jacy sent this to me last night and I had to share it with you. It’s based on this photo of Bixby (and if you need some nostalgia, here’s the entire Bixby Diary, which made me sniffle – he was still so little!)
Just a reminder, this is jacy’s Etsy page. I already have several items picked out that I’ll order in the next week or so. I wanted to thank everyone, because just your comments on her fundraiser thread gave me hope that there are really good people out there and most of them hang out here.
There are several commenters who are struggling right now and I’m so glad they can come here to vent, cry and get support.
Open thread
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Did jacy give you an update on how she’s doing with the immediate cash crunch? The gofundme is just under 50% of goal, but I know she’s made some Etsy sales too.
MazeDancer
Fabulous art!
In MHO, jacy does not charge enough for such high-guality work. Her per hour earnings gotta be too low.
TaMara (HFG)
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: She has some meetings today and I’m assuming after that she will give us an update.
Josie
I’m grateful for an open thread, so that I can show why Henry Cuellar is popular in our district. He actually pays attention to what is important to his people.
https://www.themonitor.com/2019/01/31/congressman-cuellar-secures-language-prevent-wall-funding-butterfly-center/
Yarrow
@Josie: That link and the headline are misleading, or at least unclear. Here’s the first paragraph:
He’s a good fit for his district. The Justice Democrats can are just grifters who will ratfuck us.
Just Chuck
Nitpick: it looks like it says “Biyby”. The top text should probably overlay the dog, the same as it does on the bottom.
Josie
@Yarrow:
Thanks for the clarification.
Major Major Major Major
What a great piece!
I should do some drawing this weekend.
Here’s hoping for a troll-free thread…
Yarrow
@Josie: I just wasn’t sure what it was about from the link and when I clicked through the headline also was confusing. It’s good news once you read the first paragraph! I’m sure Twitter would send around the headline and make it sound like he’s preventing funding for the butterfly center.
TaMara (HFG)
@Major Major Major Major: One can only hope. :-)
TaMara (HFG)
@Just Chuck: Nope. Don’t want the letters over his face. It’s perfect as it is.
germy
This photo
Russell Crowe Transforms Into Roger Ailes For The Loudest Voice
https://screenrant.com/russell-crowe-roger-ailes-photo-loudest-voice/
Timurid
The dark spot on his chest looks like a broken heart… nice touch.
Barbara
Sending positive thoughts to all of the crew who are coping with difficult circumstances and heartache, but especially jacy and czanne.
Major Major Major Major
I also need to finish the next draft of my short story this weekend. Looks like a weekend full of art. Hopefully not too much time will be spent playing spider-man instead.
DSC
about how much does a custom piece cost? I have two images I would love to have done. Love the one of the B&W doggie. Recovering from the shutdown
Dorothy A. Winsor
Open thread, so I have a question. Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day. I think it’s always midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Is there a name for that day other that Ground Hog?
Brachiator
@TaMara (HFG): Great photo and poster!
Mnemosyne
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Thanks for the reminder — payday was yesterday, so now I can throw a little cash in the till for her.
Mnemosyne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Groundhog Day is a fixed date (February 2), so it can’t be the actual date that’s midway between those two things since they’re astronomical events that shift around slightly from year to year. I would ask an astronomer.
oldgold
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Yes, it is Candlemas.
MazeDancer
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Imbolc. Used to be begnning of lambing season. Also, legend has it farmer’s would drop their trousers and put their bare bottoms on the ground to see if the land was warm enough to plow.
Like all the Quarter and cross-Quarter Days the church usurped and re-named. So AKA Candlemas, as well.
Citizen Alan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Cross-quarter days, IIRC.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@MazeDancer: “Ass immediately froze to ground, ripped off 3 square inches of skin getting up. Too early.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
So would Cross-quarter be the astronomical name? Candlemas and Imbolc are religious names, right?
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor: See many have already answered, but @MazeDancer: is a new one on me. And mentioning lambing season (aka sheep) and dropping trou in the same sentence ….
Well, maybe that’s the excuse the farmers gave when caught by their wives.
