MJ Sitting Study - Doing Furry Lifestyle Art

Hey there, Patrons and Other Friends.

This post on the newest Monkey Jonathan image is going to be short and sweet, as we’re on our way to Confuror, a furry convention in Guadalajara where we are honoured to be featured artists and speakers. I hope this little description serves you well. And if you’re interested in the high res image, you can find it and many more special offerings on the Black Hare tier of the Patreon.

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Know him?

Maybe you haven’t seen him before. If you have, skip this paragraph. This is MJ, short for Monkey Jonathan. The first post on him also covered how fursonas can be powerful tools with diverse potentials, so open that in a new tab if you haven’t yet read it. If you’re short on time, the tl;dr is that MJ is me. He’s a straight-up avatar whose imagery is designed to share my real life experiences: my body, my environment, my clothes, me.

Furry As Nonfiction

This image of MJ features him sitting on his bed, taking a selfie. More specifically, he’s checking out the proportion of his feet after walking a few miles barefoot. Going barefoot whenever possible has been a lifestyle change that happened to coincide with the start of MJ’s design. As a pure avatar, it’s a nice way to document my own progress towards being more aligned with my body, especially in seeing how my proportions change. In an earlier public post, we nerded out about my complex history with feet, including my hypocritical desire to have my body be seen as sexy while being too weirded out by someone finding my feet attractive. If you don’t have the time to read +3k words on feet (you coward), just know that doing art with feet as  a key point is still novel and vulnerable for me.

Because I designed MJ to be a pure Avatar of my experiences, he will always be so. The compliments I get on MJ are actually complimenting me, my fashion sense, my anatomy, my choices. Those who know me personally offer the biggest compliments when they say the form is true to me. Those who don’t usually like monkey fursonas,  and also somehow find MJ to be a compelling design, also flatter me greatly. 

I think the reason I, personally, find the concept of this image sexy, is because it represents me enjoying something that is changing my body in a good way. This selfie was after getting back into working out again. The pose is a testimony to my feet widening out, thanks to my time walking barefoot, to a thicker form with more utility. I look at this art and I think of my entire body increasing its fidelity, the endorphins released as my soles feel each pebble, the joy I get from leaving foot prints, and the people that would comment how their inhibitions kept them from doing what I was doing. It’s exciting to have a new dimension in my physical life, and I want to share that joy with others through this image. Despite the bare composition and dirty mirror, maybe that joy will shine through. 

Nice Feet >w<;;

Some of the responses to MJ are about fetishizing the feet and not really paying attention to the image descriptions or other image contexts. I don't think I get to complain there, especially after making an unapologetic foot fetish image of him. A past me would have clicked away from the compliments in despondency. Presently,  these compliments serve as opportunities to ask people why they find feet attractive. It’s opened me up to a part of the furry fandom I’d otherwise never talk to, and my online follower lists now sees a steady trickle of people here for the feets. I can’t force interactions out of those people beyond a fetish, and forcing isn't usually my style. I have the language for what I like and why, and because it’s all work I believe in, it feels like the depths of fetish talk rest latently in every discussion. I had some of this with my previous fursona, but the fetishization wasn't so overt. Strangely, it’s analogous to finally taking your socks and shoes off and feeling where you walk. It seems both my body and my personal art are gaining new utility in a way that builds momentum.

If I could grant anything to those who find my fursona sexy—even if it’s just the feet—it would be curiosity and desire. My hope is that they close the gap between their fetishes within role play/porn consumption, and who they are outside of those moments. I want anyone who happens to interact with me to feel like they can be even better, cooler, and sexier than their fursonas. Instead of never going beyond fiction or simulation, I'd want them to experience loving and powerful sexual dynamics by trusting in others, making mistakes, and being vulnerable. 

The Realness Bubble

This segue into a future post is related to the next (as of yet, nonexistent MJ work).

A question I asked myself at the crossroads between sticking with furry full time and pursuing concept art full time:

If you could have all of your interactions matter, even those through commissioned/drawn furry art, would you?

To me, what matters is spending every moment becoming a stronger and more complete person, and helping others do the same. Sometimes self discoveries are found in relaxation and not just strife. Sometimes truth is to be found in a picture of your black handed spider monkey fursona looking at his feet and not just your black hare fursona rendering your complex relationship to your doomed marriage.

In wondering how I’d end this post, I was thinking on the odd order of operations I chose. How strange, that I did over 30 paintings of Resin the black hare in all of his visceral introspection. And now, I get to explore personal work that is
equally challenging, but so different to me at face value. Who would have thought that a monkey kicking back and putting his feet up would be such an important picture for me.

I guess it was an important picture to do because I decided it was. This means it's probably impossible for me to do renderings of my fursonas that don't matter deeply to me.

Hey Patrons, we're going to cut loose in the next MJ pic and do something you've never seen me do before. I hope you're ready, because I'm not.

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If you liked this content,  my Black Hare tier of my Patreon is where I publish my more private and sexual pieces first (and sometimes exclusively), all paired with artist statements. It's less than one latte a week, so you'll definitely get more than you paid for. But any donation on my Patreon helps me do more work like this, so please offer what you can afford if these themes are important to you.  You can also download BEOKAY: The Dark Art of Self Therapy for examples of my trauma repurposed into writing and artwork making a positive difference in the world. And if you can't afford the price tag but could use the support, you're morally obligated to message me for a free download code.

Thanks for reading, my friends.

Love,

-J