate-lucky-luciano are the ones I’m aware of).

(Source x)

And my personal favorite:

(Source x)

And just for fun, here’s a combo meme:

(Source x)

For those who don’t get that last one, the icon was edited to have both Lucky Luciano and loss.jpg:

The replies also included a Rickroll, which KnowYourMeme classifies as a “bait-and-switch” meme.

You might have noticed a lot of mixed reactions in the screenshots I included. “I am tired and I will never be free”, “fuck you op” (op stands for original poster in this context), or this fantastic reaction image provided in the last one:

What feeling do these reactions represent? What emotion is being evoked?

I would argue that the answer to these questions is “stuplimity”, a term coined by Sianne Ngai in her article “Stuplimity: Shock and Boredom in Twentieth-Century Aesthetics”. As the title suggests, stuplimity is described as a mixture of shock and boredom.

The sudden excitation of “shock,” and the desensitization we associate with “boredom,” though diametrically opposed and seemingly mutually exclusive, are both responses that confront us with the limitations of our capacity for responding in general. Both affects are thus frequently invoked in responses to radical art usually dismissed as unsophisticated... (Ngai)

Not all memes are created equal. Or perhaps, though they may start out somewhat equal, through memographic practice, some rise above others. I’d argue this is the case with loss.jpg and Lucky Luciano, which have become so well-known and common on the internet as to be veritable cultural phenomenona. Memes, being abstract artefacts created out of norms, are necessarily a group effort. Norms can’t be established by an individual. Memographic practice is a communal project. The first few times we see a meme, the first few times we “get” a meme, we may be delighted. But eventually, over time, many people become tired of the meme. Bored. And yet, they cannot revoke their own knowledge of the “joke”, and each time they come across a new iteration they are both astonished that there are versions they have not yet seen and bored by the same joke being used over and over. “I am tired and I will never be free” is the common sentiment, and I would label this sentiment as “stuplime”.

...a rethinking of what it means to be aesthetically overpowered: a new way of theorizing the negatively affective relationship to stupefying objects previously designated by the older aesthetic notion of the sublime. One way of calling attention to the affinity between exhaustion and the astonishment particular to the sublime, invoking the latter while detaching it from its previous romantic affiliations, is to refer to the aesthetic experience I am talking about—one in which astonishment is paradoxically united with boredom as the stuplime... (Ngai)

But this isn’t the result of a single instance of a meme. It’s the collective effect of all memographic practice surrounding a meme𝒸𝒸 that constitutes stuplimity.

Stuplimity is thus the final destination, the final form if you will, of the meme.

In conclusion,

(Source x)

Get it?

References

I’ve collected all the Tumblr memes in a tag here (though not in any particular order) and all non-Tumblr references are collected in a works cited page here (link will only work in browser).

#distracted boyfriend #lucky luciano #loss.jpg #meta #memes

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famofbandb · 5 years

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Heads up this week’s series of post! We are going to go into what makes our selfie sessions so special to us and how it was the baseline for our very own clients! 😄 This post we will be talking about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! 🌇 Location is everything as you might expect, because when you are wanting to capture your fiance’s loving gaze, your friends having a goofy moment, or just a family memory you already have an idea ready to bloom. This is where having a professional media team comes in handy. 😅 We personally go adventuring before your session and on our own time, to check out the surrounding areas. Practicing on ourselves, ideas that we can not wait to show you. So that when we are working with you, with our clients it’s perfection. Even though we have had moments where we had ended up in the wrong spot or someone unexpectedly popping up in the background like waldo. We take our experiences and apply them to you. 🤩 Many trendy places have fines and fees, or we simply can’t be there. Take sunflower fields for example. Many photographers, do not bother checking to see if they can use the field, then do damage to the sunflowers for “the gram experience.” Here, we make sure to ask the right people, to make sure we can capture you without the fear of getting caught and worse yet fined. Because we aren’t here for just posting up on the gram, but here for hakuna matata. It means no worries, a problem free philosophy. 🤗 We have been in situations where everything in close proximity is just bad: whether it was the next door neighbor or an unexpected wild animal and in those situations we use lenses that blur the background or post processing to remove the unwanted thing photobombing in the background. Or get creative and just switch you to a whole different background. 🤔 What can we say, we are extra like that with you, because we do the same thing for ourselves. 🤫 Too bad we can’t photoshop life. 😯🤯 #naturephotography #montroseco #floral #photobomb #philosophy #waldo #travelingphot (at Montrose, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/B19rIqejtCj/?igshid=14hf9e04sptc2

#naturephotography #montroseco #floral #photobomb #philosophy #waldo #travelingphot

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claradrafts · 5 years

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Online vs Offline Self: WHO IS THE REAL YOU?

