Hidden Goodies
Pre-production and in progress projects not debuted yet.
A Case for Fandoms
Exposé from Christina Hernandez on her experiences and inspirations for the upcoming solo art exhibition Metamorph.
Christina with City Scalers at a Convention, 2020 and Christina’s Merchant Booth , 2020
My path to art isn't a common one, but hasn't been a lonely one either. Rather than starting in art school or classes, I started out as a commissioned artist in the Furry Fandom. My path led me into more education, school, workshops, and independent projects. I developed a love of both art history and storytelling through traditional and multimedia mediums. Of particular inspiration has been the Romantic and surreal movements in art.
When the chance to create a solo show presented itself, it took a while, but I decided to make it based on my roots in the fandom. I wanted to highlight the people and experiences that have helped me reach out and grow as an artist and as a person. Most information about furry culture is from outside sources, looking in and making their own assumptions. With this exhibition, I aim to share this facet of my culture as someone with first-hand experience.
Self -Portrait: Mouse, Charcoal on specialty paper, 6” x 8”, 2019 and Puppeteer, Resin print assemblage, 5” x 5” x 4”, 2019
The Furry Fandom and Transformative Self Identity
Like any fandom, the Furry Fandom is a group of people with a common interest, in this case, anthropomorphic (human-like) animal characters. Most fandoms, such as science fiction or anime, center around specific franchises. The Furry Fandom is a little different in this regard. Most of our content is traded and commissioned of characters created within the fandom itself. Instead of idolizing and emulating outside characters, most Furries have something called a "Fursona", a Furry persona that represents us.
A Cutie Hyena, Digital photography from @ChiraFox, 2018
This Fursona is how we present ourselves to others in the fandom. Sometimes this is a close correlation to how we actually are but it can also be a way we choose how others interact with us. Several events and groups had their start in the digital world with personalized names and avatars. This led to real-world meetings taking on those similar dynamics. Names can take on more of an anonymous "online handle" quality. Our gender or LGBTQ status can be expressed without the stigma or judgement that we have faced in normal society. This is also a chance for many of us to embody roles we've always wanted to, such as being more outgoing or self-confident. Animal versions of ourselves also offer a unique way to describe ourselves in a deeper way than just physical descriptions. We're raised to attribute specific traits to certain animals. How we identify ourselves helps build a mental picture of our personality to others. It uses common symbols to provide a deeper meaning that we can latch on to.
Frame from raw footage taken at Texas Furry Fiesta by Maci Fox, 2020
This form of self-identification has a psychological impact on us as well. It's similar to the Proteus Effect observed in a 2007 Stanford University study by Nick Yee and Jeremy Bailenson. In this study, they determined a link between self-perception in virtual environments and the adoption behaviors present with those virtual avatars. This study identified a pattern of behavior where subjects developed mannerisms based on the appearance of their virtual reality avatars. It was also determined that this new learned behavior was present in subjects after they left this virtual environment as well. Similarly, in being able to embody these Fursonas it provides a safe environment to develop that self-image and the mannerisms that come with it.
My Process for creating Metamorph
The exhibition Metamorph is made up of a charcoal portrait series (Emerging Artists), an animation (Mouse) detailing my journey in finding the fandom that is displayed with process documents, and a few selected individual pieces of watercolor and sculpture to accent this collection.
Dreamer, Watercolor, charcoal on specialty paper, 2019 and a frame still from Mouse, Charcoal, Watercolor, Digital in Animation, 2020
The creation of this exhibition began with the idea for the story for Mouse. I knew from the beginning that I wanted an animation. One of my main drives for exploration into the world of art has been the need to give life to concepts and images that wouldn't be possible otherwise. Creating my own movement and relatable stories were always a part of that. Over several years, I've had a wide range of experience with 2D puppet animation and felt that this would be the ideal medium for me to use to convey my story: how discovering the Furry Fandom helped me cope with social anxiety and see things in a new perspective.
At the same time, I also started experimenting with charcoal as a portrait medium. This is also when I started my Emerging Artists series. The first image was based on myself and it grew as I moved on to other artists in the Furry Fandom. Everyone who agreed to be in this series sent me a selfie as reference. This selfie I used for cues in piece backgrounds as well to give things more of a distinct personality that was unique to the individual. I sought to show their Fursona characters as being deeply ingrained, rather than a costume that they wear. By using their physical human appearances as the costume and including the cues of zippers, strings, and rubber for that, my goal was to show how the characters we create take on a life of their own and change how we see the world.
Benni, Charcoal on specialty paper, 2019 and Kiggy Lou, Charcoal on specialty paper 2019
Once I’d created most of this series, I realized that my original idea of creating a digitally painted animation wasn’t going to work well with the portraits to create a cohesive show. While trying to think up some kind of middle ground, someone mentioned in passing that they thought I was making an animation with charcoal drawings. This got me thinking. If I could apply this same charcoal style to my animation, it would work to both solidify this show and effectively set the sort of mood I was going for. Normally this wouldn’t even be considered plausible for frame by frame animation, but 2D puppet animation (as I was already planning) would be a perfect medium to do this with. For the scripted shift in perception in the animation, I decided to use my other favorite medium, watercolor, to offset charcoal scenes and make my color scenes come alive.
In progress image for the animation Mouse, 2020
In the end, this meant the creation of a large quality of backgrounds and puppet pieces to make sure the animation still had that traditional and organic feel. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. In this first video, I made a progression of interwoven drawings and paintings to tell my story. I will be creating more videos using this method for various themes, pushing this aesthetic of painting in motion even further in future shows.
Metamorph will be exhibiting online on this website starting this summer due to social distancing and public safety.