This week on Lost Terminal: Seth builds a system, Yeshi has a realisation, and Nia gets to work.
Lost Terminal will return next week!
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The Ukrainian president's military-style attire was questioned by a Maga media star before he was upbraided by President Trump and JD Vance.

They held up pro-Ukraine signs on the route that the vice-president and his family were expected to take to go skiing.

Commercial beekeepers in Texas have lost about two thirds of their honey bees since June last year, according to a recent survey.

As the City of Austin prepares to demolish and rebuild its convention center, it has deaccessioned four public art pieces within the building and intends not to pay for the removal of the works. If they are not removed, the pieces will be destroyed upon the building’s demolition. 

The Austin Convention Center website’s Visual Art Collection page has not been updated to explain the future of the works in the building. In part, it states, “In keeping with the City of Austin’s Art in Public Places Program (AIPP), several iconic pieces were commissioned as part of the capital improvement budget for the original construction of the Austin Convention Center and subsequent additions. In addition to the public art collection, the Austin Convention Center Department began acquiring additional works by some of the region’s most accomplished artists, which can be found in various spots throughout the facility.”

The website lists 21 works of art as part of the collection, including a mural in the 2nd St. parking garage. Among the pieces listed on the website are prints, photographs, paintings, sculptures, and murals. One item on the agenda of the January 30, 2025, City Council meeting was to approve the deaccession of eight AIPP works, including four located at the convention center. These four works are Margo Sawyer’s Index for Contemplation (2002), a site-specific sculptural installation; Rolando Briseño’s Macro/Micro Culture (2002), an installation of giclee prints, which are permanently affixed to the walls; John Yancey’s Riffs & Rhythms (1996), a mosaic mural built into the structure of the wall; and Damion Priour’s Waller Creek Shelves (1996), a sculptural installation.

During the City Council meeting, various community members spoke up in support of the artists. Many questioned the need to demolish the convention center, which they categorized as “perfectly functional,” simply to rebuild a larger facility. Others questioned why the $1.6 billion budget for the structure did not include funding to support the removal of the artists’ works.  

Former Council Member Ora Houston remarked, “Dr. Yancey is a one of a kind artist whose work elevates and celebrates African American heritage and pride. That’s why, years ago, the city commissioned Riffs & Rhythms… Please ensure that his mural is safely removed and properly stored and protected so it can be prominently displayed in the new convention center. We are on the verge of Black History Month — allowing the destruction of a Black artist’s mural would be, in my opinion and the opinion of many others in our community, very disrespectful and embarrassing.”

Mr. Yancey, a renowned artist and Professor Emeritus of Studio Art at the University of Texas at Austin, said at the meeting, “Shortly after moving to Austin, I was commissioned to create and install the work titled Riffs & Rhythms at the then-newly-built convention center. With color and vibrant presence, this work celebrates the multicultural phenomenon of the various genres of Texas music. For 30 years, it has greeted millions of the attendees to South by Southwest and countless conferences and conventions… I’m here to ask the City Council to do three things: pause, assess, and preserve. I urgently request that you pause the accession because the current policy is obsolete and not applicable to current realities, it states, in the case of deaccession, the artist can reclaim the work at his or her expense…”

The insistence of the City that the artists reclaim their work at their own expense contradicts some of the artists’ contracts for their convention center commissions.  The contract Mr. Yancey signed in 1995 states, “…If the City shall at any time decide to dispose of the Work by means other than sale or trade, it shall by notice to the Artist offer the Artist a reasonable opportunity to recover the Work at no cost to the Artist except for an obligation of the Artist to indemnify and reimburse the City for the amount by which the cost to the City of such recovery exceed the costs to the City of the proposed destruction.”

By contrast, Ms. Sawyer’s 2001 contract states that if the artwork can be removed from a building or structure without damaging either the work or the building, the artist can remove it “at her sole expense.”

