More coverage of San Francisco photo gallery show opening, “Furries & Despair”

by Patch O'Furr

Please help answer the question at the end of the story!

“Furries & Despair” happened on 11/7/14. It was super successful. It featured portraits of fursuiters from Further Confusion by Ron Lussier, and Bobby Pin’s urban decay photos from Detroit. The show was packed with people having fun in and out of costume. You don’t often see such energy at a gallery.

Courtesy of Bobby Pin:

Thank you again for everybody that came out and supported our work. We hope you guys had a great time. It was great seeing everyone.
BAMM did an amazing job filming the opening night. Please give them some love.
Check out the wonderful video they did for the Furries & Despair Show:

This week in San Francisco: Independent shows and festivals offer new concept for furry events

by Patch O'Furr

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four events are back to back in San Francisco:  Fursuit crawl – Furry portrait show gallery opening – Wild Things fetish party – Frolic dance party.  

On Friday 11/7/14 is the “Embarcadero Fursuit Crawl“.  The street fursuiting fun will move downtown, to a grand entrance at the gallery opening for Ron Lussier’s Furry portrait show.   Ron’s creative partner, Bobby Pin, shares:  More Press for the upcoming ‘Furries & Despair Photography Show’!

Saturday has the “art and sex” party – Wild Things.  This furry fetish and petplay party has gotten tremendous response. (It’s for a special interest and adult activity doesn’t represent furries in general.)  Afterwards is Frolic dance party: the monthly “mini-con” that attracts several hundred attendees, and helped influence spin-off parties across the USA.

The San Francisco Bay Area has so much activity, that furries often have multiple events to choose from at the same time.  On Halloween there was a cosplay dance party, a house party, and a street costuming meetup.  Consider what it says about developing subculture.

Furries & Despair photography show – “An event people are going to love and talk about”

by Patch O'Furr

The show “Furries & Despair” features Ron Lussier’s fursuiter portraits, and Bobby Pin’s photos of Detroit.  The gallery opening is Friday, November 7 in San Francisco.  The press release has gone out, announcing a fursuit crawl to meet at the gallery.  This is an excellent event to support and have fun with the public!

• Facebook event page – for RSVP‘s
• Eventbrite – Free tickets
• SF Station and SFGate listings

Bobby Pin tells me:

40 People already got tickets to our show through Eventbrite.  23 People are coming to the show through Facebook and 32 are maybes.  I think it’s gonna be an event people are going to love and talk about for awhile 😛

More about Ron’s portraits:

• “Further Confessions” photo project puts fursuiting in an art gallery, and does FUN right.
• Five pro photographers advancing the art of furry documentary.

Here’s a press release to share as PDF:

“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!

Controversy and success: San Francisco’s Frolic party – interview with Neonbunny part 4

by Patch O'Furr

Interview series:  Artists, animation directors, DJ’s and event organizers, superfans, and more…
Neonbunny is founding DJ and promoter of Frolic. The 90 minute interview has 4 parts, with one a week posting this month.

• Intro: The most furry place in the universe?  
• Part 1)  Counterculture to Furry – Neon’s background in the SF Bay Area.
• Part 2)  Starting Frolic – Throwing parties, finding other furries.
• Part 3)  The furry scene – Frolic’s venue: The Stud – Promoting and operating Frolic.

4) Controversy and success – Music, DIY culture, Furry events, sex, drama, and more.

 

For many furries in the world, the San Francisco Bay Area is the place to be. For many in the Bay, Frolic is THE most furry place. It isn’t the only center, but it’s an influential one. It’s not just the best Furry party… I’d call it the best party San Francisco has, period.  Check out Frolic’s website, and read about it in The Bold Italic magazine.

Neonbunny, founding DJ and promoter of Frolic, met me for a long interview over dinner. His partner Jody who handles tech, lighting and animation was with us.  It was a year ago, just after they got back from 2013’s Burning Man event in Nevada.  Neon’s early trips to Burning Man led to discovering Furries in the early 2000’s, and making friends to help throw parties.  It turned into a scene connected to local counterculture.  Since Frolic started in 2010, it’s had nice success.  We talked about the wide roles of such events and their makers:

___________

(Patch:) I thought DJing would come before promoting shows, but it’s the other way around for you.

(Neon:)  I’ve always been musically inclined, just like I was inclined to wear animal costumes. When I was a kid, for Halloween, it was always a cat costume. My parents got me keyboard lessons. I was in a high school band, played drums, messed around with a punk band with some friends, and always into new music.

I pay attention to lot of electronic music, and gothic kind of stuff.  I hang out on a forum that has people who are almost legendary. It’s like, “I was listening to your album when I was a kid.”   This week I saw Gary Numan and met the guy from Cold Cave.  Some is going strong since then, some is having kind of a renaissance. 

I was into a lot of that in high school.  I was always into punk rock as a kid. Electronic music has some of the same aspects, it’s about self publishing – there’s a DIY aspect.  You don’t need a record label – it’s people publishing their friends.