{"id":175,"date":"2026-07-03T22:56:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T22:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/?p=175"},"modified":"2026-07-08T18:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:40:14","slug":"a-siren-sings-sweetly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/03\/a-siren-sings-sweetly\/","title":{"rendered":"A Siren Sings Sweetly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"769\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/kissprintsmall-769x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7509750784273247;width:380px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/kissprintsmall-769x1024.jpg 769w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/kissprintsmall-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/kissprintsmall-768x1022.jpg 768w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/kissprintsmall.jpg 1138w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Best Day Ever!<br>September 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"576\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26-06-29-15-05-14-206_deco-576x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-177\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.5625037482694044;width:377px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26-06-29-15-05-14-206_deco-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26-06-29-15-05-14-206_deco-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26-06-29-15-05-14-206_deco-768x1366.jpg 768w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26-06-29-15-05-14-206_deco-864x1536.jpg 864w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26-06-29-15-05-14-206_deco-1151x2048.jpg 1151w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/26-06-29-15-05-14-206_deco-scaled.jpg 1439w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">March 2026. The print in the back is a digital painting I did of a young <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shigeru_Mizuki\">Shigeru Mizuki,<\/a> who has inadvertently become the patron of my work space. It&#8217;s not the image commonly associated with him, as the light of fame did not illuminate him until he was middle aged, but I really love <a href=\"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/mizuki_autore.jpg\">this picture of him<\/a> at his work desk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"769\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/atmosphericoct2025optimized-769x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-178\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7509750784273247;width:376px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/atmosphericoct2025optimized-769x1024.jpg 769w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/atmosphericoct2025optimized-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/atmosphericoct2025optimized-768x1022.jpg 768w, https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/atmosphericoct2025optimized.jpg 1138w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Charcoal and graphite on Bristol board<br>11&#8243; x 14&#8243;<br>October 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hello!  It&#8217;s hot out, isn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The San Antonio Spurs lost on the feast day of Saint Anthony, which I think is very funny.  I wish I could experience Knicks summer in NYC a little bit, but the reality is, I don&#8217;t want even want to leave the block I live on most days.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My sincere belief is expecting people to be productive when it&#8217;s hot like this is morally wrong.  When this kind of sun touches your skin, you&#8217;re going to get stupid and sweaty no matter what.  While I can think of many things to do in that state, work is not one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, I&#8217;ve actually been pretty productive lately. Since I&#8217;ve last posted,  I&#8217;ve finished writing up two notebooks I keep in my purses and transcribed another (which felt like a great relief, since I&#8217;ve been working on that since last September).  Most importantly, I submitted a short fictional story to a contest.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like I have said before, the difficulty is not in making stuff. I have a lot of stuff. For me, the difficulty is in publishing. How to I share something that is true to myself and sustains my everyday living without being subsumed by what others want from me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, I can only find out through my own instincts, my own pace.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anyway, this is the epic conclusion of my kiss print series!  Thank you for witnessing.   While I had fun making and sharing, after a while I felt compelled to keep buying products (inadvertently in the same shades), so that&#8217;s that.  Through this work, I have learned that I actually don&#8217;t want to go back to analog painting at this time, as I would have to either wear gloves or wash my hands constantly to prevent my nails from staining.   That&#8217;s fine once in a while, but sounds unbearable as a consistent, everyday practice.  While I do enjoy the physical act of painting, what attracts me most to oil painting is the prestige it holds, how it is undeniably considered &#8220;art.&#8221;  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is that really love? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I would say not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello! It&#8217;s hot out, isn&#8217;t it? The San Antonio Spurs lost on the feast day of Saint Anthony, which I think is very funny. I wish I could experience Knicks summer in NYC a little bit, but the reality is, I don&#8217;t want even want to leave the block I live on most days. My [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deevaldes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}