TaMara (HFG)
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Someone posted today that February was the Tuesday of the year. I thought that fit. LOL
Gelfling 545
@Just Chuck: Over the dog’s face? I should think not. It’s lovely as is.
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Semi-astronomical, maybe. I never heard it while getting an astronomy degree. First heard was in the “Astronomical Companion” by Guy Ottewell. A very good armchair guide. His drawings are very understandable.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m comforted by the fact we’re halfway back from the darkest day.
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The Christian church appropriated a lot of the local non-christian holidays/feast days, sometimes to help integrate the Christianity into local custom, sometimes to use existing festivals to disguise Christian celebrations, although that may have been mostly in Roman areas and eras.
Anyway, most ancient cultures found it very useful to mark the stages of the year. Equinoxes, solstices, and cross-quarter days split the year into 8 parts tied to the seasons/sun. Months of course originated with lunar cycles, which don’t fit into the seasons. Our system of 12 months do, of course, but they didn’t come about until, again, Rome.
Spanky
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yep, but approaching the starving time. A race to get crops grown and harvested before last year’s food runs out. So next up – Lent!
Gelfling 545
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Candlemas was traditionally the RC date on which the church candles for use throughout the year were blessed. It’s also the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin and of the Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple.
MazeDancer
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Not sure if astronmers would use cross-quarter. It is all about the Turn of the Wheel, the rotation of the planet.
Start with the two Equinoxes and two Solatices. The Four Quarters of the year. The midpoint between each are called Cross-Quarter Days. Which is more of a Celtic Olde Religion term than anything. Goddessy.
As all observeable planetary activity has been celebrated since before there was math, festivities would occur around them, frequently tied to agriculture. And an assortment of deities.
As the Christian Church realized they were not likely to change the rotation of the Earth or get people to stop celebrating, they just slapped on new names and reasons. Thus, presto, Winter Solstice becomes Christmas.
ETA: And @spanky illuminated while I was one-finger typing on iPad
Dorothy A. Winsor
For a novel I was writing, I once did a tiny bit of reading about how various cultures structure time. As I recall, things got really disorienting when whatever source I had started talking about weeks, which are less determined by external factors. I liked the stuff about hours. Again, as I recall, in Medieval Europe, the day and night each had 12 hours, but the length of them changed with the time between sunrise and sunset. So a summer daytime hour was longer than a winter one.
blackcatsrule
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Also St. Brigid’s day. Christianized version of Imbolc which celebrated the pre-Christian goddess Brigid.
Kraux Pas
Re: The earlier poll saying that Republicans don’t believe the news media understands them, maybe the news media would understand them if it spent last time trying to validate their positions and more time openly hating on minorities and the working poor.
jacy
I want to thank everybody who has been so kind — I really have no way to express what it means. Even after everything that’s happened the last five years, the last month has been the low-point spirit-wise for me. Maybe because I keep thinking that when something horrible happens, it will be the last horrible thing. You just get tired.
Update: I have had one meeting re: mortgage company. I have until February 25th to reinstate the loan. With my savings, my etsy sales, and the gofundme, I’m within $4,000 of that amount, so I feel like it’s doable, especially if I can get my existing clients to pay on time. I have requested that they review again for a modification, but I probably won’t hear a final decision on that for at least another week, so I am going forward believing that reinstatement will be what I have to do. I also finally got a draft of the custody modification order from my lawyer and I will sign it on Monday, it will be filed, and I can see if the ex will fight or give up. If he gives up, I hope to get back some of the retainer I had to pay that lawyer. In the meantime, I’m going to keep working.
Again, thank you all so much. Y’all are my family.
WaterGirl
@DSC: I am having a set of two pet portraits done for one niece and another set of two pet portraits for another niece. Sadly, both have lost two beloved pets, hence the “set”.
Each pet portrait is $100.
If you decide to go ahead with it, you might check with jacy on whether you should order through Etsy or just donate the amount to the fundraiser.
P.S. Because I don’t have a ton of extra money to throw around, both nieces know that this will be an early Christmas gift to their families; if you are like me, that might be something to maybe think about to help make it all work financially.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Barbara:
Can’t say it better. As am I.
