Caspers-ghost-4ever - 😎

Nobuyoshi Araki, Shijyo Tokyo (1998)

For anyone who doesn't know what's going on in Canada right now (which, let's be real, is probably everyone who's not in Canada):

This week, a mass grave was discovered at a former Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, BC. The grave contained the bodies of 215 Indigenous children.

For people outside of North America, residential schools were places that Indigenous children were sent to, to have their language and culture stripped away from them. They were literally stolen from their families, and scattered across Canada, to ensure that they would be surrounded by children who didn't speak their language. They were given Christian names and forced to speak English. They were horrendously abused, and the survivors have been traumatized.

Hundreds of children never returned. The assumption has always been that they died. This has now been confirmed.

The school in Kamloops closed in 1978. They are now trying to identify bodies to inform family members. The last residential school closed in the 1990s. There is growing demand to search all of them, but the government hasn't responded to that, as of yet. Ottawa JUST gave in to pressure to fly the Canada flag at half mast. They weren't even going to do that.

This is the reality if anti-Indigenous racism in Canada. The residential schools may be closed, but that hasn't stopped the abduction of Indigenous children, let alone the hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

The Poisoner, 2021 . . . . .

#abstract #abstractart #abstractpainting #abstractdrawing #mixedmedia #geometricabstraction #abstractcomics #dot #dots #ink #inkdrawing #sumiink #grid #worksonpaper #noahpollack #drawing #painting #abstraction #poisoner #purple https://www.instagram.com/p/CMxYyEcFEfy/?igshid=2b3ab9myft4b

STUDIO GHIBLI  +  RAIN 

MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988) ONLY YESTERDAY (1991) KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989) THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY (2010) SPIRITED AWAY (2001) PONYO (2008) HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE (2004)

[inspired by @titlecard and @nyssalance]

Illustration for the New York Times.

Digitalis (foxglove)

From: Lawrence, S., (2020), Witch’s Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, p.133:

“Goblins’ thimbles, fairy weed, snoxums, snompers, fairy’s petticote - the local nicknames for Digitalis have to be some of the most evocative of all plants.

“It’s a clever plant; the female flowers at the bottom of the stems contain the most nectar, persuading the bees to visit there first and then work their way up the flower spike to the male flowers, pollinating as they go…

“…It was unlucky to bring foxgloves, especially white ones, into the house, as it encouraged witches. they could be useful, however, in a somewhat risky method of identifying a changeling. The child was given three drops of foxglove juice, put on a shovel and swung out of the front door three times, the parents crying, “If you are a fairy, away with you!” If the child was a changeling, it would die. If it was a human, it would be traumatised for the rest of its life. The child would be ill, at the very least. Digitalis contains toxins, including cardiac glycosides, which increase heart rate. Nausea, headaches, diarrhoea and visual, heart and kidney problems are just some of the symptoms caused by ingesting the plant. Nevertheless, the leaves were useful to bind around fresh wounds. Placed in a child’s shoes, they were said to guard against scarlet fever.

“While those cardiac glycosides could be fatal, others have been developed into pharmaceutical drugs. it’s possible the Egyptians knew about foxglove’s ability to stimulate the heart - but in 1775, Dr. William Withering, searching for treatments for dropsy (oedema), began systematic trials using Digitalis. The resulting An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses (1785) proved a game changer in the treatment of certain heart conditions. His memorial, in St. Bartholomew’s churchyard in Edgbaston, is carved with foxgloves.”

(These plants are extremely dangerous. Do not attempt to use them in any kind of home remedy, and use gloves if you do have to handle them)

“It was made for me! Th-this is my hole!”

Wall of Hearts Volunteers have been hand painting 150,000 hearts on Memorial Wall to represent each life lost to COVID in the UK. Matt Fowler lost his father, last year after he fell ill in March. As tribute Fowler began the memorial wall last Monday morning, painting the first of 15,000 hearts drawn that day.