Regarding the artists taking on the removal expenses, Mr. Yancey continued, “This policy is unrealistic and unreasonable. In most cases, artists cannot possibly afford to hire the conservators, expert crews, and [pay for the] heavy equipment at their own expense to reclaim their work as stated in the outdated policy. Moreover, it is very possible, the current deaccession policy and the proposed act of deaccession before you today, may be in violation of the federal Visual Artist [Rights] Act of 1990, or the VARA act of 1990.”

While VARA protects artists from the “destruction, distortion, mutilation, or other modification” of their work, which would “harm his or her reputation or honor,” it does waive these rights when “a work cannot be removed from a building without” such alteration.

During the meeting, Council Member Anthony Seger, Interim Director of the Economic Development Department, stated the City had three companies come out to assess each of the works in the convention center, and in regards to Mr. Yancey’s mural each said they couldn’t move it due to its size. Council Member Seger recounted the companies added that the work “[wouldn’t] be the same even if you were to try to salvage it.”

Glasstire reached out to Jaime Castillo, the AIPP Manager, and Sue Lambe, the former AIPP Director and current public art consultant for the Austin Convention Center, for comment about the companies the City contacted to assess the potential removal of the works, and the money allocated for new art in the convention center budget. 

A spokesperson for the City responded and declined to share information about the specific vendors who assessed the work. However, they noted that in November 2024 AIPP requested evaluations of the four artworks slated for deaccession, and two of the three vendors provided cost estimates for the works, excluding the mural by Mr. Yancey. The spokesperson said, “The vendors indicated that [Mr. Yancey’s] artwork was permanently affixed to a site wall with mortar, making removal infeasible without significant damage and reassembly impossible.”

Regarding the budget allocated for new art in the to-be-built convention center, the spokesperson shared, “The project includes a $17.7 million public art investment, the largest in Austin’s history… While the budget prioritizes new artwork integration, [the Austin Convention Center Department] contributed funds to support the deaccession process, including documentation and assessments of removal feasibility. However, site-specific constraints and cost estimates ultimately determined that removal was not feasible for certain pieces.” The City’s statement did not specifically respond to Glasstire’s question of why some of the budget for the new convention center could not go toward the deinstallation of the artworks in the current building.

Donna Carter, an architect who was on the team that drafted the original AIPP ordinance in 1985, spoke at the City Council meeting. She commented, “Despite a decade of redevelopment discussions and over a billion dollar budget, the fate of these public works was addressed less than a year before scheduled demolition, the city identified four pieces they deemed, not a conservator, they deemed were not salvageable. They provided no assessment, cost, estimates, or conservator’s view on how they could salvage [or] essential steps in any preservation effort. This lack of planning contradicts the very spirit of a permanent connection, and this is a failure of leadership.”

Martha Peters, the former Director of Public Art at Arts Fort Worth who served as an administrator for Austin’s AIPP program from 1991-2003 (during the time these works were commissioned), spoke with Glasstire about national best practices around deaccessioning public art. She pointed to the Fort Worth Public Art Master Plan Update (2017), which states, “Deaccessioning should be cautiously applied only after an impartial evaluation of the artwork to avoid the influence of fluctuations of taste and the premature removal of an artwork from the collection. Prior to the deaccession of any work, the Art Commission must weigh carefully the interests of the public… and the interests of the scholarly and cultural communities.”

Ms. Peters went on to say, “For me, the issue is not about what’s ‘legal,’ but what is truly in the best interests of the City of Austin’s public art collection (all of the works being deaccessioned are of outstanding quality and have withstood the test of time) and these local artists, who were carefully selected to create site-specific works that reflects Austin’s diverse arts community to convention center visitors. I feel that the city is missing an opportunity to incorporate these works (or modified versions of the larger installations) into the design of the new convention center, or, at the very least, relocate the works to other city buildings so they can remain on public view.”

