Pinktober 2024: Week 2

Elektra

I am loving Inktober/Pinktober! I really do better in life when I have an assignment, and boy, completing one drawing a day is certainly a challenging assignment… But it’s also awesome.

I’ve found myself looking forward to drawing every day, researching what I’ll do for each prompt, scouring my photos for inspiration and, if I don’t find any, searching the web or asking AI to give me some ideas.

One of the unexpected pleasures has been seeing other people on Instagram, people I don’t know, using my prompts to create art that couldn’t be more different from my own. People are so creative… I love seeing it in action.

Day 5: Siren

This drawing was based on a photo of my mother taken some time in the late 70s. I love that she’s sunbathing and reading a book in the photo, just like I do, but for the siren, I decided to dispense with the reading material.

Day 6. Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess

Bastet combines two of my favorite things, goddesses and cats! In ancient Egyptian mythology, she was the daughter of Ra, the sun god, and the sister of Sekhmet, one of the O.G. badass goddesses.

But, whereas Sekhmet was her father’s enforcer, a violent and bloodthirsty goddess of war, said to delight in the carnage of battle, Bastet was the patroness of felines, a bringer of health, pleasure and protection. Of course, as anyone who’s ever had a cat knows, they carry with them the legacy of bloodlust…

If they’re allowed outside to roam and hunt, they infamously feast on (or fatally toy with) small birds and prey animals. Estimates put the death toll due to domestic cats at between one and four billion birds and between six and 22 billion small mammals annually. An avian holocaust every year... that’s fucking crazy.

These days, more often than not, domestic cats aren’t allowed outside, but they still find subtle ways to express their innate bloodlust. Like tempting their humans with a demure head-butt or stretching languidly just out of reach until you take the bait and reach out to pet their exposed stomach, only to pull back an instant later, hand bleeding from a line of razor-thin claw marks.

But this borderline sociopathic behavior doesn’t faze us cat owners (I refuse to say “cat-mom,” although it’s technically more accurate, since having a cat is very similar to parenting a surly, ungrateful teenager). Continuing the centuries-old legacy of Bastet, we continue to feed, entertain, pamper and worship our barely-domesticated feline overlords.

Day 7. Mermaid

Who doesn’t love a mermaid? So weird to think the myth of the mermaid was born of the hallucinations of scurvy-crazed fishermen who often spied manatees off the side of their strictly men-only ships and thought, ay, there’s a fetching wench!

I mean, manatees, otherwise known as sea cows, are not like the overtly sensual dolphin or even the teasing, playful otter… Nor are they sleek and graceful like seals or sea lions. Don’t get me wrong, manatees are delightful, friendly, sociable creatures, but there’s not a woman alive who would take it as a compliment to be mistaken for one.

Day 8. Elektra

The first of a few “modern” goddesses I threw into the mix for fun. I’ve loved Elektra, Marvel Comics’ most badass female assassin, since the late ‘80s when she appeared alongside Daredevil and in her own absolutely batshit bonkers graphic novel, Elektra: Assassin, a mind-bending collaboration between the iconic writer Frank Miller and iconoclastic artist Bill Sienkiewicz. I’ve written about it at length here in An ode to certain 80s excesses.

Day 9: Nyx, the goddess of night

I got a little too eager to start inking this one and forgot to take a “before” picture when it was in its black and white outline stage. Oh well… it’s not my favorite, but they can’t all be awesome, right?

The inspiration for this one was a photo of yours truly, taken a few years ago when we invited a couple of friends over for a “concert” in our living room during Covid with a full drum kit and electric guitars. We have awesome neighbors who were thankfully very tolerant of the noise.

Anyway, this was my Punk Rock Girl look… I don’t play any instruments so what I lack in musical talent, I had to make up for in attitude… and hairspray.

Day 10. Leda

In case you’re not familiar with the tale, Leda was a Spartan queen who was seduced by a giant swan. Not just any oversized waterfowl, though, it was the rapiest of gods, Zeus, the king and patriarch of Mount Olympus, in disguise. But was it rape or seduction? It’s a debate for the ages. Even Wikipedia is on the fence.

I’m inclined to see most of these mythical encounters in a modern light, by which I mean giving the poor hapless mortal woman at least a fragment of agency… Sure, it’s not exactly informed consent, but I mean, he’s in the form of a giant swan, for god’s sake! What did she expect?!

This myth has long been a favorite of poets and artists, who depict the encounter in a wide range along the consent spectrum. Even Bjork’s infamous swan dress at the 2001 Academy Awards was an homage to Leda.

As is so often the case, Yeats probably said it best:
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast…

Leda and the Swan, W.B. Yeats, 1923

Day 11. Furiosa

I can’t overstate how much I loved Mad Max: Fury Road when it came out in 2015. I saw it in the theater and raved about it on my blog. So when the prequel, Furiosa, came out this year I was obviously going to see it, despite my trepidation at the lack of Charlize Theron and the general state of prequels these days. But I was pleasantly surprised!

Of course it’s not as good as the original, which some critics have called the best action movie of the 21st century, but it’s a worthy addition to the franchise and I was already a fan of Anya Taylor-Joy for her excellent role in The Queen’s Gambit. I even saw it in a fancy-ass theater in the suburbs where they serve cocktails and artisanal sandwiches in big leather recliners. Anyway, Furiosa… what an awesome badass character!

We’re not even halfway through Inktober/Pinktober and I’m clearly going to need to invest in more pens…

I invite you to follow along as I post new drawings every day on Instagram and, if you’re not already doing so, please take up the challenge… if you dare!

#inktober #pinktober #inktober2024 #pinktober2024