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Juli McKenna Kearns

@idyllopus.bsky.social

400 followers 410 following 1.5K posts

Author. Artist. Playwright (twas). Cinema analyses. Dem Socialist. She/her. Husband is a musician/engineer/producer. Son makes films and I sometimes assist. No AI. Atlanta GA. Plutonium-enriched childhood in WA. My website: https://idyllopuspress.com

idyllopuspress.com

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Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · Nov 9

On my profile picture. It's an image that I took and has been my choice to use across platforms for years. My initial processing was high contrast.

Imperial Rome Exhibit at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History
Mask of Tragedy, From the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence. 2006, processed 2016

A photo in which the Mask of Tragedy has been isolated from its surroundings and the tones processed so the black of the mask's open mouth stands out. This particular mask hints at under the cloth hat the horns of Dionysus.

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Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 13h

After these lying, deranged, power-mad, grotesque bags of pork feed are gone, how long will it take for anyone to be able to muster an iota of respect for the offices they’ve crapped all over?

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 13h

Trump: "Portland, I mean -- every time I look at that place it's burning down. There are fires all over the place. When a store -- there are very few of them left -- but when a store owner rebuilds a store they build it out of plywood. They don't put up storefronts anymore. They just put wood up."

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 17h

Tiresias' Daughter, 2018
Salome and Friends series
Digital painting
15 by 15 inches

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

Against a black background, blur of partial view of a woman's face, eye hollowed and blacked, mouth lost in a black blur.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 20h

2005 View from the Road, Arizona

#photography #viewfromtheroad #arizona

An amber semi-arid desert Arizona hill with brush vegetation against a blue sky.

Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 1d

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 1d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Jan Skudlarek @janskudlarek.bsky.social · 1d

"A Rutgers University professor who taught a course on anti-fascism was blocked from leaving the US for Spain on Wednesday night, according to media reports, hours after Donald Trump hosted a White House roundtable highlighting the impact of antifa – or “anti-fascist” – far-left activists."

US anti-fascism expert blocked from flying to Spain at airport

Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled

www.theguardian.com

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Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 1d

Justice 2
2007-2025
Salome and Friends Series
Digital painting
20 by 26.6 inches

I did the original to this in 2007, always felt it wasn't what I wanted, and went back and reworked it.
Model reference: Intergalactic at DA

#digitalart #art #digitalpainting

"Justice" as a young woman with a bloodied blindfold around her head, standing within black and red bars against a yellow background.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 1d

Justice 1
2007-2025
Salome and Friends Series
Digital painting
20 by 26.6 inches

I did the original to this in 2007, always felt it wasn't what I wanted, and went back and reworked it.

Model reference: Intergalactic at DA

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

"Justice" as a young woman with a blindfold saturated on the side with red, trapped between bars.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 1d

2005 View from the Road, Number 29, Rocky Mountain Town, New Mexico

#photography #newmexico #viewfromtheroad #mountains

View from the road of a small town in rocky mountains.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 1d

Midtown Atlanta, 2021

See alt for description.

#blackandwhitephotography #midtownatlantaphotography #atlantaconstructionphotography #backandwhitephoto #balconiesofatlanta

View of construction in Midtown Atlanta, protection over sidewalk for pedestrians, in the background skyscrapers showing off the balconies of Atlanta. In the foreground left is a woman crossing the street looking at her phone rather than her surroundings.

It's alright in this photo but people relating to their cellphones rather than their environment turns me off taking photos on the street. I am not a "street" photographer anyway, I don't care for taking photos of people on the street, but you want to see people responding to their environment rather than stuck with their faces in their phones. I typically won't take a photo that shows a lot of people with their heads down, focused on their phones, because the photo's focus becomes entirely their disconnection.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 2d

This was a source of mirth in our household tonight, Noem's announcement of the arrest of the girlfriend of the so-called "founder" of antifa. Trump himself looks like he's not sure about this tactic. Or he was bored because he wasn't bombing anything at the moment.

Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social · 2d

lest anyone think the girlfriend line was a hilarious joke I concocted...

Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Kate 🪷 @kateculliton.bsky.social · 2d

😏

Someone should tell Pam Bondi that while Nixon didn't go to prison, his Attorney General did.
threads.com/@author.ronchandler
@other98

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Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you!