Ultimately, during the City Council meeting, City Council members voted to approve the deaccessioning of the artworks, with only Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes voting against the agenda item. Additionally, Council Member Zohaib “Zo” Qadri noted the concerns brought by community members, but indicated that if the agenda item was not passed, the artists would not have an opportunity to reclaim their work. 

He explained he would be voting yes for that reason, but went on to say, “I’m committed to working with my colleagues and City staff to explore solutions to address the challenges that have resurfaced… I look forward to collaborating on meaningful steps to support and sustain our creative community and in the upcoming weeks [and] months, we’re going to put pen to paper and get something done.”

Last week, a month out from the council meeting, Glasstire reached out to Mr. Qadri to follow up on what solutions may be in the works. At the time of publication Mr. Qadri had not responded to our inquiry.

Regarding the removal of her work, Ms. Sawyer, who is the niece of Harlem-Renaissance artist Aaron Douglas, told Glasstire, “I was never invited to have a discussion with AIPP, or the committee who had the discussions on what art to keep and what not to deaccession… The Convention Center only reached out when it was too late. No consideration for the importance of the art. No consideration for discussion and input until it was too late.”

Ms. Sawyer pointed to shifts in the AIPP leadership over the last two years as a potential cause for the lack of communication around the decisions about the artworks. Ms. Lambe stepped down as Director of AIPP in January 2022. Following her departure, Constance White served as Manager of AIPP from July 2022 until July 2024, when Mr. Castillo stepped into the role. 

Ms. Sawyer told Glasstire that she first learned in the summer of 2023 from a news article about the plans to demolish and rebuild the center. At the time she reached out to AIPP and her contact did not know about the plans for her art. On July 28, 2024, she received an email informing her that her work would be deaccessioned and that she could remove it at her own expense. 

Ms. Sawyer noted that she will work with a team to remove her work at a personal cost of $16,000. While the amount may seem small in comparison to the City’s budget for new art in the Convention Center, Ms. Sawyer explained that in order to make the removal possible, she is pulling money from her retirement funds to remove and store the work.

The post Artwork to be Destroyed in City of Austin Convention Center Demolition appeared first on Glasstire.

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. How do I give 360 feedback to my clueless coworker?

I have been asked to complete a 360 review for the junior staffer on my team. In general, I would like to only be positive in these, as that’s what I want in return! And I have never expressed these feelings to this coworker.

But he is like a little baby in the outfit of a 26-year-old man. He doesn’t have the general sense at work you’d like someone four years into their career to have — as an example, he scheduled our boss to meet with board members, assigning them a meeting time without asking them for input on their schedules. The problem is just basically that all the time — he is not supposed to be so entry-level but his work problem-solving skills are like me at 20, in my first internship. He’ll also do things like answer questions in a group setting that were clearly directed to someone with authority/experience.

What is a nice way to put this? I’d love to just say “Bob is eager and kind, but could really benefit from more training in X” but I don’t know what X is, because it’s not project management or tone or anything, it’s just having a clue.

The complicating factor here is that I am only one year older than him and not a supervisor, though my role is more senior, and my tenure with the organization is longer. But I am worried about overstepping by correcting his behavior in the moment. And I’m worried I may have bitch-eating-crackers syndrome with him, because I’m annoyed that he constantly says “Thank you” instead of “sorry” as we’re all taught to do — but sometimes, his incompetence has resulted in hours of extra work for me and he thanks me “for my leadership”! It probably doesn’t help that when I held his role, I was paid two-thirds of what he earns now.

What should I say in the review? Is there a succinct, kind way to describe the problem?

“Bob is eager to learn and kind, but could benefit from more coaching in problem-solving and political awareness (for example, checking board members’ schedules rather than simply assigning them a meeting time, or recognizing when questions in a group are being directed to someone with more authority or experience).”

That said, is there more to it than just problem-solving and political awareness? If his incompetence is causing hours of extra work for you, that sounds like there might be an issue with basic skills as well — so whatever that issue is, make sure you name it and provide a couple of examples to illustrate it too.

