Corel Gallery Clipart
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clipart.bsky.social
Corel Gallery Clipart
@clipart.bsky.social
3.8K followers 0 following 680 posts
In 1994 I bought a Corel Gallery CD-ROM with 10,000 clipart images. Thirty years later those images haunt this ghost story bot. Posts autodelete.

Credits: clipart from Corel; conversion, curation, code, and alt text by @samplereality.bsky.social
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clipart.bsky.social
MIDEAST.BMF
A brightly colored map of the Middle East. There are no country labels and of course Rod doesn’t need any. He knows this map by heart. He remembers catching a ferry in Cyprus, the Zeno. The ferry had been shelled the day before, but it was still seaworthy. All the holes were above the waterline. There were maybe a dozen passengers on board. Rod had sat on the deck, watching an old American man. The man seemed both impatient and reluctant to reach Junieh. If anybody asks, the man had said once to Rod, tell them I’m a writer.
November 11, 2025 at 8:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
PAC_COM1.BMF
The insignia of the United States Air Force command formerly known as the U.S. Pacific Command. Now called the United States Indo-Pacific Command, the command’s insignia shows a globe centered on the Indian and Pacific Oceans, topped by an American bald eagle with its wings spread wide. In real life the eagle on the insignia is brown. Here, due to an error in the original RGB colorspace and the conversion algorithm, the eagle appears to be blood red.
November 11, 2025 at 5:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
SUNSRAYS.BMF
The morning sun rising above a calm ocean expanse, the golden rays radiating upward from the horizon like beams of angelic light. Rod never tires of the sight. It’s been years—decades even—since he’s touched down on land. Too dangerous. Too toxic. His ship is a self-contained universe, bobbing up and down on the endless blue-green waters. He perfected the techniques of life at sea long ago. Desalinization, a small key lime tree, the fishing nets and seabird traps. The only thing he really misses from before is college ball and a beer on a Saturday afternoon. He doesn’t even miss his riches. What would they be worth to him here? What would they be worth to anyone?
November 11, 2025 at 2:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
BOXERI.BMF
A boxer in the ring, his gloved hands raised and ready to fight. Despite his size, strength, and speed, in 10 seconds flat he’s KO’d, lying on his back in a pool of spit and blood. He looks up from the mat in a dazed, thousand-yard stare. Is it just his imagination or does he see flurries of ash floating down from above, burying the boxer and everyone else in a black blanket of soot.
November 10, 2025 at 11:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
5CORPSL1.BMF
The should sleeve insignia of the V Corps, formerly known as the Fifth Corps, of the U.S. Army. The insignia is a white pentagram divided into five smaller blue triangles. The V Corps fought in WWI, WWII, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and, much later, Northumberland.
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
SIGN204.BMF
A highway speed limit sign that reads “Maximum 100 km/h.” Suz turns to Deb and grins. We’re not in Kansas anymore, babe. Suz hits the gas and the Jaguar jumps up to 150 km/h. Deb screams.
November 10, 2025 at 5:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
PLAIN_2.BMF
A thin line with several symmetrical flourishes. A circle, a diamond, an oval. In typography, this line is called a “dinkus.” A dinkus separates sections of text, for example, subsections of a book chapter. Rose is a fan of dinkuses. Her manager, Tony, says she’s too much of a fan, in fact. She inserts them in PageMaker unsparingly, and some clients have wondered why their menus, their brochures, their cookbooks have these quaint horizontal lines peppering their pages. Tony stands outside Rose’s cubicle and taps on the wing panel. Hey, he says, the Fletcher account? Just lay off the dinkuses, okay?
November 10, 2025 at 2:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
WOLF_ST1.BMF
A color portrait of Stephen Wolf, the lawyer and whistleblower who famously exposed the parabiological misdeeds of Anderson, Wake, & Howe. For weeks his photograph was plastered across Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Reports, not to mention the New York Times and Washington Post. For a time, Mr. Wolf seemed like a hero to a nation sorely in need of redemption. Things soured for Mr. Wolf when, as a counterattack funded by a mysterious anonymous source, the National Enquirer began publishing its own photographs of the whistleblower, alleging (without evidence) that Mr. Wolf’s trademark uneven mustache was a sign of moral—and possibly cognitive—failure. Mr. Wolf went underground shortly thereafter. We won’t be hearing from him again for quite some time.
