Peaceful in pace and gentle in emotion, this fic provides a take on the aftermath of ‘The Prank’, describing a Sirius who lacks the language to convey his thoughts and feelings about his betrayal and the boy against whom he perpetrated it. His journey back to Remus, and beyond their original friendship, is facilitated through joint visits into paintings from the post-impressionistic period, which he has lovingly harvested and compiled into a single tome. Slightly trippy in its premise, this piece is truly poetic in its description of colour, stroke and texture, and is equally sensitive in its choice of art, parallels and metaphors. I have found it to be wonderfully moving and discover new things to love with each re-read.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Hello, colorful cuties, and welcome to our first creator spotlight!!
Each month, we will highlight a different creator in our lovely fandom who features diverse characterizations. We will invite you to get to know them better through questions and answers, Fandom Discourse(tm), and a featured prompt created by our guest!!!
For our first spotlight, we are more than pleased to highlight the incredible work of bigblackdog!!! See a little snippet of this wonderful interview below, along with bigblackdog’s prompt! Look below the cut for our complete interview. Don’t forget to share and interact with this post, and if you have anyone you’d like to recommend for a spotlight, shoot us an ask! You can find our first guest’s Tumblr here.
“I've experienced ups and downs in the wolfstar fandom. It often feels like the wolfstar fandom is willing to engage in discussion about every political issue but race. And the few people who are trying to talk about race consistently encounter this silence.”
bigblackdog’s prompt: I want to see more latino characters who are not impoverished or criminalized. Give me a joyful latino/e remus!
Hello, I'm bigblackdog! I'm almost 30, and I've been active in fandom on various platforms for about seven years now. I'm latina/e and live in the u.s. with a small white dog.
Q: How did you start creating in the fandom? What did you wish to bring into the fandom?
A: Like a lot of fans I started with self insert fic as a middle schooler. Sometimes the practice of self-insert gets ragged on in fandom, as if you're not doing real character work, but I think it's really cool. And if you're an under represented identity in the traditional western canon of literature, self insert is a radical practice. Making space for yourself in a story that refuses or ignores your identities is a radical act. And that's what i want to bring to fandom-- disruption and self care.
Q: What things about s/r as characters or in their relationship inspire you to create around them?
A: Wolfstar was the first queer ship I was introduced to. I wasn't someone who arrived in fandom with my own robust queer reading skills, I needed other queers to hold my hand and introduce me to queer ships and how to find them and build them. My interest in r/s was simply a clinging to queerness I wasn't finding in other places. I really think it could have been any characters, as long as they were queer.
Q: What things would you like to highlight about the Wolfstar fandom and your experience in it?
A: I've experienced ups and downs in the wolfstar fandom. It often feels like the wolfstar fandom is willing to engage in discussion about every political issue but race. And the few people who are trying to talk about race consistently encounter this silence. It's hard not to feel bitter. But i've also met some amazing people and overall feel that fans really are trying their best to be welcoming and inclusive.
Q: What type of content do you wish you saw more in the fandom?
A: I want to see more discourse that aims at amplifying underrepresented voices like wolfstar-in-color. I want to see more fans of color joyfully and irreverently writing themselves into the magical world!
Q: What is your favourite wolfstar fancontent (fic/fanart/gifset/etc) and how does it inspire you?
A: I love dontthinkonithermione's rp. Not only does she do an amazing nerdy know it all Hermione, she envisions Black characters in every corner of the hp world. Have you seen her Hogwarts p.e. professor rps? i love the space she creates for herself, and the joy she does it with.
Q: Which of your own identities inform your creative processes? How has that process been for you?
A: I started out in fandom really trying to feel out the nooks and crannies of being queer. As i've spent more time in fandom and become more confident in my queerness I've started looking closer at some of my other identities-- Latina, mixed, adhd-- and how i can squeeze them into the hp world. For a long time it was hard, especially with being Latine and mixed, to envision how that identity could belong in a 90s British boarding school in the Scottish wilderness. I also really struggled with the feeling that i would get "diversity" wrong. I’ve also struggled with feeling like I have to write diversity because i'm an underrepresented voice. Brown people are often pressured to do the work of educating white people about racism and in fandom spaces that often means pressure to write the reality of racism instead of the fantasy that white writers get to play with. And sometimes i just want to write a pwp without worrying about the revolution, you know? But i really love fandom for its refusal to play by the rules of capitalism and canon, eventually i started to feel like putting more of myself into my writing was another rule i could break.
Q: What advice do you have for other content creators with diverse backgrounds in the fandom? What would you say to people that might feel they don’t have the “right” history/experience/characteristics to participate in the creation of content related to Wolfstar?
