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The Fursuit is Art
11 years ago
As I am not sure that many folks read the forums, I am cross posting this here to generate some buzz, and gather feedback from others.
Therefor, would folks be open to the idea of making Fursuits a proper genre for submitting art? My goal is to continue educating customers, creators, and fans alike as to what a Fursuit is, what all is involved in their creation. Giving us a proper classification will help with that.
I have built costumes for 16+ years now for our fandom, and having seen costumes grow to become such a huge part of how we might express ourselves in our community. Up until now, on any art site, I have only ever been able to list my works as 'photography', or 'sewing' which sort of belittles the 100hours+ that costumers put into their creations/commissions.
As much as poetry, music, and drawn art gets their genres, I am trying to push Fursuiting as the unique art form that it has become. It would give us costume designers and creators the nod we muchly deserve. I don't make photographs of costumes, I build costumes, and then take a photo of them so I can show folks.
Cheers,
WhiteyFawks
Arend Studios
Therefor, would folks be open to the idea of making Fursuits a proper genre for submitting art? My goal is to continue educating customers, creators, and fans alike as to what a Fursuit is, what all is involved in their creation. Giving us a proper classification will help with that.
I have built costumes for 16+ years now for our fandom, and having seen costumes grow to become such a huge part of how we might express ourselves in our community. Up until now, on any art site, I have only ever been able to list my works as 'photography', or 'sewing' which sort of belittles the 100hours+ that costumers put into their creations/commissions.
As much as poetry, music, and drawn art gets their genres, I am trying to push Fursuiting as the unique art form that it has become. It would give us costume designers and creators the nod we muchly deserve. I don't make photographs of costumes, I build costumes, and then take a photo of them so I can show folks.
Cheers,
WhiteyFawks
Arend Studios
Asking the site admin, they suggested the Forum to post to. I registered, but have yet to figure out how to create a new post. The FAQ was rather unhelpful in that regard. I could also be a giant retard :D
Also, just doing a quick search for existing forum posts, the topic of 'Fursuit' generates a long list of posts. Sort of lends more credo to the fact that Fursuits are a pretty big topic item, whether it's commissioning, cleaning n care, or just people discussing them in general.
It indeed is an art, in 3D, scuplting, costume sort of sence, espceially as it has grown to be major part of the community.
- FS6/SSC
If fursuit is not art- then what is it?
Everyone that makes fursuits does have their own unique style, and it would be awesome to have this as a separate category to better see all of the creations that everyone makes. I ~completely~ agree that fursuit making IS artwork to itself, and is frankly a driver in why I think all of us choose ~who~ we want to make our suits! *wags!* We love the style... which is ultimately the art... from who we choose to make our suits want to see the creativity they bring!
Thanks for bringing this to light Whitey!! Who do we need to submit a request like this to for this change to be made?
I sent a polite note to the admin KryphosDrgn (friend of mine) and he suggested posting to the forums.
I like grass roots movements myself, so perhaps post to your journal would help spread the word as well. The more people discuss this, the better :)
It would definitely make it easier to look for good examples of suit crafting. Yes, please, by all means!
For me, who merely submit photos of fursuits, this works well. But there are a lot of costume makers on FA, and for them this is absurd (almost saying that fursuiting is a fetish) and I can see the problems with this arrangement.
I think there needs to be a new super-category of crafts, which would include fursuits and costumes, as well as other stuff like hats, papercrafts, models, and others.
(maybe until someday, we could download fursuits...)
I could see some people trying to make an argument for it being a work-for-hire, and they could be correct, but that shouldn't cause it to be identified any less as art because of it being a paid commission (Which music, paintings, animations, and drawings could can also be paid for as art.)
I think Fursuiting is close to cosplay, but in a way more. It's not you playing the roll of another existing character, ie pokemons etc. It is more personal, we roleplay as ourselves. It becomes an expression of a furry self that we can otherwise only express though intangible mediums such as RP and drawing. That level of personal expression is unique to our fandom alone.
And also agreed on the puppets... People could say "Jim Henson was a puppeteer and an entertainer" and as right as they would be, it does take a certain amount of artistry to be that creative to create those puppets and perform. Art is a very broad spectrum- heck I've seen some amazing art done with simple coffee lattes and foam milk.
I miss Barefoot Coffee Roasters. :C
in fact i wish people would use "type-> Fursuit (tame)" more often as ALOT of suits dont get listed under that and how the heck do ya find it elseways?
no one wants to dig through furaffinitys "all", thats just askin for trouble D:
There are so many styles of costumes being made now, a growing fursuit parts industry for hobbyists and creators alike, even folks specializing in refurbishing older costumes.
It ain't just 5 guys making costumes anymore. There has to be like 1000+ dedicated furry costume artists out there by now, worldwide, if not more. And these folks are making their living off it.
There is a lot more art in the fandom than we realize, and I think that's a fantastic thing. :)