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 2d

Watching Trump's roundtable on "antifa" which is a thing I really shouldn't be doing to myself.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 2d

How to Perform an Autopsy - Chapter Fourteen
Read Chapter Fourteen on my website, link below.

idyllopuspress.com/idyllopus/ht...

Text in the image is available at website link.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 2d

2005 View from the Road Series, Number 53, Arizona

#photography #arizona #art #monochromephoto #desert

Sepia-toned out-of-focus photo of desert with glowing horizon and cloud in sky

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Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 2d

Woman with Pink Fingernails
Salome and Friends series
Digital painting
about 2009

See ALT for description

#digitalart #digitalpainting #art

Woman, the side of her face and shoulders, she looking off to the side in extreme close-up, one hand cradling her face, the other resting against her breast, her fingernails painted pink, a very rough painting against a blue background. Drawn/sketched elements throughout.

The painting was done about 2009 but I was dissatisfied with it and reworked it, and though I liked it and wanted to keep it I was feeling uncertain about it. I think I last worked on it a little more in 2012, which is when I thought this will be it for this painting. Then I had a computer crash and lost the original large file and only have the small file of it. And that took care of that. She found her place as the lost file.

I used as resource a model on Deviant Art, the photo of her an entirely different thing from this. In other words, she's not a made-up person. I wanted to have all these based on real people, real faces.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 2d

Atlantic Station, Atlanta, GA, 2020

#blackandwhitephotography #atlantaga #atlanticstationphotography #atlantagaphotography

A hillside with two bare-limbed trees before a streamlined single-story concrete building and two cypress trees beyond.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 3d

2005 View from the Road #9, The Flint Hills of Kansas

This does not give a good view of the Flint Hills of Kansas, but it remains Flint Hills of Kansas territory.

#flinthillskansas #kansasflinthills #photography

View of green grassy forever plain of Kansas under a blue sky spackled with clouds that disappear midway toward the horizon. Intentionally included is the top of the passenger's window and a bit of the passenger's side mirror of the car.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 3d

Atlantic Station 2020, The Millennium Gate

#blackandwhitephotography #atlantaga #atlanticstationphotography #atlantagaphotography
#millennium_gate
#millennium_gate_atlanta
#statestreetatlanta

View of the Millennium Gate on the left , traffic before and surrounding on the approach to it, State Street sign and traffic lights hovering in the air between the arch and the camera. Black-and-white.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 3d

Lady McBeth of Blue Street, 2007
Salome and Friends Series
Digital painting
20 by 26.6 inches

I will have my favorites and this is my favorite from the Salome and Friends series, the Lady McBeth of Blue Street.

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

A woman in a blue dress, her arms resting on an unseen table, her hands raised up to either side her head and hidden under her hair. She stares down with an inscrutable expression. Behind her is a green wall and a window dressed with white curtains through which can be seen a blue sky.

Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Paul Duane 🥔 @paulduane.bsky.social · 15d

I used to know a guy who ended up becoming very very rightwing, and an early tell was when he went to the Rothko Room in the Tate and the paintings made him insanely angry, because he felt they were a joke and the joke was being played on him.

Megan Abbott @meganabbott.bsky.social · 15d

“You’ve got sadness in you, I’ve got sadness in me – and my works of art are places where the two sadnesses can meet, and therefore both of us need to feel less sad.”

HBD, Mark Rothko ...

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Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Robert Mackey @robertmackey.bsky.social · 4d

The Oregon Republican Party tried to help Donald Trump make the case for military intervention in Portland with an image of a fiery protest — but since Portland is calm, they had to fabricate one by merging old photos of police in Ecuador and protesters in Brazil www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Republicans post fake image of Oregon protest – using photos of South America

A federal judge had blocked Trump’s request to deploy California national guard to Portland

www.theguardian.com

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Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 4d

“Intravenus” has been accepted into the Buried Alive film festival in Atlanta!

Aaron Dylan Kearns @eyeodyssey.bsky.social · 4d

Exciting bit of news today: I'm happy to announce that Intravenus will be having its first public showing this upcoming November with the 2025 Buried Alive Film Festival in Atlanta, GA. More news will be coming very soon about the date it will be shown and where you can get your tickets.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 4d

2005 View from the Road #1, The Flint Hills of Kansas
Photograph
2005

#photography #digitalphotography #flinthills #kansas

A view of the flint hills of Kansas topped by a row of transmission towers.