Eights the Cat is TEN!
Eights’ birthday was a little while ago (February 28) but she’s still TEN! She’s been pretty healthy over the years—let’s keep our fingers, toes, and whiskers crossed for more good luck. This delightful typeface, Brasika Display, was designed by Nurron Shodiqin and published under his foundry, Nurrontype. My photo.
AI use can be very problematic
Using AI to make art, music or writing can be very fun, and feel creative—I have some AI art on this website—but indiscriminate AI use can be problematic for creatives in particular—and the world in general. I’ve stopped doing it entirely and I hope you do too. (See this Wikipedia article for an extensive exploration […]
Recent protest signs and posters
The acronym from “All Cats Are Beautiful,” ACAB, is commonly used to stand for “All Cops Are Bastards.” I designed this sign as a fun way to amuse my friends and troll law enforcement at protests. I love these smiling kitties! I bought the illustration from stock content site Shutterstock, by artist Meranna. I saw this […]
Happy Valentine’s Day 2026
This is the Valentine’s Day wreath on my front door. It’s a wicker circle with pink maribou feathers and a red metallic heart garland wound around it. Whatever you’re celebrating* today (or not), Eights the Cat and I hope you have fun! *Being in a relationship, being single, having great friends, loving your kid(s) and/or […]
Late for Boxing Day—Eightses in Boxes
Whoops! I got distracted by life yesterday and forgot to post this Boxing Day photo of Eights the Cat in her new box, previously containing presents. Yes, I know every day is Boxing Day for cats. Here are more photos of Eights in things.
In praise of family and friends!
Whether you celebrate specific holidays this season or not, I hope you’re able to spend it in the company of those who mean the most to you. Eights the Cat hopes you remembered to put squishy puréed meat treats in your cat(s)’s stocking (I did). Both of us hope for better news here and worldwide […]
My beloved first cat Lucy (RIP), ready for Christmas Eve!
Lucy was the only cat I’ve ever had that would tolerate wearing hats. She died many years ago but I still miss her like crazy. Isn’t she beautiful? Here are some other photos from that same photo session on December 4, 2007. Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays from Nicola, the Gods of the Fathomless Deep, and Eights the Cat!
Wishing you a joyous holidays season, and let’s hope for good news in the coming year! BIG NEWS! I’ve told some of you this already, but I may be moving to Ireland in 2026, to escape the growing fascism here. My citizenship-by-descent will probably come through in June or July 2026. I may leave as […]
Award-winning political protest signs
Here are some signs I’ve made to protest against Tesla and the Trump regime. The “FINALLY” design was voted a “Best New Sticker” in the #TeslaTakedown Contest, with hundreds of entries and over 5,000 people voting. For the signs, I’ve been using Avenir Next Heavy for headlines and Avenir Next Condensed Medium for copyright information […]
Lucy’s the Cat’s “Memory Box” – (TW: pet death, grief)
This is Lucy’s “Memory Box,” where I keep mementos of her life. It usually sits on a shelf in my closet but I take it out once a year on the anniversary of her death, September 28, and go through everything. I’m posting some of the items on this page. Today is the 17th anniversary. […]
Neko Font, in honor of Lucy the Cat, 1991(?) to 2008 – (TW: pet death, grief)
Seventeen years ago today, I lost my beautiful sweet Lucy Cat. Lucy was skittish and terrified when I first got her, hiding under the bed and only emerging at night to eat. I decided to take on gentling her as a project, but that soon turned into just loving her up. She eventually graduated to […]
Saturate, map gradient, repeat. Manipulated photos from my collection.
“Concrete Bunny” started with a photo of a bunny face drawn with chalk on a sidewalk. A Paris Daisy in my neighborhood. They’re yellow in real life. A photo of Wax Begonias, flipped and rotated to make a repeating pattern, then heavily posterized. I cut the extremely complex shapes for this 18″ x 8″ steel […]
Flower and plant identification using the Seek app
Lately I’ve been using an app called Seek, which identifies flora and fauna in your designated location. Seek is available for both Mac iOS and Android. It’s super fun! You just point your phone at a plant or animal and it tells you the scientific or common name (your choice). I know most of the […]
Three Arrows symbol
The three arrows emblem was designed in 1932 in Weimar Germany for the anti-Nazi political group the Iron Front. I’ve adopted it as a general Anti-Fascist symbol, for these troubled times. The image above is a photograph of a pewter pin which I wear clipped to my jacket. I also have a black embroidered patch […]
Fun with AI Font Friday – blending images
OK, I’m still playing with Midjourney AI image generation software, but this time using my own images to avoid copyright infringement. This round actually involves some fonts, or rather, Midjourney’s attempts at type. None of the image generation software I’ve found is currently good at reading, understanding or reproducing text, although it may (but doesn’t […]
Phasing-in Fauna Font Friday
The images below are from Midjourney AI image generation software. Midjourney shows blurry intermediate images as the final art is being created. I’ve been capturing these as screenshots and using them as art in their own right. I’ve recently discovered that users can specifically tell the bot to stop at XX percent rendered by using […]
Pics ’n Vids from Nicola’s Burningperson 2023
Here’s a bunch of visuals from Burning Man (or as we should all call it, Burningperson) 2023. Follow the day-by-day retelling below, or just jump directly to the photo gallery or videos. This year I attended the event as a member of the Flaming Lotus Girls (FLG), a woman-run, all-gender art collective based in San Francisco. […]
Eyeball Youball
Behold what Max is holding up! It’s an art piece I made (with a lot of collaboration!)—an 18″ x 8″ steel eye socket with copper leaf and a red resin eyeball that lights up. It will be attached to one of the “pods” of Mutopia Evolution, a fire sculpture by the Flaming Lotus Girls that […]
THREE of my designs were chosen by the Burning Man organization for printing as stickers to be given to all participants
The greeters at the gate of Black Rock City, the temporary city built by Burning Man workers and participants in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, hand out welcome materials to everyone entering. Among these are always stickers emblematic of the event in general or that year’s theme. THREE of my designs were chosen by the Burning […]
Firefly Fox-bird Friday
I was recently authorized to try out the Beta version of Adobe Firefly, the company’s offering for AI image generation. Adobe has since thrown open the gates and anyone can use Firefly Beta, no waiting. (This post isn’t about fonts at all, so it’s not really a Font Friday, but this AI stuff is too […]
How to make a cup of time
With a purchased clockwork mechanism, you can make a clock out of almost anything, but this is my favorite. Materials: A melamine cup. Melamine foodware was mostly made during the 50s and 60s so you can often find cups at thrift or vintage stores. You can also find modern-day melamine cups in camping or baby […]