TL;DR Hey, I’m reading into stuff (character design, I will never stfu about the rottmnt character design) again. Overthinking it like a true Donnie kinnie 🫡

So, I thought the mask tails were in order of age in rise. But, I’m unclear on which mask tails between Donnie & Mikey and Leo & Raph’s are longer/shorter. BUT. Another thing with their mask tails is that the two younger have shorter mask tails and the two older have longer mask tails (I’m a firm younger twin Donnie believer.) Furthermore, when we look at, for example,

MIKEY’S mask tails, they’re quite symbolic of him as a character.

They’re the only ones that are really rounded to that extent (Leo’s are more rounded too, but in a longer and less bubbly/circle way) Mikey is a fun, bubbly, optimistic character. Hence why Mikey=circle. They’re also shaped kind of like a paintbrush - the actual brush part, that is - which is interesting.

LEO’S are more triangular and curve much like his sword. Also, since they’re longer, we don’t see them very often (same with Raph’s) because of how the physics of the mask tails work.

The reason for Leo being a triangle, I’m not entirely sure. But my working theory (haven’t read anywhere why, though it’s likely somewhere) is because a lot about him is sharp. Sword, markings, face, body shape, mask tails. However, his personality is, ironically, the opposite. He’s also the more fun type, and definitely not a villain - even if he may see himself as one or, at least, the ‘blame’ during the movie - (sharp angles in character design are typically associated with villains) But his mask tails being a rounded triangle is really interesting. It’s like he’s smoothing out his personality (cough, cough, face man.) but he’s still “sharp” (loud, ‘annoying’, funny, quick-witted.)

RAPH, I don’t know too too much about, however- you also don’t often see the tails of his mask (because it, like Leo’s, is longer.) It’s jagged like his shell (again, ironic, because he’s pretty much a big softie - although on both the exterior and interior, he is/can be very tough.) He’s harsh on himself more so than he is on his brothers, taking it as his duty to protect them, to lead them, to keep them from harm.

I refuse to retype what I just typed, so I took a photo:

OK, so for DONNIE, I don’t have really anything to say (because I’m tired and my phone’s overheating ^^ he’s still my favourite and I love him dearly.)

But, his mask tails are more rectangular. Donnie = Rectangle, as we all know. (Galactic forehead, cough cough) And Donnie’s mask tails, with him being a younger brother and his mask tails being shorter, are more visible (again, physics.)

That’s it, he’s a rectangle. Shape language and such that goes more into his personality, yadda yadda, like I said - tired.

Anywho, that’s also a big part of a point that could be made about the episode(s) where they went through more formal training and their outfits were completely the same. They were one, completely. Raph and Leo even mind melded. But, that also means they weren’t themselves (we be we, baby.)

This is also a very long winded way of saying Donnie is the younger twin (I accept no other answers (jk ^^))

So, I hope somebody actually reads this rant. And, remember, I know this likely might not actually mean anything. I’m an analyst. I love their character designs I WILL NOT BE SILENCED.

But, that’s just a theory… a game theory!!

xoxo

Ricardo de Madrazo (Spanish,1852–1917) • El taller de Marià Fortuny a Roma (The Studio of María Fortuny in Rome) • Unknown date • Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Francisco Soria Aedo (Spanish, 1898–1965) • Bodegón con cobre • Unknown date

Jean François Portaels (Belgian, 1818-1895) • A Sicilian Bride • 1861 • Royal Collection Trust

Walter Ernest Webster (British, 1877-1959) • Coquette • Unknown date • Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Merseyside, England

Rubinstein Noc I. © Kotaro Chiba 2021

Ryan Shane Owen (Picasso inspired? body paint - 2017?)

The photos aren't the best quality but I got a new book! It's from 1973 and the cover art is by Frank Frazetta. These books are gothic classics, some of the first of the horror genre, and I'm very glad that I now own this beautiful book. The cover art itself is just so dramatic and the use of shadow and the minimal color....*chef's kiss*

SANDRA MUJINGA

Pervasive Light, 2021

Three-channel digital color video installation, with sound, 15 min., 15 sec.

