Alyssa Harad
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alyssaharad.bsky.social
Alyssa Harad
@alyssaharad.bsky.social
9.8K followers 2K following 30K posts
Writer. Reader. I live in a box of paints. She/her. Banner: a detail from Remedios Varo’s Vampiros Vegetarianos. Three vampires in fantastical golden outfits sip fruit through extra long straws.)
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alyssaharad.bsky.social
I did get him a bigger basket but somehow he expanded to overflow this one too. (He remains completely devoted to it.)
A big fluffy ginger cat crammed cozily into wicker basket with a blanket. His tail, one ear, and part of his body overspill the edge.
December 5, 2025 at 8:09 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
With alt text.
The Troubles of a Book The trouble of a book is first to be No thoughts to nobody, Then to lie as long unwritten As it will lie unread Then to build word for word an author And occupy his head Until the head declares vacancy To make the full publication Of running empty. The trouble of a book is secondly To keep awake and ready And listening like an innkeeper Listening, not listening, for a guest, Torn be hope of no rest, And hope of rest. Uncertainly the pages doze And blink open to passing fingers With landlord smile, then close. The trouble of a book is thirdly To speak in sermon then look the other way, Arouse commotion in the margin Where tongue meets the eye But claim no experience of panic No complicity in the outcry. The ordeal of a book is to give no hint Of ordeal, to be flat and witless Of the upright sense of print. The trouble of a book is chiefly To be nothing but book outwardly; To wear binding like binding, Bury itself in book-death, Yet to feel all but book; To breathe live words yet with the breath Of liveliness; to address letters In reading eyes, be answered with Letters and bookishness.
December 4, 2025 at 12:17 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Night clouds.
Night. A murky horizon line of roofs and silhouetted bare trees with two lights on in fellow insomniac bedrooms. In the top third of the frame are beautiful night clouds, pale gray blue against deep Prussian sky.
December 2, 2025 at 11:08 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Courtesy of the Yale Center for British Art archives, John Constable's 1822 Cloud Study. Written on the back: "Sep 21 1822 past one o'clock looking South wind very fresh at East, but warm."
Small, scudding gray and white clouds against a background of higher, vertical cirrus clouds that barely let show a pale blue late summer sky. There is no horizon line.
December 2, 2025 at 2:51 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
The view from here.
Two fluffy bois, one ginger, one black, snuggled up to each other and me on a red couch with a rust colored blanket.
December 1, 2025 at 2:28 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
More glory clouds.
A wide v of rippling slate gray cirrus clouds lit pale pink on the edges and in spots. A bank of rippling slate gray cirrus clouds lit pale pink on the edges and in spots.
November 30, 2025 at 3:42 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Delicate daybreak.
A wintry dawn—a wide pale sky, half full of dark gray high cirrus clouds lit pale coral pink along the edges.
November 30, 2025 at 3:38 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
You guys I am so brave. So brave. I didn’t even wear a coat.
A nice healthy bunch of fresh Italian parsley.
November 30, 2025 at 2:25 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Beautiful winter light edition.
An arched window with spare leadwork framing a bare tree and a bit of street with a strip of green grass. The light is clear and cold.
November 29, 2025 at 10:12 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
An apple a day…
A soft pastel sketch of a red apple on a green background. The pastel sticks and pencils are surrounding the small drawing.
November 29, 2025 at 2:00 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Apples in progress.
A notebook with four patches of red and yellow and orange paint more or less on their way to becoming apples and a palette with a brush.
November 26, 2025 at 5:50 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Excuse me, I need you to look at the color of these perfect apples.
Four glowing red apples with a blush of yellow peeking out from under the red.
November 23, 2025 at 9:27 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
My longhaired white GSD laughing into the camera on a sidewalk covered in autumn leaves.
November 21, 2025 at 11:57 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
She’s pretending to feel guilty but we know better.
Fluffy longhaired white GSD with a slightly downcast look.