If you’re uncomfortable putting this in writing, another option is to talk to Bob’s boss and say, “Here are the things I’d like to give feedback on. I’m not sure how to put this in writing without being more blunt than I’m comfortable with since I don’t have any supervisory authority over him, so I hoped to get your advice on how to frame it / wondered whether I could share the feedback with you informally as areas for you to watch / wondered whether you could synthesize this into the overall feedback you share with him.”

2. High school career counseling is using ChatGPT

My high school student received an email from an employee of the school district advertising “ChatGPT Interview Prep” and “NLP for Interview Confidence,” supposedly teaching them how to craft strong interview answers from ChatGPT.

I’m surprised by this. I do think kids should learn interview prep, but maybe not this way. When I interview people, we can tell if they are only good at giving pre-planned answers that don’t go in depth; typically when we debrief, we’ve all noted they had the right answers but lacked depth/examples, didn’t get deeper on a line of questioning…

My high school kid also had to create a LinkedIn profile (not sure what why) and it is clear she used ChatGPT. I feel like it’s a lot of the same buzz words on LinkedIn, but using the words “reinforcing client relationship” in a job description for babysitter is funny.

What are your thoughts on a high school “career office” offering an interview prep workshop that teaches kids how to use ChatGPT to craft answers? Would you ask the school about this or weigh in with your professional opinion as a person who interviews job candidates? Should I be concerned about my district’s standards?

I assumed ChatGPT would be crap at interview prep, but to test that out I asked it to generate likely interview questions for a couple of jobs, and it actually did a decent job both of suggesting questions you might receive for those positions and of describing the sorts of things you should build your answers around. It would be terrible at suggesting actual answers (since those need to be based on your own experiences and expertise) but it was pretty good at explaining the types of things your answers should cover. So, depending on how the school is using it, it’s not the worst idea in the world, as long as they’re stressing that sometimes it ends up being wildly off-base.

However, the LinkedIn thing — no. I’m skeptical that most high school kids need LinkedIn profiles at all, and anything that results in describing babysitting as “reinforcing client relationships” is teaching them the absolute wrong lessons. And that’s of course part of the problem with ChatGPT; the person using it needs to have enough expertise to know if what it’s suggesting is good or not. A high school student won’t know what a good LinkedIn profile looks like, so might not spot it when ChatGPT suggests something insane.

Frankly, I’m not a huge fan of high schools teaching “interview prep” at all; they’re often bad at it, or the lessons center around the types of interviews kids aren’t likely to have until years down the road. But you’d need to know more about exactly what they’re doing to know if there’s something complaint-worthy here or not.

3. My boss keeps giving me conflicting instructions

My job involves compiling information into a short, standardized document. My manager reviews every document I turn in and frequently gives me feedback that contradicts previous feedback he has given me. For example, today he told me “when you describe Regulation 1, always include parts A, B, C, and D,” when in the past he has said “only include the part of Regulation 1 that pertains to this document, Part A.” The circumstances are exactly the same for the two cases, and this happens constantly. My instinct is that constantly redoing things to different standards is just part of my job and I should say nothing. Am I right?

With a decent boss, the right thing would be to say, “I want to make sure I’m handling these correctly. When I turned in the X document, you’d said I should only include the relevant part of Regulation 1, which was Part A. How do I know when I should include A, B, C, and D even if only one part is relevant, and when I should only include the relevant part?” It’s possible there’s some piece to this that would make it make sense — like that the first document had a different audience than the second, or some other reason that you’re not currently spotting — and so he’ll be able to give you helpful guidance on spotting that yourself in the future. Or maybe he just changes his mind every other day, who knows. But a reasonable boss would want you to ask.

If he’s a terrible boss — if he’s a tyrant whose whims of the day determine what’s correct more than reality does, or someone who reacts poorly to having it pointed out that he’s giving you conflicting instructions — that would change things. But otherwise, start by assuming you should ask.

