Hey there! I’m a writer and cosplayer who lives where the madness tastes honey sweet!
I started cosplaying within the past year, really because of the 2020 pandemic and in order to pick up a new hobby to help occupy my time. I’d always admired cosplayers and the art form that is cosplay (combining the realms of makeup, crafting — foam and wood, sewing, and so on and so forth), but I had never quite had the time or the energy until now. And I’ve fallen completely in love with it.
There are many different sides to cosplay: people who cosplay by thrifting pieces and creating costumes from what they have in their house, people who commission seamstresses and artisans to create their costumes, and then people who create everything from scratch. All of these are valid expressions of cosplay, of art itself.
Cosplay isn’t my first introduction to the world of art, nor even the world of cinema and television. I hold a BFA in Digital Film Production and an MFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment. I worked as a ghostwriter writing fantasy novels for a time before I decided that job wasn’t for me and it didn’t quite fit with who I was. The same is true for when I worked as a video editor. It just wasn’t me, it wasn’t what I wanted to be creating.
But using art to explain the way the world moves? Explaining how art reflects the world? Simultaneously creating pieces that move people, that inform? That’s closer to the person I want to be.
There’s so much to the world of art that cannot be truly quantified. While art for art’s sake does exist, there is art that is indignant and violent. Art that is questioning and calming. Art that moves you and makes you feel something, whether or not you know what that something is. The truest version of art, whatever medium it takes (film, painting, ceramics, animation, or music), is that it’s meant to move something in its audience. To stir up an emotion, be it negative or positive.
Art often mirrors the state of the world, be it the politics or the economy or the current philosophy. It is through the state of art that we know who humanity is and what humanity is doing as a whole.
That’s what I want to share with you through this journey. The good and the funny. Game reviews and delving into the color theory of the animated film Tokyo Godfathers in comparison to Studio Ghibli’s film Porco Rosso. The dark and the mournful. The cruelty inherent in society that’s seen in the animes Danganronpa and Wolf’s Rain. All of these are things that cannot be ignored. The rampant racism and sexism in the anime and gaming communities, and within the world at large.
Just like life, there’s both the taste of sweetness and bitterness. Both go hand in hand, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.
What do you say, want to come along for the ride?
