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May Sarton, "Of Grief", Selected Poems

“DONT YOU GET TIRED OF BEING NICE ALL THE TIME? DONT YOU JUST WANT TO GO APESHIT?” — acrylic with fine grit sand on a 24x20 inch canvas.

Chronic pain can be a major contributing factor to overstimulation, and overstimulation turns me into the biggest bastard on the planet. I tend to sympathize with some very unflattering horror movie portrayals of disabled villains when they lash out. Something something “being nice” is not a personality trait, it’s an active choice.

Nkondi figures are a Congolese tradition that resolves societal struggles. A figure, treated like any other member of the society with its own personality & living space, has a nail driven into it by the local spiritual expert/diviner in order to produce enough energy (or pain/sensation) to free the spirit from the figure for a time. This is done after relevant matter (things like dirt from a grave site, herbs with protective qualities, or blood) is placed into the compartment typically found in the figure's chest. Through this process, the figure's spirit engages with the unseen realm & ideally resolves the issue of interest. On the figure can be seen the village's history over the years in the form of sharp objects that have accumulated. In this image the Madonna & child has been treated as an Nkondi figure.

My Body is Rotting in the Forest by Guang Yang

Will Wood was right everything is a lot