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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 · 9h

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 · 19h

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

Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Kate 🪷 @kateculliton.bsky.social · 10h

😏

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 · 13h

Thank you!

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 19h

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

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

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 · 23h

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 · 23h

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 14d

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 · 14d

“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 · 2d

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 · 2d

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

Aaron Dylan Kearns @eyeodyssey.bsky.social · 2d

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 · 2d

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.

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

Atlantic Station, Cinema, Atlanta, 2020

#atlanticstation #atlantagaphotography #cinema #photography

Photo through a fence at dusk, past urban buildings to a view of a cinema in the background lit with the setting sun.

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

Venus Dreams of Leaving the Sea, 2007
Salome and Friends Series
Digital painting
21.8 by 30 inches

See ALT for description.

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

A woman in a green top reclines on a bright red sofa, against a pink wall with two shaded windows.

In the original she is nude, but I was booted a number of times from FB for posting my paintings of nudes even though they were obviously paintings and not photos. So she is now clothed.

I didn't want to make up people for any of these and would use Deviant Art as a resource for the models. The model resource for this was cookiekitty. I did imagine the background which then became the story of a Venus who dreams of leaving the sea.

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Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Timothy Noah @timothynoah.bsky.social · 5d

This weekend is a good time to catch up on my stories about Trump’s imminent sale and likely destruction of a 1940 government building that one expert calls “the Sistine Chapel of New Deal art.”

Part one:

newrepublic.com/article/2010...

Part two:

newrepublic.com/article/2012...

The New Deal Masterpieces Threatened by Trump’s D.C. Downsizing

Your great-grandparents paid Ben Shahn and Philip Guston to create gorgeous public murals. Next year they could be rubble.

newrepublic.com

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Reposted by Juli McKenna Kearns

Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 4d

Just posting this. Everyone knows why.

Text of the fourth amendment “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

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

Atlantic Station 2020, View from the side of the Millennium Arch

#blackandwhitephotography #atlantaga #atlanticstationphotography #atlantagaphotography

Side of the Millennium Arch with skyscrapter beyond, the scene mostly consumed by sky

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

If I Stand Starry-Eyed, That's a Danger in Paradise, 2005
Scenes for Quiet Walls Series
Digital painting with personal photo for reference

See ALT for history

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

Continuing with postings from yesterday of art inspired by that one night when our van broke down on Spaghetti Junction. These two paintings are of the Burger King where we waited for our ride. That purple-blue wall with the red, and the tables of assorted colors. "Take my hand, I'm a stranger in paradise," was what came to mind.

* * * * *
Red and white bench seating against a purple-blue wall, small square tables set in a row before, with silver chrome-toned chairs. Alongside is a window, set in a yellow frame, in which the scene is reflected against a sunset sky quickly dissolving into night.

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

Take My Hand, I'm a Stranger in Paradise, 2005
Scenes for Quiet Walls Series
Digital painting with personal photo for reference

See ALT for history.

#art #digitalart #digitalpainting

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 5d

Glorious.

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Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 5d

The Child Experiments with Looking Through a Magic Eye Glass
Digital photo with post-production
2006

See ALT for more on the series and explanation on how this connects with the prior two posts on art inspired by the breakdown on Spaghetti Junction.

#art #photography #fastfoodrestaurant #magiceye

Continuing from the two prior posts of works inspired by our breakdown on Spaghetti Junction, the night this happened, which was Halloween, our old musician van was carted off to await repairing, and we were carted off to a Burger King outside I-285 where we would wait for another someone to come pick us up. It was quite an adventure for Aaron--the breakdown, the police sitting behind us with lights flashing to make sure we didn't become a nasty vehicular accident while we waited for the tow truck--and I took this photo of him while we were eating and waiting for our ride. He was playing with a toy that had come with his meal. I don't remember what music was playing there but things were feeling rather magical, by which I mean that the atmosphere felt charged with potential creativity. I was working on several long-term projects and this photo became part of "The Child Experiments with Being" series.

On the series: These portraits were more collaborative efforts with my young son, than my simply taking pictures of him. He would prepare a situation and would ask that a picture be taken, which is how the series began. He wanted to see how what he'd dreamed up looked like through the eye of the camera, and enjoyed having it preserved--probably like most children. Then when I was working on a picture in post production I would ask him what he thought as we both conjured a photo befitting his dream.

On this photo: H.o.p. experimented with looking at the world through a magic eye glass that came with a fast food meal, and found it pretty magical.

Juli McKenna Kearns @idyllopus.bsky.social · 5d

Interstate Sunset, 2005-2006
Scenes for Quiet Walls Series
Digital painting (photo by artist for reference)
11 by 14 inches

See ALT for history.

#art #digitalpainting #digitalart

The arc of a highway overpass tinted orange with sunset.

That breakdown on Spaghetti Junction, which occurred at sunset and inspired the "Isis" painting (previous post), also wrought this one of the highway at sunset. It also inspired several other works, and I may stick with posting those today.