Friday, November 30, 2012

Hare in Snow


Writes textile artist Sharon Blackman: "All my pictures are made entirely by hand using recycled textiles. I love reusing a favourite old shirt or vintage buttons and trimmings, making each artwork completely unique. I have a quirky naive style, never using patterns or templates and cutting directly into the fabric and stitching everything by hand."

To view more of Sharon's beautiful artwork, visit her website.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Bel Homme XXI


Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A Thanksgiving Wish


Related Off-site Links:
Thanksgiving's Gay Secrets HuffPost Gay Voices (November 24, 2011).
Gay Pilgrims in 1600′s Plymouth, MA? Gather Round The Table Boys, Historian Says Yes – Will Kohler (Back2Stonewall.com, November 20, 2012).
Pilgrim Thanksgiving Included Gays John Alexander, Thomas Roberts Vintage Gay Media History (November 23, 2009).
Gay Pilgrims Go to Philadelphia WoodBlock Dreams (March 8, 2011).

Image: Steven.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A Certain Power


In ancient Greek and Roman [times] . . . the male hare was thought capable of bearing young and, perhaps for this reason, was associated with both transgenderism and same-sex eroticism. The poet Philostratus writes: "And let not the hare escape us, but let us . . . catch it alive as an offering most pleasing to Aphrodite . . . the hare . . . possesses the gift of Aphrodite [i.e. fertility] to an unusual degree . . . As for the male [hare], he not only [sires offspring], but also himself bears young, contrary to nature." Men desiring other men, having "found in the hare a certain power to produce love," give hares as gifts, "attempting to secure the objects of their affections by a compelling magic art."

-- Excerpted from Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit
by Randy P. Conner, David Hatfield Sparks and Mariya Sparks
p. 170


Image: Roman Hare Mosaic (350 CE).

Monday, November 5, 2012

Morning Light XLVIII


Image: Subject and photographer unknown.

Friday, November 2, 2012