This has indeed been a strange year. For the first time in a while, no interesting tidbits have come across my desk to share with you (except artist leads). It may be a bit premature, but I am introducing Phase II of Pigtails in Paint.

Phase II: As Pip trusted me more and more with leadership in the development of this website, a picture began to form in my mind of how Pigtails should evolve. In the beginning (Phase I), posts had to be produced that defined the range of our subject matter but also to show others how it ought to be done—how to survive and be of service in a hostile world. In many ways, Pigtails has accomplished its mission. I’d like to think that a sincere interest in the “Cult of the Girl Child” need not be so stigmatized and can be an opportunity to learn about ourselves. The idea behind Phase II is that the site ceases to be a blog but a central resource on this subject matter. We are far from completing all the posts that need to be done so technically we will remain a blog for the foreseeable future. Pip has often said that besides the fact that we cover the arts and media, the site itself is, after a fashion, a work of art itself. Producing art requires inspiration and apart from all that is going on in my personal life, I have simply not been motivated to move ahead with several posts I had planned. What I hope to do during the summer is make a push to complete the ‘Artists by Name’ page (still have only completed through the letter “B”) so that readers will know which artists appear on our radar and which do not. Also, it is an opportunity for readers to suggest small items that should be added so people can do digging on their own—such as the titles of books relevant to this site or other websites with good coverage of a particular artist. That is, we are going to focus on organizing the leads we have received for all to see. After artists, the other miscellaneous categories will also be filled in. Generally speaking, Phase II is a database development stage of the site but there are still a lot of items to add to the blog as well. Readers who would like to research and write about any artists (or subjects) listed in the archive are invited to do so. As always, I am around to edit the work and make sure it stands up to our usual standards of quality and accuracy. Of course, we will continue to accept messages and comments as before.

Allied Sites: A couple of pages will need to be added to make Pigtails in Paint a better resource. A page will be added with links to sites allied to our own and organized according to content type (or what I sometimes refer to as a contrivance).

Essays on the Human Experience in the Modern Age: I suppose this may sound kind of ambitious, but I have been encouraged to take what I learned and put together a kind of thesis about the human condition (perception, projection, inspiration, affirmation, spirituality, sexuality, etc.). I had many ideas on how to begin this project and have finally come to the conclusion that Pigtails is not the right place for it because much of the material strays pretty far from the narrow focus of the girl child. She is an important figure to be sure, but she is one piece of an incredibly interesting puzzle and I strongly believe that those with the capacity to take it all in will find their lives enhanced by the experience. Therefore, I am going to publish the essays on another site which has wider scope and when I have enough material under my belt, I will share the link. Here’s a clue: we should remember that we are not the only ones to be subjected to a witch hunt and it is foolish not to glean pleasure from that which makes us different.