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The vast majority of us care about what others perceive us. Most of us are inclined to have others see us in a positive light. We seek validation from others. In accordance to Abraham Moslow's Hierarchy of Needs, he refers to the essential needs for recognition and approval. This also is confirmed by my observations that we want others to see us in the most positive way. In regards to the digital self, we now have an opportunity to amplify our positive traits, especially if we regard ourselves as 'average' and are concerned with rejection. Digital technology and the internet seem to provide us with a way to cover up our flaws and imperfections that we never could before. This includes anything from using photoshop to edit our pictures, to lying about our real identity to acting with an inflated sense of self-importance while in a cyberspace. More and more, the gap between our “real self” and “digital self” seems to be growing greater and greater.

Platforms such as Facebook allow us to stay connected to important others and actually many others. We also keep tally of “likes” and “dislikes” and anticipate much more of positive responses. Personally, I use a lot of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and a lot more. But I rarely post on the said platforms. I don't like sharing much, even a bit, of my personal details or happenings in my life. Aside from I use them for accessing quality information and get the news and happenings in just a click, they also bridges the gap and keep me in touch with my family, friends, and relatives.

In conclusion, the digital world has provided us with greater opportunities. We use it for communication, for amusement, to seek opportunities, to keep us updated, and even expressing our Identity in any form we want to. The rise of social media has not only given rise to good things but has also created quite a few damaging ones to our physical self. Many young people today find themselves creating two completely different personas: one for online, one for off. We should all be authentic and embrace our inherent awesomeness. It is authenticity that most attracts us to others; when we see someone’s true self, we connect to them in a way that is deeper than superficial admiration we get online.

Social Self: Why We Shouldn't Let Society Label Us

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Due to drastic influence of society has on us, sometimes we lack of individuality in our lives. We don't really know who we are because of how much society has impacted us. I have my own experience on how society does this and why do I feel the need to fit into it.

"You shouldn't wear high heels because you're already really tall, you're going to make everyone else look so short." I am constantly reminded whenever I attempt to wear heels during special occasions because of my height. Now, I began to feel uncomfortable being tall and I started to do and wear things that prevented me from looking any taller than I already am including wearing heels. I let other people impact how I felt about myself and make me feel awkward about something that I can´t help. I was unknowingly lowering my own confidence so that everyone else around me could be comfortable.

I realize that we cannot completely be ourselves in this world without upsetting some people. That brought me from the idea that society's influence hinders us from being our true selves. Whether we realize it or not we are always trying to get the approval of others. We long for acceptance from others before we understand it within ourselves. We are constantly and unconsciously trying to please others. We all try to fit into the norms of society in order to seek approval from others. We prioritize fitting in and conformity over self-love, acceptance and individuality.

We let society pick our identities apart and tell us that we aren't normal, beautiful, or amazing when we shouldn´t. Go against the ordinary and do as you please. You are the only one who lives your life so it's not fair for you to not be the person you want to be and are supposed to be. Be yourself and love yourself.

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sentrava · 6 years

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Artist Spotlight: Norwegian Illustrator Anette Moi

In the era of social media where there is a constant flow of visual information, it becomes harder and harder to appreciate what we see. But looking at Norwegian artist Anette Moi’s bold, colorful illustrations, it’s easy to discern the high quality. It is not always easy for an artist to brings a smile to a viewer’s face.

Not only are her illustrations beautiful, so is idea behind them. Moi sees Frida Kahlo as an icon of womanhood, freedom, female empowerment and strength. She says “More people should start doing their thing” and I coudn’t agree more. The time to pursue your dreams is now.

I spoke with Anette Moi about her illustrations, the celebrities and icons she represents, and political statement through art:

When did you begin working as an artist?

I started working full time as an artist in February 2013. Before that, I had already started doing some commission work and even had my first solo show in October 2012. The show was beyond my expectations, and I am forever grateful to Martyn Reed from NuArt Gallery who gave me the chance to showcase my work after having seen just few illustrations of mine.

I have two Bachelor’s degrees. One is in social work, even though I never became a social worker, and another one is in graphic design. After having learned graphic design, I became more interested in drawing and started to realize that I wanted to become an illustrator. During the final year of my studies, I was getting small commissions and simultaneously continued illustrating. When I first started pursuing a career as an illustrator, I was constantly looking for a part-time job that I could not really find. I guess this was the point when I decided to work harder and focus 100% on developing myself as a full-time illustrator. And it has been like this ever since.

What does your working process look like?

I illustrate everything by hand. Afterward I fix them in Photoshop and color in Illustrator. I learned this process during my studies and have never wanted to do it any other way.

You work with icons like Prince and Picasso. How do you they inspire your work?

I choose celebrities who I find interesting. They are a big source of inspiration for my work and I think people like to see their icons in a different way. I really love drawing portraits though!