First, there's a lot of content on tumblr that aims to silence your voice, learn how to recognize the difference between cancel culture and encouragement. Sometimes content that seems well meaning still presents writing diversity as a list of black and white rules (and virtue signaling) instead of encouragement for underrepresented voices to share their own messy experience. Set those rules gently aside. Second, fandom is built on the idea that the author isn't the only person who gets to play. we all get to play. It doesn't always feel like we were invited, but the great thing about fandom is there is no barrier to entry, no prior experience or publishing hoops to jump through. This is our playground too. If canon is dead then why can't our stories be brown and queer and neurodivergent? Third, find your people. i've found that having just one other person to talk about race with has made the whole space feel more welcoming.
Q: How could we build a more diverse fandom?
A: We have to stop prioritizing white and cis male voices. We recognize that policing irl is a problem inextricable from whiteness and maleness, but we don't see that fandom policing online is also a problem deeply embedded in whiteness and maleness. White and cis male people frequently use their discomfort with difficult topics to change the subject from a critical discussion to one that prioritizes their white and/or male feelings. The same thing happens online when personal discomfort is used to cancel or undermine content that's challenging to a white or male voice. White and cis male voices are used to having their needs met above others. And we still cater to that in fandom spaces when we privilege 'fetishization' discourse over racial discourse. When we lift up bipoc and women/trans/nb voices and the issues they're concerned with we'll make fandom a more welcoming place for underrepresented voices.
Q: What’s your favourite thing to modify in Sirius’s or Remus’s characterizations to bring new perspectives to them?
A: It really depends on the story i'm writing and what issue i'm trying to figure out. Sometimes i need Sirius to be Adhd to come to terms with my brain, sometimes i need two brown boys to fall in love and be happy against all odds.
Q: What does diversity mean to you? What does that encompass in fannish spaces?
A: This is a hard question! I tend to think of diversity as those voices that are disenfranchised or pushed to the margins. And fannish spaces have all the same hierarchies and blind spots as other spaces. In fannish spaces there's the idea that you can curate your experience to some extent, but for marginalized voices, at least in my experience, no matter how much you curate the marginalization is still there.
Q: What are your ideas about the notions of culture and ethnicity? How do you relate to those notions?
A: There was a time in my life where relating to my ethnicity was largely a process of recognizing larger systems of oppression and how they worked against my various identities. And for a while it was a really helpful way to frame my experiences. Now I feel a little less attached to ethnicity as like, a monolithic concept threaded through my whole life and more attached to the small things that I enjoy about my ethnicity and culture-- making a really good pot of beans, for example.
Q: Leave us with a quote or work of art that always inspires you.
A: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." Audre Lorde
just stopping by to say thank you for all that you contribute to this ship! any plans for wolfstarwarehouse in 2020?
Thank you!! :D Nothing big planned, but I’m really hoping to read and recommend the RS Fireside Tales fics as they’re posted this year. I’d like to do the same for Remus Lupin Fest, but Fireside is my favorite fest, so that’ll be my priority.
That’ll keep me occupied for the next few months, but I still want to do #gemfest at some point - recommending fics with less than 150 kudos on ao3. But beyond that, we’ll see how the year goes! And if anyone has suggestions or things they’d like to see, let me know!!
will we be seeing more of your gorgeous ocs this year?
I honestly don’t know. it’s super nice of you to ask because sometimes tumblr does feel like I’m just dropping stuff into the endless void and then a piece I spent hours on gets like 100 likes and I know numbers don’t matter but yeah well
I’ve been struggling with some real life related things during the last year or so and I don’t think I’ve actually drawn a thing I felt something about since last july or so, like, even the last post I did was a drawing from half a year ago I know art blocks are normal and usually this comes and goes but I feel like I’ve lost my ability to create like, I can still draw and it doesn’t look shit, but it feels very pointless and grey to me, the things and characters I draw used to give me joy and energy and now I finish a drawing and it’s just an empty thing
so I’m a bit unsure what to do with this and I’m sorry for this long rant you probably didn’t really wanna hear all that much and I’m oversharing :Danyways this is just to say I’m having problems with my art right now and I don’t really know where to go from here
over two years ago you recommended front row seat to earth and at that time and place i wasn't Ready. but the last few days, with all the pandemic anxiety, it's just right. all i've listened to. what's on your pandemic playlist eve?
i haven’t listened to weyes blood in a while and there’s no time like the present, bbd. i’m so happy she’s sustaining you right now!
as far as pandemic playlists go, i listened to ok computer and low’s double negative the other day but found both a bit too much... other things currently in heavy rotation:
blur’s 13 (especially the immortal “1992″)
lana’s born to die
more songs about buildings and food and remain in light
daughter’s wild youth and his young heart because i succumbed to r/s playlists from 2014
viet cong -- “death”
the palace brothers -- “i tried to stay healthy for you”
angel olsen -- all mirrors
“gimme shelter”
joni mitchell’s blue and ladies of the canyon
the birthday party -- hee-haw
mbv -- “sometimes”
what are you all listening to?
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