As we had to shut down in December, it was not possible to make a January ‘Maiden Voyages’. A lot has happened and I am proud that through our supporters, the site was essentially up and running again within a month!
Our New Banner: By now, you have noticed the new banner. This one is a breakthrough in two respects: 1) it is an original work of art by a U.S. painter with a background designed by Pip and 2) Pip always liked the idea of a banner with the girl actually drawing the letters of the site’s title. The old banner has been archived in Pigtails’ third anniversary post along with all the earlier incarnations. The banner is only the start as we modernize and organize this site to make it more accessible.
I rather like the idea that the title is not immediately legible and that it takes a few seconds of work to make it out. That will make it more memorable, since people must actively engage with it instead of just glossing over it. Which, I think, is a fundamental reflection of what good art is about, so the banner better represents what our site is. There are layers to it. It would be easy to make it all very pretty and simple—that’s how my earliest banners looked—but girls aren’t just pretty and simple, and that’s the point. The title reflects that they can be rough around the edges sometimes, but to me that adds to their charm. And it’s one thing to have a simple design when you’re just starting out, but we’ve hopefully moved beyond that. We are a well-established site now, and we’ve been through a lot. The new banner I think captures that complexity. The girl has made her mark, so to speak, and it cuts against the status quo, violates the simply ornamental. Like our girl, we have made a mark, and we did so on our own terms. Anyone could post images that are simply pleasing and non-challenging–what we’re doing is exploring aspects of girlhood that much of society would rather we didn’t. There have been several attempts to silence our voice, but we didn’t let that stop us, did we? -Pip Starr, February 1, 2017
Our Domain Name: The change of the domain name was originally a practical matter because we were having trouble reaching the domain registrar to forward searches to the new IP. This has now been remedied. All links and references to pigtailsinpaint.com will now be forwarded to the corresponding pigtailsinpaint.org page. Please make the necessary adjustments to your search engines as the old name will be permanently retired in November 2017. The decision to stay with the .org designation was to give Pigtails in Paint a more institutional feel as the site becomes a more important clearinghouse on materials connected to the topic of little girls. One of the side effects of this change is that, for the time being, Russians now have access once again. In fact, Russian visitors currently outnumber Americans two to one! If this site should be blocked in your country, there is also a mirror site pigtailsinpaint.uk which will have a distinct IP address once the complications of mirroring have been solved..
Vindication after the Witch Hunt: Pip has mentioned the case of Mike Diana before on Pigtails. He’s the only legitimate artist ever to have been convicted on obscenity charges for his underground comic Boiled Angel that featured graphic depiction of violence and sexual abuse. There is a documentary in the works about this case. It will feature interviews with such comics luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Peter Bagge and Steve Bissette. You can see a teaser here, which is called The Trial of Mike Diana. The producers have been seeking funding for it on Kickstarter and they have been so successful that not only is the film completely funded, but they used some of the additional money to clear an outstanding arrest warrant on Diana in the state of Florida.
Closing the Barn Door: One of my associates discovered this interesting document online. It lists material considered inappropriate for viewing by imprisoned sex offenders in the UK. They include artists like Graham Ovenden, Jan Saudek, Hajime Sawatari, Jock Sturges, Sally Mann, Oliver Hill’s Garden of Adonis and nudist magazines. It also includes various texts on sexology and pedophilia which do not contain any “offending” images. The Ministry of Justice also flaunts its ignorance a bit; one of the banned books is Thomas Hamilton’s The Age of Innocence!
Will the Real Artist Stand Up? The October 2015 ‘Maiden Voyages’ showed two photographs falsely attributed to Lewis Carroll. An associate has found that one belongs to nude photographer J.L.M.E. Durieu mentioned in a short Pigtails post. The site identifying the real artist can be found here.
Orphans Looking for Names: When Pip became semi-retired from Pigtails in Paint, he wanted to make sure that important images and other materials were not lost and would eventually find a place here. These included a number of intriguing but unidentified photographs. So in addition to the restored ‘Dream Girls’ images that have yet to be identified, there is a new batch. So please take another look at the ‘Little Orphan Images’ page and help us find homes for these wayward pictures.
Most posts have been saved on Internet Archives Wayback Machine with the old address “www.pigtailsinpaint.com” (and the previous banner).
The old banners are also saved on Agapeta, they can be accessed from its “Links” page, I even have the two versions of the penultimate one (with and without the text at the top and bottom).
I don’t share Pip’s enthusiasm for the way the title is written in the new banner: first, if you don’t know it in advance, it is almost unreadable; next, the dripping paint gives the impression that little girls are incompetent painters. But I like the painting.
I really like the new banner since the image of the girl painting will appeal to larger audience but I agree with Christian about the lettering being difficult to read. I realize Pip intended the drips to reflect the technique of Jackson Pollock but I’m afraid most people won’t see that and just think as Christian put it “little girls are incompetent painters”.
I am so very glad to see you restored to us. I discovered Pigtails some time ago and have found it quite the most illuminating of sites. For one thing it has introduced me to a range of artists about whose work I had mostly been ignorant. More importantly for me, Pigtails is a beacon of rational intellectual resistance to the pernicious development of ThoughtCrime as a weapon to restrict freedom. Your previous service provider’s actions are a perfect example of the power of ThoughtCrime – it is merely sufficient to imply wrong-doing: there is no defence because, firstly, the action of viewing becomes a convenient indicator of the potential to do harm in the future and, secondly, the item viewed is axiomatically the product of historic exploitation. Therefore, the act of viewing makes one a present accomplice in past exploitation and guilty of harbouring future harmful intent. Thus the allegations of harm caused in the past linked to implied future intention neatly absolves everyone of the tedious task of proving anything. Even Orwell at his bleakest could not envisage an England that has become so morally debased as to welcome a revival of witch-finding.