swandog

Not sure if this qualifies as fanart, but I was listening to "Underwater" on loop while drawing it. (Narwhal mermaid mom and her baby playing in the moonlit sea.) ~SD

Oh, nevermind; seems I had just not reached the end of the thread, where the more recent stuff was, lol...sorry about that. XD Anyway, here's something I just posted to the fanart gallery, that was done for the MIKA contest over on FB, which was about how his music makes you feel...I feel so many things when I listen, depending on the song, but I wanted to focus on this particular song, because hubby and I were just at Pride here in Norway, and it was the most wonderful, loving, welcoming, freeing experience we've had in so long, and we both needed it badly, due to the depressing way the world seems to be going right now. "We Are Golden" just really summed up how we both felt at Pride, with rainbows painted on us, golden glitter in our hair, and an ocean of dancing, singing, parading, happy, carefree, beautiful people of all ages all around us. That song also takes hubby and I straight back to the 80's (when we were crazy teens), so in many ways it makes us feel young again, and we really can't thank MIKA enough for that, as well as for all the rest of his wonderful music. <3 Also, the part about "not giving a damn about the family you come from" holds true for me, because I had to cut ties with my very bigoted family, and they would never be caught dead at Pride...Their loss, because I have a new family now, made up of all of my friends, many of which are LGBTQ+, and Pride felt more like a family reunion to me. (Also, I love magpies, the Latin name of which is "Pica Pica", and I love glitter and rainbows, so I just had to draw MIKA as a magpie, as the song mentions, holding the Pride flag, and wearing the same necklace, bracelet, watch and hat that I spotted in various photos of him!) ~SD

Hey all, just wanted to ask if there was a more recent thread for posting fan art, or is that just the fan art gallery itself? Thanks, ~SD

Lovely work, all of you! <3 I'm still working on something that I hope to post soon. ~SD

Thank you everyone for reading my intro, and for your warm welcome and kind comments; I already feel at home here, and look forward to getting to know you guys better! <3

For those of you who may have read my hubby's long intro, I'm "Panduck's" American expat wife, and I just wanted to chime in to say hello to everyone as well, and state that I've very rarely had any new musician affect me as deeply and instantly as MIKA has, after hearing the rest of his music. Previously, I had only heard "Lollipop", years back, and thought it (and the vid of course) was awesome, but I never knew there was really anything more. I hadn't even heard "Grace Kelley", so I was pretty much totally in the dark (which is partly my fault; I'll explain below), until my hubby pointed me to more of MIKA's music that he had found last week (we have basically the same tastes in music, thankfully!). I'll be 45 this month, and grew up with all the classic artists, having faves spanning from the 50's to the 90's, and for decades I firmly believed that no new pop artist could ever be on par with the best of them, or even come close, so I had pretty much stopped listening to the radio after the 90's. No offence to any of the other new pop artists, but almost everything I've heard played in restaurants, bars, shopping centres, gyms, bowling alleys, the public pool, the doc's office (and everywhere else that plays current, mainstream "hits") just ground on my ears and nerves, and I would often just want to plug my ears and flee those spaces to avoid hearing any more. And any modern music I did actually love was by obscure artists that you would never hear on the radio anyway. So I stubbornly stuck to my massive retro playlist on Spotify, and in frustration and despair, gave up hope of ever finding any new artist that was worth listening to, aside from a rare few that might have one or two decent songs. Thus I never really even bothered to look any further than that, which was rather close-minded of me, I know. :P But then...finally, thank heavens...I heard MIKA's other songs (literally, everything I could find by him), and it was like...how can I explain it? Like opening your eyes and seeing the world again for the first time...or seeing a whole new world you never knew was there, and immediately plunging headlong into it. It was--and is--completely overwhelming, and I'm still reeling from it, a week later. I can't even wrap my brain around it, or put it into words...I guess maybe the lyrics to "Underwater" sum up best how I feel. So all this is to say...I really can't thank MIKA enough for enabling me fall in love with new music again, for bringing back that joy, hope, depth and life to music the way I remember it used to be for me. For filling my eyes with tears, and sending chills down my spine. For lyrics that painfully grip and rip into the very core of my being, and melodies that set my spirit soaring free. For making me feel young at heart again and helping these achy old bones to dance once more. My only hope now is to be able to see him in concert someday before my health gives out and I can't travel anymore (I have MS). In the meantime, I plan to try to do some fanart to show my appreciation, since I'm better with pictures than words. Anyway, thanks for reading this far, if you did, and it's nice to meet you all! <3 ~Xenia ("Swandog")