Still Life Vignettes
Holiday Moments
Happy Thanksgiving from my Mom and Dad, their favorite son (AKA my friend Steve) and their other kid. Not Pictured: My imaginary deceased twin brother Timmy. Damn that pizza truck.
Last week I was surprised by a visit from Melissa, a 2020 graduate who is currently at Pitt developing combination HIV prevention / contraceptive drugs for women in Subsaharan Africa. I truly admire this young woman and am grateful that she is applying her talents to research and development that could potentially save millions of lives. Much love to you, kiddo. You’re a rockstar.
Black Friday Score: I visited my friend Bobby's amazing record shop and he hooked me up with a Scritti Politti LP from 1988 that I didn’t have on vinyl. Thanks again, Bobby! You're the best, sir.
Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow. Don’t stop. It’ll soon be here. It’ll be better than before. Yesterday’s gone. Yesterday’s gone. REST IN POWER CHRISTINE McVIE.
2 December 2022
Good Morning, friends. Here’s a view of my backyard on a December morning. I think I can safely say this photo is emblematic of my social media content, which mostly consists of everyday photos, portraits of myself with friends and family, artwork, vintage items I collect and pop culture related posts. I don’t attack people, use hate speech or abuse social media in ANY way. In fact, I tend to treat the people I connect with on social media EXACTLY as I do in person. If you know me in the real world, you already know this. So, having said that, I’m wondering why I woke up to find my Twitter account permanently suspended. This, of course, comes the morning after a certain Anti-Semitic and delusional rapper (who was allowed BACK on Twitter after a suspension for offensive content) posted a graphic of The Star Of David with a swxstxka inside of it. For some reason, I’ve been blocked from posting ANY content and the “pinned tweet” at the top of my page (a short video in which I announced the publication of my first book in 2020) has been marked “content not available”. I’m not the biggest fan of Twitter and certainly not a fan of its autocratic CEO however it’s the principle of the thing that gets me. Yes, I know that the rapper in question has been suspended again after using N*zi symbolism (and rightfully so) but ME? I can’t imagine why I would be suspended when I don’t post (and certainly don’t retweet) content or language that is even REMOTELY offensive to ANYONE. As someone who is a visual and verbal communicator both in life and in my career (and does so responsibly) it’s pretty awful to see spaces that were initially created for sharing, interaction and connection become breeding grounds of negativity, misinformation and abuse. So, I’m just gonna keep on keeping on. I’ve written a new book and the creation of 36 accompanying illustrations is under way. In time I’ll be sharing more process sketches and work in progress as the project moves toward completion. While that develops behind the scenes I will continue to share other images related to my life and personal interests in the foreground. Hopefully none of this will offend anyone. Stay illuminated. Love, CDM
ALSO: I'm on Mastodon now...
Lights want to be stars... But don't we all?