November 21, 2025 at 10:59 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Must have ordered this in a trance or a past life bc I have not a single memory of doing so but it’s fantastic, good job past me.
Cover of Surrealism and the Tarot: A Love Story. It’s a deep mauve with shadowy floating cards and one brightly colored tarot card, L’Etoile, or The Star.
November 20, 2025 at 1:21 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Muse or snack, you decide.
Two tangerines with long stem and leaves attached. Both come to a point at the stem end. The leaves are long, narrow and deep green.
November 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Having some fun (and learning a lot!) with the idea of “masters studies”—copying or doing a painting in the style of someone else to figure out what they did and get it into my hands, not just my brain. Self-portrait in the style of Maira Kalman’s Women Holding Things.
Front cover of Maira Kalman’s Women Holding things featuring a simple portrait of a woman with two amazing curls of black hair on here forehead, red lips, a yellow scarf and an orange too against a a peach background with a stripe of black to the left. The font is serif-fabulous hand lettering by Kalman. An equally simplified self-portrait of me against a bright orange background. My top is dark green and my face is a lighter green with splotches of chartreuse. My hair and scarf are in shades of brown, orange, pink and purple. My lips are pressed together and my brows are slightly raised above my glasses. Written on my top in Kalman’s hand lettering it says, Woman Holding Her Tongue.
November 16, 2025 at 11:01 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Wait what was that about entwined parsnips? 💕
Two parsnips that have grown twisted together.
November 16, 2025 at 10:26 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
It was worth it.
Gorgeous glowing rainbow chard in a black crate. Yellow, white and purple cauliflower.
November 16, 2025 at 9:55 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
I’ve had this giant spider ring in my drawer for years bc too fab to sell or give away but also…giant spider ring. Put her on this morning and now never want to take her off? I had to get to my mid-fifties, live through a pandemic and drastic life changes for her to make sense on my hand, I guess!
November 15, 2025 at 7:28 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Reposting with alt text bc omfg and they claimed shortages to drive up prices on top of this shit.
“I remember telling our CEO, “Hey, this plant in seven weeks is going to have 880 people infected and we’re going to shut that plant down,” said Spradley. “So that day hit. 883 people were infected because we were driving prediction with Palantir.” Though Tyson had the technology to forecast infections, the company didn’t use this data to heighten protections among workers in advance of projected outbreaks at its meatpacking plants, at least none that were made public. Instead, this software was largely used to protect Tyson, ensuring that infections among workers didn’t disrupt the company’s intricate supply chain. By forecasting worker infections, Tyson could plan in advance for irregular inventories from plant closures and labor shortages, as Spradley explained: “This plant’s going to go down, so we need to start shifting product to this place.”
November 14, 2025 at 5:47 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Somewhere between these two.
Mark Rothko's "No. 36 (Black Stripe)," from 1958. Three hovering soft rectangles of color, orange red, black on top of red, and deeper red mixed with some black floating on light red-shifting-pink/orange background. A black and red Rothko with a large center soft rectangle in deep brown-black, a smaller mixed red and black rectangle below and a deep black smaller rectangle above on a rusty brown red background.
November 11, 2025 at 8:12 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Wearing safety orange to the farmer’s market even tho there’s a distinct possibility someone will think I’m an interesting gourd and try to buy me.
A curly haired middle aged Jewish lady with black rimmed glasses wearing a safety cone orange turtleneck.
November 9, 2025 at 7:07 PM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Went to an art class where the teacher started by giving us little packets of air dry clay to make “a character” and this is where mine ended up.
A goose neck lamp with a little white ghostie spirit wedged into it in a way that makes it look like it’s flying.
November 8, 2025 at 7:36 AM
alyssaharad.bsky.social
Infographic from Oxfam: How Can Donor Governments Tackle Chronic Hunger? The three actions add up to 14 billion dollars a year.
November 7, 2025 at 10:54 PM