You make pretty strong political statements through your work. What are the problems we face as a society?

When I watch or read the news, I often get a feeling that “I have to make a drawing of this.” I need to express my feelings. Take Trump for instance. I cannot describe in words how much I hate him, so I make a drawing expressing my feelings. I want people to open their eyes and I try to help them understand that through my drawings. The real problem is that people are too selfish and that power is in hands of the wrong people.

You often transform humans into animals. What are the common features between the two?

I love animals! I strongly believe in animal welfare and have been a vegetarian for ten years now. In my little world, animals are the same as humans. I feel more free when drawing animals and its often more fun than drawing people. I do sometimes imagine real humans as look-alikes of different animals. A half-naked pig in a string bikini is funnier than a woman in a string bikini, at least in my mind. I just want to make people smile.

Which of your commissioned projects was the most memorable?

Recently I got an email from The Washington Post and was asked to make two illustrations for the Local Living section of the newspaper. I was blown away by this opportunity, as I have always dreamed of drawing for The Washington Post. I made the cover of the Local Living section and an illustration for the paper. That definitely is the most memorable project.

You illustrated the children’s book Eg elske Stavanger. How do your illustrations help kids to understand the book?

Eg elske Stavanger is about different animals that you follow throughout the book and has five very detailed drawings of a small city called Stavanger in Norway. I live in Stavanger and have illustrated different parts of it. For example, you follow the tiger “Funky Frank” who wears a headset and funky clothes through the drawings. It might take you some time to find him in each drawing, similar to a “Where’s Waldo?” book. You also come across questions like: “How many animals are eating an ice cream?” It was such a fun experience and a lot of work! I will illustrate more books, but not as detailed as this one.

Women are vividly represented in your works, particularly Frida Kahlo. What are your thoughts on women in art?

I LOVE Frida Kahlo. She is my favourite woman to draw and I am a big fan of her life and work. I wish there were more women artists and especially more women who dare to give a fuck and show off what they do. Lots of people are afraid of what other people might think and therefore they don’t become artists. I know so many people who are really talented, but they just don’t believe in themselves, so art becomes something they do after work. This goes both for women and men. I personally haven’t experienced any obstacles while working freelance or as a woman in art, but have experienced other sorts of obstacles in jobs I previously held. I am really happy to be my own boss and do my own thing. More people should start doing their thing, I really recommend it!

What do you think of the current Norwegian or Scandinavian art scene?

The Norwegian art scene is kind of difficult to get into because there are lots of old-fashioned people who think you need to have a certain arts degree to exhibit at their gallery. Luckily we have galleries like NuArt and Gallery GEO that see beyond this and showcase artists who might not have the right education but make good art. I am represented by both of these galleries, and really want to make it in the Scandinavian art scene. It takes time but everything is easier when one becomes a well-established artist. I haven’t had a solo exhibition since 2015 as I’ve been so busy for past several years, but I will be moving more in that direction soon.

Where can people find or buy your illustrations?

People can find my illustrations on my website. They can buy my illustrations and clothes on my web shop, and follow me on Instagram.

Artist Spotlight: Norwegian Illustrator Anette Moi published first on https://medium.com/@OCEANDREAMCHARTERS

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sentrava · 6 years

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Artist Spotlight: Norwegian Illustrator Anette Moi

Not only are her illustrations beautiful, so is idea behind them. Moi sees Frida Kahlo as an icon of womanhood, freedom, female empowerment and strength. She says “More people should start doing their thing” and I couldn’t agree more. The time to pursue your dreams is now.

I spoke with Anette Moi about her illustrations, the celebrities and icons she represents, and political statement through art:

When did you begin working as an artist?

What does your working process look like?

I illustrate everything by hand. Afterward I fix them in Photoshop and color in Illustrator. I learned this process during my studies and have never wanted to do it any other way.

You work with icons like Prince and Picasso. How do you they inspire your work?

I choose celebrities who I find interesting. They are a big source of inspiration for my work and I think people like to see their icons in a different way. I really love drawing portraits though!

You make pretty strong political statements through your work. What are the problems we face as a society?

You often transform humans into animals. What are the common features between the two?

Which of your commissioned projects was the most memorable?

You illustrated the children’s book Eg elske Stavanger. How do your illustrations help kids to understand the book?

Women are vividly represented in your works, particularly Frida Kahlo. What are your thoughts on women in art?

What do you think of the current Norwegian or Scandinavian art scene?

Where can people find or buy your illustrations?

People can find my illustrations on my website. They can buy my illustrations and clothes on my web shop, and follow me on Instagram.

Artist Spotlight: Norwegian Illustrator Anette Moi published first on https://medium.com/@OCEANDREAMCHARTERS

0 notes