coyote is a boy

CLICK HERE FOR THE GOOGLE DOC FILES

My name is Wylie Blais and I have graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a concentration in Jewelry and Metalsmithing. As some of you know, I focused this entire year on trying to describe some parts of feeling canine through my artwork and it is the work I presented to my faculty to graduate. I also have spent time at Massart studying architecture for two years before switching departments, and had a few medical issues to held me up. This has been a long journey.

I have included notes from my review board, the senior show, the show I put on in my parent’s house, and my future aspirations for this work. All of this material is available via google docs. I am making my review notes available, my statement is public, and you can always visit my website wylieblais.com. I have some images here, but to see all the images from my review and from my house show, please see these google doc files. Because I am (almost) sure that I am the only therian making 3D work about being a therian, I see no point to not sharing these pictures and documents freely for education purposes. They are not to be distributed or reprinted for commercial purposes whatsoever. Feel free to link to my work, share my documents, and email me if you have questions or concerns (wylieblais@gmail.com).

From my review notes you can tell that no one questioned the validity of my experiences, and were genuinely intrigued. I have never had a better review at Massart than my final review, which made me feel as though there was a future in this work for me and that I had actually made work that made people think, if even a little. I mention this in the face of numerous documentaries out there about the therian and otherkin experience: I am controlling my own media right now by trying to find a way to talk about being a canine person in the real world. I urge anyone out there who is a fine artist and a therian or otherkin person to reconsider any desire to show their identity through their work but didn’t if they were worried about ridicule. I have found nothing but curiosity and safety in the art community and personally feel as though the dialogs of art, craft and design may do us as well as those of other academic fields. While science and religion are two important spheres for understanding nonhuman identities, let us not forget that the arts are powerful languages of expression and exploration. If you are working in your craft currently and want to talk shop with another artist, please contact me. I have so far only known of O. Scribner as a reference for someone within the community making a very direct attempt in the arts to represent nonhuman identities and I would love to be educated otherwise.

I am in no way done with my journey as a fine artist now that I have graduated. I have been recently invited to a local show where I can continue to show the work I made this semester, and have numerous projects I expect to work on. I dream about an exhibition where many artists could display works specifically from the place of nonhuman identities and the questions it would inevitably ask. If I ever have the resources to facilitate either an online exhibition or project I certainly will. This work is my passion  and no matter how long it takes, I want to make a long body of work describing who I am. Sculpting and performance are my natural go-to forms of language, and I imagine there must be others out there who have craft and wish to express themselves outside of writing. I hope to meet you in the future, other artists, and that we can discuss our similarities and differences through our pieces.

To those who have given me resources, time, editing assistance, critique, and all the help you know you have given, I cannot thank you enough. I send thanks to my friends and family who help me (and generously! Gosh I’m lucky) and to many strangers and anonymous identities on the web. THANK YOU.

Project List

·         Mania’s Doe

·         Coyote Hide Masks

·         Fox Mask

·         Phantom Teeth

·         Desiccated

·         Stealing Skin

·         Coyote Hat

·         Coyote silicone cap and phantom paws

·         investigations (various)

·         Meat Neckpieces

·         The Princess

(Please note this has been cross-posted)

A series of three jaw pieces in sterling silver with real coyote teeth, molded from my mouth.

My mouth is full of teeth that aren’t mine. They are uncomfortable, they hang from my mouth, they disrupt my chewing. I chose to represent my mouth as something malleable, silver, and white as bone while the coyote teeth are real since to me they often feel very real even if they are were they don’t belong or make sense anatomically. Phantom sensations for me are not often the same, and don’t map to my body in logical ways.

I have worn these. More photos to come!

Mania’s Doe

A piece in response to yourdeer’s neck piece from 2011. Pelt from lilmissdoeeyes of deviantart. I have included a photograph of the piece being shown in the 2013 All School Show.

“I do not feel graceful; usually I feel colossally awkward, and something about deer speaks of that awkwardness to me. Being spooked about nothing, the awkward indignation of being disturbed, the skittering flight are all deer. These things are aspects of the romantic stereotype, but I do not perceive them in a romantic way. I do not think being deer makes me mysterious, desirable, or delicate. ” - Yourdeer, 2013

Coyote fur scraps

This one is very simple and is just an inverted coyote face I had that had very little ear fur left. 

You guys saw the first post with the fox mask and coyote mask from the all school show, but, I thought I’d provide for you some more shots of it. One is how I made it, the other is on my body. 

Fox fur scraps, glass eyes.

Coyote fur scraps.

I’ve been pretty inspired by the taxidermy process of re-hydrating  stretching, and gluing hide in a shape. I form it on human foam heads and use layers to glue it in place. This one is very comfortable and tight, and the construction prevents me from opening my mouth. The fur comes inside and out, twisting, there are partially developed ears and a full pair, and the nose is missing on the coyote on one hide as it blends into my own nose. I think a lot about my own phantom sensations as I make these masks.

Just a quick phone shot of some jaw pieces made of metal and canine teeth I am making. I have this one (silver), another one in bronze, and 3 more ready to be cast. I can’t decide on if I like the silver or bronze more and I need to photograph them I think before I can commit. This is from a cast of inside my mouth.

(Olga is always in my photos by accident.)