November 10, 2025 at 11:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
RHINO2.BMF
A grayscale illustration of a rhinoceros in three-quarter view. The head of the rhino looks vaguely like a triceratops, its horn massive and sharp. Dr. Slife is a connoisseur of horns, nails, and teeth—essentially anything organic and bonelike that exists outside of the body. The rhino horn, like your fingernails, is made of keratin. It’s hard. But—and this is perhaps what Slife admires most about his profession—not nearly so hard as teeth, the hardest, densest part of any human body.
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
THROATGL.BMF
An anatomical illustration of the human throat, showing the larynx, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, carotid artery, and trachea. We commonly attribute the defining feature of our humanity to either the head or the heart, but Red disagrees. It’s here, in the larynx—the voice box—that the ancient Greek physician Galen and Red both pinpoint the root of everything that makes us human. Red knows this, because he’s observed that deprived of a larynx, the sound a person makes is inhuman.
November 10, 2025 at 5:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
PETREL.BMF
A petrel in flight. A seabird that spends most of its life on the water, the petrel allegedly got its name for the way its feet skim the surface of the ocean as it flies, recalling Matthew 14:28-29, when the Apostle Peter walks on the water at Jesus’s command. Rod scoffs. He doesn’t take much stock in the Bible, even though he knows it well, thanks to Reverend Sluice. Rod watches a pair of petrels skitter across the ocean like stones skipping across water. It’s the next part of the verse that rings true to Rod. Peter realizes the improbability of what he’s doing and starts sinking. Yes, better not to ask questions when the impossible happens. Embrace it and forge ahead. Have a little faith, as the song goes. Rod turns to face the cloaked visitor who appeared on deck from nowhere. Rod says to him, Okay, we have a deal.
November 10, 2025 at 2:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
BALLOON1.BMF
A rainbow-colored hot air balloon. Two figures stand in the basket, marveling at the world below. This is clipart #23 in “Clip/Art Film”—roughly 5 minutes into the 24-hour cinematic masterpiece. At this stage of the viewing, the audience is still giddy with anticipation, thrilled to be among the few chosen to watch the underground film. There’s a celebratory air in the abandoned asbestos factory where the illicit screening takes place, and the rainbow-colored hot air balloon seems to reflect the audience’s optimism. A cheer goes up. Someone tosses his bucket of popcorn into the air, and a shower of buttery popped corn rain down upon the crowd in the asbestos factory.
November 9, 2025 at 11:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
DZAR.BMF
A grayscale illustration of a national emblem or coat of arms. The bulk of the image is perfectly symmetrical, the right side mirroring the left. Each side has an olive branch and a small crescent and star symbol. In the lower center of the emblem is a larger crescent and star, the only element of the emblem not mirrored. Mark had the toughest time figuring out what country this emblem belongs—or belonged—to. He scoured Wikipedia, Reddit, Google Image Search, looking for the source of the emblem. He even described it to ChatGPT. Everywhere, he came up blank. It’s as if this flag were hoisted above a nation that refused to submit to Mark’s curiosity. Then one night he received an anonymous Signal message from a number in China. The message said simply: Algeria.
November 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
WARHOLA1.BMF
A portrait of American pop artist Andy Warhol, with his distinctive white-haired wig. “Before I was shot,” Warhol once wrote, “I always thought that I was more half-there than all-there—I always suspected that I was watching TV instead of living life.”
November 9, 2025 at 5:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
BUSHNEL1.BMF
A color portrait of Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari. He’s portrayed as a young bearded man, smiling big, the consummate showman. After selling Atari to Warner Communications, Bushnell founded Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre. Bushnell resigned from Chuck E. Cheese in 1984, but rumors persisted into the 21st century that he still possessed the code for a secret kill switch that could shut down every animatronic character in every restaurant at once, in the event of a robotic cabaret revolt. If you’d witnessed the Dolli Dimples incident in Akron, Ohio, in 1980, when the animatronic hippo glitched during a blues number, smashing the piano and ultimately maiming a 6-year-old boy, you’d pray at night that kill switch is real.