Going Dark

The Guggenheim (NY)

friends you can discuss art and literature with>>>

Color coordinating my zines for a road trip! Because you can’t take them ALL with you.

Oh how fun, my first post! Today, I would like to talk about one of my favorite paintings! This is Olympia, painted by Édouard Manet and completed in 1863. Olympia is a painting of interesting context, presenting questions about art and its very history.

An appropriation of Venus of Urbino, we see in this painting a deliberate contrast of that painting. In Venus of Urbino there are symbols of fidelity; a sleeping dog by Venus’ feet (man’s best friend) and a rose in her hand to show her love (if her being Venus herself as not enough to represent love). In Olympia, we don’t see that however, we see direct contrast to these ideals. At the end of the bed, there is a frightened black cat and these is a loss of any symbolism for love. Note, as well, the black tie around her neck; a common fashion for higher class mistresses of the time was this black neck tie. This painting is a critic of infidelity, one naturally seen and hardly spoken of in his day.

She is a sculpture almost in that she is rather flat compared to the rest of the painting. Olympia manages to be both present in Manet’s contemporary moment and yet frozen in her nakedness. This is where we see those aspects of previous art, for great art by academic standard was often clothed in beauty and mythology. Manet stripped this painting of academic standards, both by making his subject aware of her objectification as well as by not having those clean, almost nonexistent brush-strokes expected from artists of his time. Ridding his painting of the clothe of it being about beauty or mythology, by having her gaze out at the viewer (seeming to put us in the position of a male client), made tose of his time uncomfortable by her sexuality. Critics of the time even posed that Manet sexualizado her by only giving form to her hands, one that lay across her genitalia, even when art has done so for years. The only difference was that Manet was aware and not afraid to make others aware of this trend in painting throughout history. Furthermore, he actually makes efforts to hide the aspects of her that would be regarded as sexual, such as not adding form to her breasts and having that hand hide her genitals. It was fully left to he viewer to know what she was; a mistress. She was’t made a Venus, she was a real woman, and that is what scared audiences so much about this portrayal of how we view art.

Manet included many aspects of modern life, of his time, into this painting. A great example of this is Olympia’s servant in this paint. More studies have been found into identity and it is found that her name was Laure. For now, we aren’t aware of her last name or her exact origin, however, it is suspected that she was from either the Caribbean or Africa. It is also known that se lived in the same area as many artists, as Paris was becoming more diverse. She is dressed in contemporary clothing with a head wrap to symbol those origins of either the Caribbean or Africa. These clothes and her movement, expression and form, places her directly in motion. Opposite to Olympia, Laure is actively apart of life. This distinction adds to the idea of Olympia being a statue for the male gaze, the stand in for the Venus’ throughout art history, and Laure adding to the elements that places this painting so uncomfortably close to viewers daily lives. (Laure is in several of Manet’s work and I will most definitely do additional research on her for a later post)

Throughout art history, people have been given the shield of morality and paintings supposedly depicting womanly virtues to hide the truthfulness of their gaze towards them. This painting gazes back. Men of Manet’s time often had mistresses, fashion in Paris often catered to these woman as they were the ones able to afford such comforts through the gifts of their lovers, many were aware of this side of life and yet none wished to speak of it. This painting was rejected by the academy and torn by the critics of his time. No man or wife wished to be confronted with the shame of this reality, and once they were, the bashed it as a shameful painting of a prostitute. It is this, the many things this painting had accomplished to critic not just in Manet’s time but throughout art history, that makes this painting so truly important. For it is often those things in society that we most wish to hide in shame that need exposing, and who better to expose the misuse of beauty then an artist?

Sources/Video recommendations

https://youtu.be/nFhgy9mkNRo

https://youtu.be/c5iQlPRpfss

https://youtu.be/ycriVxIgMxA

Lea Reinhart (Austrian, 1877-1970)

Edgar Maxence (French, 1871-1954) • Jeune femme pensive tournée vers la gauche (Young Pensive Woman Turned to the Left) • 1900 • Watercolour, gouache and pastel over black pencil on paper

Life imitating art

Charles Leclerc (2022) as the Artemision Bronze (480-470 bc)