Hanalei

But that’s the beautiful thing about art, isn’t it? Art is forgiving, and it rewards experimentation.

“Messy?” – sure, maybe, I dunno. But definitely assertive and deliberate, and kinda fierce! I like it

I’ve been saying “Paw bee” in my head

For me, there were several separate threads that all came together at one point.

In middle school, I was envious of my friends’ artistic abilities and I resolved to get better at drawing. This was during the heyday of DeviantArt and so I made an account and followed my friends. Traversing through people’s profiles and what they liked, just randomly surfing, I discovered the work of Melissa O’Brien (“Frisket17”) and I fell in love with their entire oeuvre.

Then I realized why I was so in love with her work specifically: for the first time, I saw depictions that closely resembled the world that I had built in my head – a sort of sunny, tropical spinoff of Redwall. And then I was like, oh my god, it’s not just me! I’m not the only one who wants to see this sort of thing. I wanted The Lion King but in a city. I wanted the beach episode of Redwall. I finally had a word for it: I wanted furry. And it turns out I could draw these characters, too – I could flesh out my own world AND get better at art. Win!

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the reason I had created my own world in the first place is because I desperately wanted an escape from my real life woes about gender identity and my sexuality. I learned through anthro art the relationship between the furry fan and their fursona, and I was like, “I want one, too.” I REALLY liked the idea of being a person, but WITHOUT the BS human limitations that were contributing to my gender dysphoria.

So, I guess I stumbled upon the fandom initially because I wanted to get better at art, but the reason I stuck around is because it offered a safe space for me to explore identity. That was the real awakening.

This is wonderful! I get good vibes from Weaver.

I literally said “Woah” out loud when I read the part where this isn’t the first time this guy has been fined on this scale for speeding. Totaling nearly 280k euros over the past 10 years! Seems like a perfectly fair price to pay for the obscenely wealthy – we know just how exponentially much more money the richest have compared to everyone else.