Painting A Portrait Of A Furry

K. Guillory elevates art with Virtual Reality.

K. Guillory recently invited a furry into her home for a live painting session.

The model saw Guillory’s home as she had scanned it, and the painter chatted with her foxy virtual subject as her hand carried a brush across the physical canvas.

Portrait Of A Furry by K. Guillory

“Painting The Internet is an art series where I invite people from various online games to literally sit down in my home and speak with me about the cool things they do,” Guillory explained over email. “This doesn't just limit my interaction to the VR community, either. If I can make a game work with my headset and I can upload a custom map to a game, then I can transport my living room to whatever game I want.”

The first episode in KG’s series offers a look into how she painted WHSPRS:

“When the interviewee sits down I'll talk to them while painting them. This first episode featured some blind contour drawings and one experimental acrylic painting. WHSPRS, my guest, is a virtual musician-turned-rock star who is also part of the furry community.”

KG says the art practice she’s exploring doesn’t have a formalized name — “its artists are still sorting that out “— but “Immersivism” is one of the terms associated.

Her explorations continue:

”All of the experiments I've done are to answer one question: what happens when we start physically painting cyberspace, and aren't just sculpting and building worlds in it anymore? What happens when that art crosses physical boundaries? How do we analyze it? How do we apply art criticism to it? How do we teach it to others? Does this art prove cyberspace exists if we're painting what we see and feel about it?”

KG shared over email a few more images of her art exploring cyberspace. I found myself really captivated by this one, titled Wide Open Spaces.

Wide Open Spaces by K. Guillory

I’ve seen artists doing “plein air” art with their headsets before and there is a long history of creativity in digital spaces like Second Life. I highly recommend visiting the Museum Of Other Realities for those looking to experience some incredible art. KG’s work here instantly caught my eye, and I think it’s because the “immersivism” spoke to me. Art that roots both a live subject and the artist so far inside VR that you don’t know if reality is there at all is exactly what KG has done for the subject, the artist, and the art.

“I feel very at home here,” WHSPRS says in the video. “It’s very cozy.”

There’s something eye-catching here — something new — and I cannot wait to see more.