4. I’ve been getting all my colleague’s meeting invites … for 10 years

I’m hoping you can help me on something that has been plaguing me for years. When I started at this large company, I was an admin assistant and my duties included managing the calendar of our director, so he added me as a delegate to his calendar in Outlook. Eventually I got another job at the same company, but I continued to receive all of his meeting requests. I reached out to IT many times and to the director, who always shrugged and said he’d ask IT.

No one ever resolved this, so I made an Outlook rule and sent all the meeting invites to a folder that I would occasionally mass delete. Over the years, twice I have tried to reach out to IT (but I was in a different department at this point) saying, “Hey, this started happening again.” They’d respond to say they would look into it and I’d check back but they hadn’t spoken to the director, and eventually they just stopped responding. I’ve just lived with this, thinking the director will retire long before I do.

Now there has been some reorganization and the director is in my department! I’ve also grown in my career a bit, and my circle and his has more overlap than before. This is a regular reminder that I have a folder of his meeting invites, and I’m starting to feel weird about it. Do I try to reach out to our joint IT person about it and pester it until it’s fixed? I’m worried that I’ll get in trouble for having had access to these invites for so long, but I truly don’t pour over the details or have any context for any of it. I was just an entry-level employee and it was an annoyance that I lived with, but now I’ve been here almost a decade and it’s starting to gnaw at me that I could get in trouble for this. What should I do?

You’re not likely to get in trouble for it; you asked them to fix it many times! But yes, reach out to IT now and say, “This is still happening, I really do need it fixed, how do we make that happen?” This time, follow up every few weeks until it’s dealt with. It’s ridiculous that it’s still happening.

5. Should federal workers state the obvious when writing cover letters?

Should federal employees applying for jobs in the private sector mention that they’re applying due to the decimation of government jobs, or would that be gauche?

I’m finding myself applying to jobs at a company I worked at for years and years that I had just left recently for the stability of a fed role. Clearly that did not work out! Should I address that elephant in the room in my cover letters, or assume the hiring manager can figure it out and just write a normal letter?

Just write a normal letter. They know what’s going on, and if for some reason they don’t and are curious about why you’re leaving, they’ll ask.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Following a contentious meeting where US President Donald Trump failed to convince Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a deal giving America access to Ukraine minerals, Trump received an from Russian President Vladimir Putin with the header “What did you do for me last week?” Trump, who spent much of the weekend […]

The post Putin emails Trump “tell me 5 things you did for me last week” appeared first on The Beaverton.

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Every social link story arc has a point where the character goes through some manner of rough time and needs their ol' pal Protagonist to set things right. They just have to hope it doesn't happen right before a new game mechanic gets unlocked, or else their problems are never getting solved.

Lottie doesn’t often flex her German these days, but as you can see, it was just as good as her French.

The post Poor kid appeared first on Bad Machinery.

The vice-president and his family reportedly moved to an undisclosed location from their planned ski resort as a result.

WASHINGTON D.C. – Following an explosive White House meeting that saw President Trump berate the visiting Ukrainian president and push Russian talking points, Zelenskyy opined that the entire dishonourable spectacle could easily have been an email. After flying ten hours from Kyiv to Washington D.C. only to be confronted on live television by Kremlin propaganda […]

The post Zelensky pretty sure disgraceful meeting could have been disgraceful email appeared first on The Beaverton.

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Man of Mata with OpenBlade stuck in their chest reaches towards METACITY. Fossangel stands by.

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A Texas health authority is warning against "measles parties" as the outbreak in West Texas grew to at least 146 cases, with 20 hospitalized and one unvaccinated school-age child dead. The outbreak continues to mainly be in unvaccinated children.

In a press briefing hosted by the city of Lubbock, Texas, on Friday, Ron Cook, chief health officer at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, offered the stark warning for Texans in his opening statements.

