coyote is a boy

Starting work on sculpting a werewolf paw-hand for my next project.

From this, I’m practicing making 2-part plaster molds with the intention of doing a slosh-cast of silicone. I’m practicing on just fingers for now, which is why you can see me detailing them, cutting them off, etc. I have extra hands I cast in case I can do a whole hand, but something makes me think that I can’t use the 2-part mold for a whole hand. I would have to do an injection cast and I’m not skilled enough yet to try that in the next few days. The clay work is fun, though!

I’ll be coloring/painting detail on the silicone itself, not sure yet if I’m going to fur the silicone gloves or do some other process to have another texture. For now I’m thinking more of just getting the look right of having paw pads and claws. I don’t know where I’ll go with this but I’m happy to be learning this process.

Some context about modern artists and whether or not they care or will make work about the animal people communties and otherkin. I saw a comment on here yesterday concerning my work as perhaps one of the few fine artists using their craft and position in the fine art world to share their identity. I will repost this comment and a statement I need to make about myself, my peers, and the community at large.

I’m getting social dysphoria from realizing the outside arts community is all human. :/ And identifying online as a human, causes me dysphoria. Yesterday, I thought of joining some art sites and admitting my non-human status. Because I cannot stand the discomfort of hiding this part of me. Shutting up who I am inside, fucks with my artistic energy, and it stifles me as a person. So this person is very inspirational to me. 

This is from user immachdracht. I don’t mean to point you out, but, I find this sentiment interesting and contrary to my own. I hope that me posting this will help you feel safer and more comfortable in the art community.

Above are some works that I am leaving identified from the senior show here at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. While these works were not made with non-human identities in mind, they are made with the ideas of identity and animality and human-animal relationships and empowerment. These are just merely three pieces of work being showcased today and these are by no means the only or top works concerning these ideas. There are many, many, many artists right now working within these conceptual guidelines and perhaps a few scattered across the world are identified as non-human people. They may, or may not, ever make work about it or talk about or they do but I may not hear of them, etc.

I am now one of those likely few who are less concerned with fantasy or escapism (such as furry artwork - of which, I am a fan regardless) and I am devoting myself for an indiscriminate amount of time to this particular community and highlighting our actual experiences and needs. I do not entirely know what that means yet, but, I assume it will eventually mean an alliance with other artists who may or may not identify this way. But, they will understand me and work with me. My own metals studio has embraced me and have been supporting me all along with these works. There are artists such as the creator of Theri There and Becoming Dragon who have questioned these identities, and there will be more.

There is no need to worry that the art community may not understand you and that they will not accept you for your work. It is up to you to find the proper media and stage to share your ideas. You can commission artists, collaborate with them, or become one yourself. Heck, throw your ideas at me and perhaps I can use them to make work for us all with your unique concept. But this is not at all a community opposed to who we are and what we stand for. Perhaps they just do not have enough of us doing our own duty to stand up for ourselves rather than wishing others would or for the right opportunity to just fall in our laps.

My time is now, and, I will move forward with the belief that this is the right place for me to present my ideas. I hope anyone else who is a maker and identifies with non-human sentiments will do the same.