Musings — Maelstrom

Self-Portraits of a Stranger

Why should I want to draw myself ... when my eye is a weapon turned on my body with the precision of a knife, dissecting its every surface?

MusingsA. MartineOctober 13, 2019art, drawing, self portrait, sketch, oil painting, painting, charcoal, mirror, self-image, self-loathing, art class, introspection, crying, patience, self-loveComment

Small Fires

Coming-of-age is hindsight, in truth. By the time you realize it’s happening, you’ve already been irrevocably changed.

MusingsA. MartineApril 19, 2019coming of age, smiths, grief, childhood, anxiety, isolation, depression, growing up, vanish, kidnappingComment

Falling In Love With the Women Who Taught Me Not To Be Nice

It took me nearly two decades to unlearn the lie we women have been told: that our propriety is the only thing that matters.

MusingsA. MartineDecember 9, 2018pop culture, popular culture, television, film, music, daria, daria morgendorfer, jessica jones, sexual assault, sexual trauma, metoo, timesup, rizzo, grease, sandy, problematic, coming of age, composure, nice, double standards, sexism, misogyny, pippi longstocking, lisbeth salander, millennium, stieg larsson, arya stark, game of thrones, george rr martin, resting bitchface syndrome, rbs, womanhood, woman, girl, girlhood, assault, abuse, anxiety, adulthood, beauty standards, childhood, curiosity, depression, decorum, extrovert, introvert, introversion, introverted, exploration, self-love, self love, yes, mental health, recovery, self-care, mental illness, fixation, suffering, self care, friendship, self-loathing, self-image, growing up, honesty, heritage, shy, shyness, introspection, literature, kindness, loneliness, memoir, no, neurosis, unconditional love, openness, patience, pain, pathology, quiet, restlessness, romanticization, romanticize, trauma, crying, suicide, sensationalize, teenagehood, turmoil, extroversion, twenties, social experiment, glamorize, glamorizationComment

To Hell With Composure

Composure is what is leant upon when one understands that the world has no place for someone who is falling apart, quietly or in all manners of slovenliness.

Entertainment and Voyeurism: Our Obsession with True Crime, and the Lines We're Eager to Blur

These tragedies are dragged out, rehashed like a piece of meat that remains juicy and delicious, no matter how long we’ve been chewing it.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Was The Therapist I Needed as a Child

I found more solace and understanding in the pages of these books than I did looking up at people who didn’t always get me, or want to deal with me — understandably.

A Year of Saying Yes, A Year of Saying No

I have finally understood that I don’t need to justify myself to people: I am simply finding different ways of saying ‘yes’ to myself, by saying ‘no’ to others.

Namesakes, Namesakes

It’s not his fault he is so evil: I’m the one who named him Voldemort. And he wears it so well.

MusingsA. MartineJanuary 8, 2018cat, cat person, voldemort, harry potter, popular culture, animal, unconditional loveComment

Three Women, Three Cities, Three Loves

Discovering a country is like standing on the cusp of a new relationship, with everything it entails: it could be the best thing that has ever happened to you, or it could be the thing that ruins your life.

MusingsA. MartineJanuary 8, 2018travel, dakar, paris, montreal, wanderlust, homesickness, cities, childhood, ancestry, heritage, explorationComment

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