"What I want you to hear is: It's not good to go have measles parties because what may happen is—we can't predict who's going to do poorly with measles, be hospitalized, potentially get pneumonia or encephalitis and or pass away from this," Cook said. "So that's a foolish idea to go have a measles party. The best thing to do is make sure that you're well-vaccinated."

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Around 880 workers - including weather forecasters - are reported to have lost their jobs.

How large of a grid can you make if every row and column needs to be an English word? I made a simple solver to fully solve the question when using the scrabble dictionary.

Source code: https://github.com/HackerPoet/WordSquares

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TORONTO – In a province desperate for improvement on vital issues from housing to healthcare, voters who just made the logical choice to re-elect the same Premier they’ve had for the last 7 years say they are excited to learn exactly what the definition of insanity is. “Sure, I’ve complained non-stop for years about everything […]

The post Ontario voters excited to learn definition of insanity appeared first on The Beaverton.

SILVER SPRING, MD—As mass firings of career experts and scientists continued to roil the federal government, officials confirmed Friday that cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had left a single set of wind chimes as the sole predictor of approaching hurricanes. “In the wake of hundreds of layoffs at the National Weather Service, we would advise citizens to listen for the gentle tinkling of these wind chimes to gauge whether a tornado, flash flood, or other severe storm system is drawing near,” said NOAA spokesperson Andrea Kopit, expressing the administration’s hope that the characteristic jingling of the chimes in the breeze would provide information as accurate as that gathered from the former network of weather satellites, Doppler radar systems, and aircraft observation overseen by 12,000 staff members in an effort to prevent catastrophic property damage and casualties. “Unfortunately, the chimes are located in Topeka, KS, so many Americans will need to travel to listen for their sound in the breeze. The benefit here is there’s an elderly woman sitting on the porch below the chimes, and you can use the creak in her arthritic knee to get a read on shifts in barometric pressure.” The NOAA cuts followed layoffs at the U.S. Geological Survey that resulted in all earthquakes being tracked by observing the sudden rattling of a glass of water set on a table.

The post NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes appeared first on The Onion.

Tate McRae, the artist behind the pop hit “Greedy,” has released her second studio album, So Close To What. Here is everything you need to know about the singer.

Birth Name: You’re looking at it

Genre: New releases

Hair Color: Unknown

Aesthetic Inspired By: Early 2000s Carl’s Jr.  commercials

Fanbase: Teens whose parents can’t afford Dua Lipa tickets

Average Song Length: 16 seconds

Career That Would Have Actually Made Her Happy: Wildlife photographer

Greatest Accolade: Appearance on “100 Greatest Running Songs” Spotify playlist

Upcoming Rebellious Act: Swallowing her bubblegum

The post Artist Profile: Tate McRae appeared first on The Onion.

The topic was a budget request from a state agency. The exchange grew emotional when a lawmaker pressed for answers about a strategic plan that praises diversity.

Yoiker Sequera’s mother reflects on her fears after finding out her son had been detained in the infamous prison in Cuba for two weeks before being deported to Venezuela.

In brief: Houston has a really nice weekend ahead of us with 70s and sunshine. Next week gets a little trickier with a storm system Tuesday that could deliver some strong storms, followed by another round of very nice weather.

As the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo kicks off with the BBQ cookoff this weekend and the parade tomorrow and Mardi Gras rolls on in Galveston, southeast Texas will be treated to some really solid spring weather. But we will be watching next Tuesday for the potential of some stronger thunderstorms.

Today through Sunday

All three days should be partly to mostly sunny with highs in the 70s today, near 80 tomorrow, and back in the 70s on Sunday behind a weak little backdoor front coming from Louisiana. Morning lows will be in the 50s or upper-40s in spots. There may be some fog around tomorrow morning, and there is a chance of some fog clinging to the coast tomorrow afternoon. For Mardi Gras in Galveston, bring a hoodie. If you’re going to pre-Rodeo events or scoping out the Dynamo (and Messi) this weekend or anything else, it’s going to be great.

