Erin M Speckley

Submitting an art proposal to a gallery with media you're still in the process of exploring is intimidating. How do I show examples of work like the piece I'm proposing... when they don't exist (yet)? 😅

This is the facility that I and many others have been protesting. We’ve been hit, thrown, gassed, and shot with pepper bullets but none of that holds a candle to what is being done to people *in* the actual facility.

Read this thread. Don’t look away. Keep your eyes and the pressure on Broadview.

Crosstitch guide image reads “this machine kills fascists” with clipart images of an onion, a sub and a bottle of mustard

Was this the best use of my time today? No. Is it the most amusing way I could have spent the last 90 minutes? Absolutely. Pattern is free here: bit.ly/4nGGCGc

Uninstall Grammarly NOW. They've partnered with an AI company and actively scrape your writing to train its models.

A digital poster in the style of a World War II propaganda piece. Isolaed on a yellow background, a normal, squarish, 20-something guy with glasses is sitting working on a laptop. A ghostly figure of Hitler has his arm around the guy and is grinning and shaking a fist triumphantly looking at the laptop screen. On the lid of the laptop where an apple might otherwise be is an openAI logo, bright green, and dripping green ooze down the lid. Text on the poster, in combinations of sans-serif type and brush script reads: Using Generative AI? You’re prompting with Hitler! GenAI is a Fascist Project! Try using your brain instead Don’t surrender your creativity to the tech billionaire’s control

New awareness campaign

Mutual aid should be a threat to the state, not a substitute for its “failures.” It is saying “the state does not do this & will not do this because it is built to oppress & exploit.” Mutual aid is a radical act of caring for each other outside of those systems of oppression.

As SNAP benefits run dry, 'grocery buddies' are footing their neighbors' food bills With federal food aid frozen during the government shutdown, there has been a wave of people rushing to help — sending gift cards or buying groceries for SNAP recipients in their community.

Stories like this around people rising to meet the SNAP crisis are easy to frame as inspirational and I appreciate the reporting here that stresses that this is a crisis of the government's making with long-term consequences that individuals alone cannot fix.

#SaveSpeech

We need folks to hammer paypros, as the holiday season is a prime opportunity to clog up their call centers and have our impact be felt the hardest.

Need contacts, talking points, etc? use the site linked! It has a ton of info that is still relevant and useful!

If you wanna help your local food pantry/bank with volunteering or $, I recommend looking up what places you can donate to on findhelp.org
You can search by ZIP code!

It's also recommended you donate money over food. Banks/pantries are more set up to buy in bulk than most individuals

Today, I find hope in the large number of folks who are currently scrambling to find ways to help with the incoming lack of SNAP benefits. From coffee shops in Portland, OR providing free breakfast (no questions asked!), to folks setting up tables of free food in NYC

findhelp.org by findhelp - Search and Connect to Social Care Search and connect to support. Find financial assistance, food pantries, medical care, and other free or reduced-cost help in your area, anywhere in the US.

Findhelp.org is the first that comes to mind. They have a whole category for Food

But even still, every food bank and pantry in the country is likely to struggle with helping everyone affected by these withholding of SNAP benefits

It's so gooood!!

we can't get back the men we've 'lost' to these horrific ideologies because we never had them in the first place. it's been 84 years but dorothy thompson still says it best at the end of 'who goes nazi," which you should read if you haven't. the link: harpers.org/archive/1941... . the quote:

AI data centers are environmentally disasterous and directly harm marginalized populations. If you’re on Twitch vote against this…

Also, Fuck ChatGPT and everyone who uses it without caring about the repercussions.

I said what I said.

Like if we could just start with white supremacy is illogical-it's not a far jump to Antichrist walks among us. Recognize that white supremacy isn't a mental illness. It's an attempt to hoard power. Once you've embraced the fallacy of white supremacy, you have shown your judgment to be broken.

I’ve mentioned this before, but on time we had a troll influx, a lot of them posted AI, so I saw a lot of their posts while doing @aimod.social labeling.

Lots of accounts with nasty replies to “blocked post” abandoned their accounts within weeks and even days. The non-blocked ones kept trolling.

Ideal conditions for starting your passion project will never come. You will never feel skilled enough to make it. There will never be a moment where you stop being scared to start. Do it anyway. Do it badly. Do it scared. Just make that thing that’s clawing at the door of your soul; It wants out.

Paypal is now playing harder ball on artists, going after anyone even mentioning commissions.

Artists, send invoices. That way, no one has to say what the money is for on Paypal's paper trail.

Customers, SAY NOTHING about commissions. Just say "thanks" on donos.

Everyone: INCREASE THE CALLS.

Me, already very booked and feeling the start of burnout on volunteer stuff: Okay but what if I started working on getting a Repair Cafe in my area

(I'm not gonna do it, I was just thinking about it... 👀)

Braiding Sweetgrass

Zohran Mamdani: “Our Time Is Now” Last night at a campaign rally, Zohran Mamdani addressed his supporters: “For too long, we have tried not to lose. Now, it is time that we win.”

"In an age of darkness, New York can be the light."
This speech from Zohran Mamdani is high-octane hope.
jacobin.com/2025/10/mamd...

Fast fashion in particular along with the MASSIVE amount of labor exploitation when it comes to making clothes, has done a huge number on Americans' perception of a "faire price"

This is why I don't tend to sell things that I crochet or knit: if I paid myself fairly, few people could afford it.

Catching up on Cloudward, Ho! and my gods I want to live in Oda

A place where they focus on taking the time they need to develop tech and infrastructure, even if it takes decades/generations? With a gift economy, because there's plenty to go around for everyone? Sign me up.

Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to support public TV stations after federal funding cuts All profits will help public TV stations with licensing fees for popular programs that include "The Best of Joy of Painting" and "America's Test Kitchen."

Thirty paintings created by the bushy-haired, soft-spoken Bob Ross will soon be up for auction to defray the costs of programming for small and rural public television stations suffering under cuts in federal funding. https://to.pbs.org/4nEQMrw

You'll be more ready or what's to come if you flip the "they wouldn't do that" switch in your head OFF. And tape it down while you're at it.

Because yes, they absolutely would. And are at this moment.
And have before.
And always have, since the beginning.

Feeling discouraged or hopeless about the state of things?

This message from @focusedoninfinity.bsky.social is one of the most true and heartening things I’ve heard in a long time. ❤️

KOSA is now in red alert priority.

Please contact your representatives, dem and gop alike, and demand they oppose KOSA

We need to turn out in numbers against this!

I hope Tony Weaver Jr. has a guest spot on the Reading Rainbow reboot

Home Canada's favourite Indigenous retailer aaniin retail inc. houses dozens of Indigenous brands and businesses. Selling apparel, jewelry, accessories, and more (home goods, beauty, decor) based in Toront...

If you're wanting to support indigenous creators today, a place i look at often is a website called: ᐋᓃᓐ aaniin.
It's an online marketplace that hosts a variety of artists' works!
(They even had a popup store recently in Toronto!)

www.aaniin.shop?srsltid=AfmB...

I just got a VERY interesting email that allies in congress were upset that so many of my readers were calling about the anti-trans provisions. I'm here to say: good. I won't let them throw our rights under the bus by cover of night.

All's that to say, keep up the calls. They're hearing you.