November 9, 2025 at 2:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
PARROT.BMF
A grayscale illustration of a cartoonish parrot. The bird looks quite jovial. But I assure you, Rod says to his jailor, Petey’s as vicious as they come. The jailor scoffs and slams the cell door on Rod. The bird suddenly darts from his perch upon Rod’s shoulder and squeaks across the cell’s threshold before the heavy steel door closes shut. Less than ten seconds later the jailor lays in agony on the concrete floor, his eye sockets a bloody mess. Petey grabs a ring of keys from the jailor in his beak and delivers them to Rod, squawking, “Time to fly, time to fly.”
November 9, 2025 at 11:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
SGNMOUSE.BMF
An illustration of an adorable mouse with a Tyrolean hat, wearing a sandwich board sign that reads “Stock Up and Save!” Patrick “Dutch” Dugan recognizes the mouse. He’d know those whiskers anywhere. It’s Artie from “Maus.” Jesus Fucking Christ, Dutch gasps. This is it. I can finally sue Corel and they won’t have a damn leg to stand on. It’s payday.
November 9, 2025 at 8:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
FLORAL_9.BMF
A square floral design on the corner of the calling card of one Mr. Breaves, undertaker and sole proprietor of Grouls House. Mr. Breaves proffers the card with his long white fingers, and you accept. I will call you when the body is ready, he says in his high breathless voice.
November 9, 2025 at 5:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
LIONCUB3.BMF
A grayscale illustration of a lion cub looking directly into the camera. There’s nothing in the background. It’s solid white. The cub could be roaming free on the Serengeti or behind bars in a zoo. Or entirely CGI, an animal conjured out of magic. Which do you think it is?
November 9, 2025 at 2:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
VINE_LL.BMF
A drawing of trailing vines, suitable for a decorative accent on a wedding invitation. Or at least that’s what Ann supposes. There were no printed invitations to her wedding. No announcements, no showers, no receptions. It was a thing that just happened, something she seemed to observe from afar. Her whole marriage has been an extended out-of-body experience. It’s happening to someone else, not Ann.
November 8, 2025 at 11:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
1ST_SUB.BMF
A yellow triangle inside of a blue triangle. Sailors use this international maritime signaling flag to repeat the meaning of the first flag in a series of flags. For example, the flag signifying M followed by the flag signifying O followed by this flag would be understood as MOM. Rod flies these flags often, in his dreams aboard his ship rocking gently in the cove.
November 8, 2025 at 8:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
PIERCEF1.BMF
A color portrait of President Franklin Pierce. On one hand, he’s generally considered to be the worst U.S. president in history, whose disastrous policies led directly to the Civil War. On the other hand, he’s a hottie. Downright dashing. America gets the presidents it deserves. Pierce died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 64.
November 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
LILACS.BMF
Lilacs in full bloom, the soft purple flowers luminous and fragrant. Lou recollects one of the poems the funeral director recommended for the memorial prayer card. “Look for me where the lilacs grow / Miss me yes. But do not weep.” The poem was schmaltzy. Sentimental. Dianne would have hated it. Lou broke down in sobs. It took everything he had not to punch the funeral director.
November 8, 2025 at 2:17 PM
clipart.bsky.social
MANDIBLE.BMF
An anatomical illustration of a human mandible or lower jaw. Dr. Slife studies the model in his study late at night, fingering the mandible back and forth between his hands. On one level Slife knows—of course he knows—there are eight teeth per side. On another level Slife suddenly realizes there is a profound disconnect in the symmetry of humans between their hands and their mouths. Five digits per side. But eight teeth. As if human mouths contained the kernel of binary exponential mathematics, the realm of calculators and computers. Eight teeth per quarter. Sixteen per side. Thirty-two total. The next step in human evolution is obviously—though the thought has never occurred to Slife until just now—sixty-four teeth. A mandible is a computer, thinks Slife, a little high now from his homemade whippet. In the shadow of the study a barely visible figure in green smiles yes in agreement.
November 8, 2025 at 11:17 AM
clipart.bsky.social
CLOUD.BMF
Children, shall we draw clouds? Make them white, and puffy, like cotton balls gliding lazily through the sky. Don’t they look so delicate, children. So fragile? Yet what marvels the cloud contains! Children, do you know where your pictures, your movies, your songs are? Why, in the cloud! And so much more the cloud contains! In the cloud, dear children, you’ll find the blockchain, crypto, AI! All floating serenely in the sky, a peaceable kingdom in the air. Look up children, and praise the cloud! May it forever roll over your mortal heads, unsullied by earthly whims and desires, vices and violence.
November 8, 2025 at 8:17 AM