Monday

Much stronger onshore flow begins to establish on Monday, leading to warmer temps, higher humidity, clouds, and some patchy fog. A few isolated showers or pockets of drizzle cannot be ruled out. After morning lows near 60, daytime highs will probably push to near 80 degrees.

Tuesday

Tuesday is going to be an interesting day. There is a very clear-cut severe weather risk Tuesday as a disturbance and front approach. The question locally is whether the “cap” can break.

For those new to Houston or that aren’t familiar, often during springtime severe weather events, Houston’s geography allows it to be somewhat protected by what we call a “cap” in the atmosphere. It’s just a point above our heads where the air turns warmer and drier all of a sudden, which physically essentially “caps” how tall clouds (and thus thunderstorms) can grow to be. Houston often avoids the fate of the rest of the southern Plains’s reputation for being tornado alley in spring because of this.

The challenge for us, especially 5 days out, is determining whether or not that “cap” will be eroded or break. And that’s just not really a high-confidence parameter to predict. That said, the highest risk for severe storms on Tuesday will clearly be to our north. But the risk of some strong to severe storms close to the Houston area, especially on the north side of I-10 is not zero.

Otherwise, Tuesday looks breezy and warm, with highs around 80 degrees.

Rest of next week

Behind Tuesday night’s front, the rain and storm threat will end and much cooler, drier air will push back into the area. It looks like a wonderful finish to next week. High temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday will probably be near 70 with morning lows in the 40s and 50s.

Angeles Salinas embraces evolution. When I last spoke with Salinas, we discussed her Spring 2024 MFA exhibit. In that exhibit, she reflected on how her experiences as an immigrant, a single mother, and an artist converged to shape what ultimately became a successful show.

Now, her solo exhibition, Navigating the Labyrinth, is on view at Fl!ght Gallery at the Blue Star Arts Complex. Walking into the space, I was immediately struck by the different approaches and perspectives that Salinas’ work exudes, both physically and metaphorically. This new body of work reveals a raw and open response to her surroundings and the times, capturing a deeply personal journey.

Salinas creates sculptural islands, with each occupying their own pedestal. Collectively, the sculptures form her Archipelago series. The term “archipelago” refers to a group of scattered islands, evoking a sense of fragmentation and distance. By presenting each island separately, yet in relation to the others, Salinas highlights themes of isolation and interconnectedness, prompting viewers to consider the spatial and conceptual gaps between them.

Archipelago: I Am No Lifeboat presents a profile sculpture of Salinas’ face. Near the end of her hair, a nest-like structure cradles miniature chairs that rise from within. These chairs suggest occupied spaces, such as thoughts, recollections, and dreams, that are materialized in this tangible form. Chairs allow rest, work, and conversation to happen. The chairs symbolize relationships, obligations, and societal expectations embedded in the artist’s consciousness — simultaneously a burden and a site of growth, shaping her identity even as they weigh upon it.

Archipelago: Forsaken Place shifts focus to a different part of Salinas’ body. From the mouth of this ceramic piece rises a twig and a stitched blanket. The blanket references a lineage of care, creativity, and craftsmanship passed down through generations. Salinas’ grandmother was a seamstress, and sewing is a tradition rooted in her family. 

Yet, the sculpture also carries a somber undertone. If the mouth is “forsaken,” it suggests how women’s voices have often been overshadowed by the roles they are expected to fulfill. However, by exhibiting this piece in a gallery space, Salinas reclaims that voice, transforming an act historically associated with domestic labor into one of self-expression and autonomy. She challenges what “women’s work” could mean for Mexican women.

Turning our attention to the gallery wall, viewers find Salinas’ Malagros: they are Salinas’ spin on traditional milagros, which are small charms in Latin American culture that symbolize prayer. As I have previously written, “Malagros” is a term coined by Salinas, and they portray the negative answer of the mind to the endless search for answers in our lives. The Pin Cushion piece is situated within a frame of measuring tape. Salinas inserts several sewing needles into a pin cushion with this artwork. Painted clothing pins steady a spine. As a male art historian, I initially missed the deeply personal resonance of this piece, a realization that only became apparent in the hours after I saw this artwork in person.

