08 | October | 2014 | Dogpatch Press

October 8, 2014

“Further Confessions” photo project puts fursuiting in an art gallery, and does FUN right.

by Patch O'Furr

“Further Confessions” gallery opening

Canessa Gallery in San Francisco. November 7, at 7PM – 708 Montgomery Street.

Portraiture of fursuiters can be tough to pull off with as much energy as in person. That’s why I love promoting “Street Fursuiting,” and candid photos of it.

Fursuiting appeals when it engages viewers to interact. It’s animated and tactile. Staging their play can dull that down. Less-successful efforts can look like a diorama of stuffed toys. Cartoony suit design may not blend with surroundings, turning long views into eye-straining barf.

But no matter how they’re executed, they make memories with meaning to those who were there. If you’re furry, you get it. Art for the uninitiated is just a different purpose.

Ron Lussier’s “Further Confessions“ project overcomes the “stageyness” barrier in a compelling way. He juxtaposes portraits with personality expressed in hand-written statements. They reach through the frame, and greet you as personally as a hug. This stuff does FUN right. I have to say it’s the best fursuiter portraiture I’ve seen, and I think it’s an honor to have Furries featured this way in an art gallery.

Fursuiters are invited to the opening!

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October 8, 2014

Philly’s “Unleashed” joins a New Thing of independent Furry dance parties. Call it- “Furclubbing?”

by Patch O'Furr

There’s a New Thing happening in lots of places. (And it doesn’t have to do with baby seals. Yikes!) unleashed

This is how it starts. Furry social life thrives when friends get together informally – like this 2009 meet in Ottawa. Ahh… I want to go here!

Frolic, the original Furry dance party, is a model. (Check this interview if you don’t know it.) Frolic founder Neonbunny says:

I think society in general, especially when we have the internet and different ways of finding very specific niche culture- I think subcultures are taking off. People like to party, socialize, and be around each other – and use the internet to find new ways to get together and be together in person, not just on the internet. The internet makes us feel a little isolated, and we try to balance that by going to these crowded events… It’s changed in the last 10-20 years, and more and more people are seeking these crowds rather than getting away from it all. It’s why countercultures are thriving. It’s about events. Whether it’s a Furry convention, or Frolic, or other get togethers, it’s about events.

“Furclubbing” is the New Thing that I see becoming a trend since the late 2000’s. It’s been spreading by furries influencing others to start formal events independent from cons. This builds on the growth of cons, and takes things farther.

Neonbunny defines it as: “A repeat/regular nightclub event by furries for furries. There’s probably a half dozen events. Then there’s probably been a couple hundred one off furry events done in a bar or other legal (non house) venue.” As Howl Toronto puts it: Con dances happen once a year, and “that’s just not enough to fill the need!”

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October 8, 2014

Historian and editor, Fred Patten, invites writers for “Furry Future” anthology.

by Patch O'Furr

Writers: check out this announcement from Fred Patten. He’s “one of the main founders of the furry fandom”. Between his fiction book editing, column writing for Cartoon Research, and Flayrah submissions, he took a minute to pass me a much appreciated note.

Dear Patch;

The Furry Future is an original-fiction anthology that I am editing for FurPlanet Productions. Here’s the open invitation for submissions that I sent out:

FurPlanet Publications has just opened The Furry Future, edited by Fred Patten, its forthcoming original-short story anthology for Further Confusion 2015. This will go on sale on January 15, 2015, so our deadline to accept proposed submissions is November 1, 2014, with the deadline for finished stories of December 1. Our goal is a book of 120,000 to 150,000 words, with from ten to fourteen stories by different authors.

We would like to invite all FWG members to submit a story to this anthology. Since both our What Happens Next and Five Fortunes have featured sequels to their authors’ previous stories, we would like this book to present original scenarios. No sequels. Show us what ideas you have for something new, with a strong furry theme.

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