May 5, 2024
by CrazySodomite.Tumblr.com
This piece reminds me a lot of my own journey with self-expression through fursonas; going from the bright-neon avatars reflective of my aesthetic tastes, to naturalistic ones more reflective of my physical appearance, and coming to respect both of them. This was a trend I saw with a lot of artists I followed in the mid 2010s, and in lieu of the current internet hyperfixations on all things 2000s nostalgia and sparkle-dogs, I feel like there's a lot of people reflecting on what that transition truly symbolized. This piece seems to be in conversation with that, whether on a personal or community level, and it uses such a beautiful array of techniques to do so with a surreal but incredibly warm tone.
What I would call my quintessential 'sparkle-dog' sona was Neon the Pegasus, a white pegausus with light-blue hair and bright-pink eyes, and my sona throughout my tweens whose mark can still be felt on my artistic brand. But in 2017, she was replaced by the freshly designed Onion as my new sona. She was designed with a more contemporary furry trope of a naturalistic coat with splashes of neon highlights on the paws, ears, and such, and my primary goal with her was to represent myself - the pudgy little black girl with 4c hair and circles under her eyes - and not the rigid technicolor fantasy of my interests. Neon nor Onion perfectly align with those broader archetypes, Neon isn't scene enough, and the first Onion was still a bit too colorful, but their ethos and energy still translates I feel. And in a way I try to capture through their OC roles in Neonverse, with Onion being a bridge between Neon as symbol of pure fantasy, and myself as a day-dreaming child.
For myself, and I believe for a good amount of people, this transition was motivated by two things: an earnest reflection of growing self-awareness, self-consciousness, and self-actualization, and the typical growing pain of pushing away seemingly immature passions in an attempt to grow up faster - or in the shadow of Cringe Culture, be more acceptable. Past the veil of both phases, its easy to look back on the first and see that pure, carefree artistic expression from a bygone era of the internet and yourself as your truest self, and the second as that desperate attempt at conformity, but there is a superficial and valid element to both.
The artistic rule-of-cool explosion of the sparkle-dog-type is a genuinely misunderstood form of expression that is worth reflecting on and indulging in, but its important to see how it also flattens and overshadows your identity as an actual representation of the self. Especially for some artists of color who's likeness isn't present in a lot of the old tropes of the style. Likewise, the naturalistic sona can be a wonderful way to deconstruct and examine more intimate and authentic aspects of yourself, but it can absolutely come across as a frantic attempt to distance yourself from those more eccentric and freeing attitudes, and indirectly fed into a culture that intimidated many young artists.
This conversation I feel is delightfully captured within CrazySodomite's piece, and in such a light-hearted and inviting way. The composition, colors, and rendering are the biggest highlights for me. The difference between the two characters is incredibly stark on nearly every level, but they're mutually complimented by a neutral black background and this beautifully detailed but muddy rendering style interestingly used for both characters. I think that rendering style is what makes it so unique - I could easily imagine a version of this that used a stylistic clash along with the colors to make a more pessimistic statement I'd see from artists during that naturalistic transition and still to this day. The natural fur could've been a dark blemish lost in the fantasy of the sparkle-dog, or the sparkle-odg a distractingly radiant alien in the reality of the natural fur, but it goes for a less adversarial style that gives this piece its warmth.
The style is obviously the most complimentary of the natural fur, but even as it renders compromising details for the fantasy of the sparkle-dog, it makes many concessions for it rather than seeming to force it wasn't designed for. This isn't even to mention the colors, which could be seen as an aggressive dichotomy, but in the context of the other details it feels far more like letting both subjects shine without compromise. It's some of the most expressive use of style and color I've seen in a while, and its what inspired that analysis and reading above. That care and equity given to both subjects is a visual affirmation of that mature reflection on what these two modes of expression mean, and the place they both have in the ecosystem of the furry and artist community.
The way they mimic each others poses with their own personal levels of affect but equal enthusiasm is heart-melting as well, and for all my waxing about personal artistic growth, reminds me most of two old friends reuniting after years of developing apart. The piece can either be read as two types of furry united in awesomeness, or as that more internal snapshot I expressed, and I truly love that about it. It is so simple in theory, but is so detailed in execution and has made me emotional as hell since I first saw it. I am of course partial to my own reading, but I think it's a product of my isolation from the broader furry fandom, and seeing the more interpersonal reading makes me yearn for it as much as I cherish my own internal journey.