Pin Cushion is a visual metaphor of the womb. The sewing needles, piercing through the cushion, symbolize the physical pain associated with childbirth, while the clothespins securing the spine hint at the burden of maintaining composure and strength. Salinas reinforces the idea that the womb — as a place of creation — is also a site of pain and conflict.

Angeles Salinas, “Pin Cushion, from the Malagros Series,” 2025, tailor’s measuring tape, acrylic paint, thread, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Angeles Salinas.

Navigating the Labyrinth shows how Salinas navigates expectations for Mexican women. Salinas pulls us into a deeper reflection on the complexities of identity and the struggle between tradition and self-expression. There is constant tension of being both shaped by and resisting the forces that seek to define us. As we encounter her work, we are forced to confront our own preconceptions, recognizing that the labyrinth that Salinas navigates is one we all share in some form. We are all searching for meaning, understanding, and ultimately liberation.

 

Navigating the Labyrinth is on display at the Fl!ght Gallery until February 28, 2025.

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BETHESDA, MD—Ushering in a new, highly advanced era of creepy-crawly warfare, defense contractor Lockheed Martin announced Friday that it had developed a giant tactical rubber spider. “With the introduction of this state-of-the-art rubber spider and its highly realistic, blood-curdling fangs, the face of combat has changed forever,” said CEO James Taiclet, explaining that the long-range, 250-foot-tall precision latex arachnid could be deployed anywhere in the world to scare the living daylights out of anyone in a 3,000-mile radius. “Enemy combatants are sure to flee when they see these immense, cutting-edge rubber spiders dropped into a war zone. Its power to freak out even the most well-trained military forces in the world should not be overstated.” Reached for comment, U.N. official confirmed they had drafted a resolution condemning the use of giant rubber spiders in war zones as inhumane and gross.

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CLEVELAND—In a well-meaning but ultimately futile attempt at emotional support, Chuck Fineman, a local husband who was no closer to fixing things, was thinking “Maybe hot dog will make wife feel better,” sources confirmed Friday. “Hot dog tastes good, and wife likes things that taste good,” Fineman reportedly thought to himself, putting together a plan to place a hot dog in a bun and hand it to his spouse that would have no measurable positive effect on her whatsoever. “Wife sad, but wife likes hot dog. Hot dog make wife happy? No, wife still sad.” At press time, an undeterred Fineman was said to be devising a new strategy after remembering that “wife likes hamburger, too.”

The post ‘Maybe Hot Dog Will Make Wife Feel Better,’ Thinks Husband No Closer To Fixing Things appeared first on The Onion.

VATICAN CITY—Revealing that he had quickly distinguished himself at the four-day invitation-only event, Vatican sources confirmed Friday that Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, a 75-year-old American prelate with a 3-foot vertical leap, had emerged as the frontrunner in the Papal Combine. “The College of Cardinals has produced some strong prospects this time around, but Dolan’s basilica agility time of 10.8 seconds has made this his papacy to lose,” said Catholicism analyst Dave Hutchins, adding that high-ranking members of the Holy See hadn’t seen vertical prowess like Dolan’s since the legendary John Paul II era. “These cardinals have been training their whole lives for this, but when the whistle blows for the 40-yard baptism dash, Dolan’s leaving them all in the dust. That 3-foot vertical is putting him way closer to God than any of the other pontifex maximus hopefuls. Every drill they run, Dolan’s at the front of the pack. He’s swinging that censer the fastest. He’s weaving through those cones and glasses of sacramental wine without spilling a drop of holy water. This is a cardinal in his physical and spiritual prime, and frankly, it’s an exciting time to be Catholic.” At press time, Cardinal Dolan had reportedly dropped out of the combine after a blood test came back positive for Protestantism.

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