When Pigtails in Paint was established by Pip Starr in February 2011, it was just an interesting diversion, a way to share some of the material he loves. Little did he know what an important forum he had started. One of his frustrations (and mine) is how little material on web is properly documented and credited. Therefore, when he found interesting images that should be seen but with an unknown artist, he would present them as “Random Image of the Day” (RIotD) posts. That would keep the readers interested while he worked on more substantial material.

Once I started to work on Pigtails, I began to keep a sharper eye out for images that were worthy of note. At the same time, I felt a strong need to write and educate and so some of my posts involved extensive research and thought which, of course, take time. That did not matter, as I was only supplementing—and hopefully enriching—Pip’s work. Pigtails began to feel like a serious endeavor and when WordPress shut us down, we decided that despite the disappointing blow, we would continue, but not be such slaves to daily posts. We wanted Pigtails to be a steady and thoughtful resource. By now, I have collected a lot of interesting images that do not belong in one particular place or another and decided to revive the RIotD concept somewhat. That does not mean I will be posting every day, but I will be interspersing the more “serious” posts with these little gems.

I came across this image a few days ago in a progressive magazine called In These Times. There is nothing special about it; I just thought it was cute and given how the corporate media is content to exploit the cuteness of children for their purposes, it is refreshing to see it used for a more noble cause—in this case, protesting the expansion of genetically modified farms on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. This appeared on page 13 of the December 2013 issue.

(Photographer Unknown) – From In These Times (December 2013)

Some important updates: Things are happening so fast now, that I have been trying to focus on just getting things done rather than boring the reader with every new development. I intend to write an extensive essay entitled “Community of Practice” that will spell out new developments in more detail and how Pigtails will be serving as a kind of nexus for debate and a resource for young girl fanciers.

Right now, I am focusing on replacing the posts that were “lost” during our first shutdown and with the help of our new internet host, making the site more secure from malicious attack. And if Pigtails must be shut down again for some reason, the infrastructure of the site, the information and the images will not be lost.

We have also installed the proper applications that will allow us to post videos so the reader can expect to see more of that in the future.

Best wishes to all in the coming year, -Ron