Di
@Dorothy A. Winsor: My birthday! Oh, and something called Candlemas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlemas
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Di: Happy almost birthday!
satby
@Di: early Happy Birthday!
Ohio Mom
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The two other holidays that mark halfway points of seasons are Halloween (six weeks from the start of fall, six weeks left until winter begins) and May Day (middle of spring).
What I want to know is, why no tradition for the halfway point of summer? Maybe no one wants to be reminded the sweetest season of all will end?
Mnemosyne
@Ohio Mom:
There is! It’s called Lammas and usually falls in August.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammas
MazeDancer
@jacy:
Please consider raising your prices. Or at least getting BJ customers to prepay. 4K in 3 weeks is doable. But gotta do too much work if people don’t pay in advance and recognize delivery will be delayed.
jacy
@MazeDancer:
It’s my book cover clients who are sometimes a pill. Authors! (Just kidding, I’m an author, so I’m not dissing authors,LOL) Anything through Etsy is paid instantly, so I’m good there. I really wish I could spend all day doing animal portraits, it’s better than meditation or anti-anxiety pills.
LuciaMia
Jacy, your work is just fantastic. I have a question. How do you have the prints made?
Do you have the equipment yourself to print them or do you use an online service?
rikyrah
That poster is so beautiful :)
Duke of Clay
@Mnemosyne: Lúnasa in Ireland – August 1st
Kayla Rudbek
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Imbolc or St. Brigid of Kildare for February 1, Candlemas for February 2
Aleta
I love how much there is to see in Bixby’s eyes.
Pogonip
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Candlemas.
jacy
@LuciaMia:
I work with a professional printing company located in PA called Giclee Today. They do wonderful work — they use archival paper and light-fast inks, they print in an amazing number of sizes, and you can get all kinds of paper, stretched canvas, deckled edge….anything. And they ship really well, always flat and individually bagged. I love them.
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor, @oldgold:
Candlemas is always on February 2.
Imbolc (Imbolg), a “cross quarter day,” is the
Aleta
A thought about Gabe, though it might not apply. Something that has worked well for me when an ultra sensitive or reactive cat was affected by that undercurrent of inter-cat stress.
Back then I had a dominant cat who was subtle at applying psychological stress. I did the whole series of introduction steps again, starting from the beginning. (Moving through them much more quickly.) One time I used it with a cat who was very anxious with a long memory, years after an abused kittenhood. I did it one more time a couple of months later, and after that there was peace and she flowered.
I’d read a tip about repeating the introduction process for a different cat stress issue. It’s worked like a charm for me for several different cat happiness problems, even ones that aren’t between cats.
Aleta
@MazeDancer: Did the CC usurp it by turning those pantless, frosty butted farmers into saints?
something fabulous
Another fundraising idea! If both TaMara and Jacy are up for it, maybe consider a limited print run of this lovely Bixby picture as a poster for jackal fans of Bixby to buy? He’s so popular, and it is such a great image, I bet a bunch of folks would snap it up!
something fabulous
@something fabulous: ….and I am now finally experiencing the dreaded “you do not have permission to edit”! …so, amending to add: Or maybe instead/in addition to a poster, how about on smaller things, like a mug! I know I still love and use my Tunch mug all the time!
WaterGirl
@something fabulous: jacy has also done an adorable pet portrait of Betty Cracker’s Badger. It’s up on jacy’s website as one of the 6 examples of pet portrait’s that she’s done.
I think jacy also said that she can print her images on mugs, t-shirts, etc.
Aleta
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I looked up Imbolc (Feb 1) and from there to the equivalent in Wales on Feb 2, Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gŵyl_Fair_y_Canhwyllau
The divination sounds raucous.
jacy
@something fabulous:
I only ever drink tea out of my Tunch DIAF mug!
something fabulous
@jacy: ha! Mine is “obey” but exactly!! I know I’d be happy to add Bixby disapproving of my breakfast choices, or mornings in general, or whatever!
Mnemosyne
I signed up for a pet portrait instead of the GoFundMe, so now jacy will be one of the few privy to my secret identity. ?♀️
My secret identity is pretty boring, but I prefer it that way.
DSC
@WaterGirl: thank you so much! for REAL art, that is quite reasonable