Ear For An Ear: Current F*cking Reigning herself, Ifora Nye!
Marcla and Greg go to catch the 7 train – captured with a real Victorian era camera!
M: Hello my dear! Thank you for hand-selecting me to MC this very special, 180 degree right-back-atcha edition of Ear For An Ear! How on earth are you today?
G: I'm wonderful. I did myself the luxury of taking time off to spend the whole week with my sister's family which has really been a treat. Other than that... a touch nervous. This bossy bottom is a little uncomfortable giving up control but I know I'm in good hands.
M: Well it sounds like this couldn't be at a better time, you're at your most relaxed and I'm sure your nerves will give way once we've gotten going!
G: Totally
M: So first of all, I want to rewind. Let’s go way back, to a simpler time, a time before making the s3 cast. Tell me how you found us! What was it about this sub that captured your interest, and what was the tipping point that made you go ‘yes, this is for me, give me an application form right this instant’?
G: Well actually I've long been a lurker in the drag race sub and an ad for this popped up so I took my shot. I was in a very weird lost place in my life and I felt like why not take a shot at something totally new like this. I have been drawing ladies in clothes for myself forever and haven't had a place to put them.
M: I can relate to that last part - I've always been arty in some way, but I've never had an outlet for the copious amounts of 'drawings of ladies in clothes' as you put it until mpar came along. Pre-mpar, how close were these pictures to what you ended up showing on season?
G: Honestly, I grew so much over the course of this season that I'd say not that close at all. That said, in sensibility, I realize what I thought was designing women in clothes: huge heels, absurdist choices, high bitchy femme or butch bad asses, was actually queer and/or drag all along and this contest actually really nurtured a lot of clarity for me in that regard.
M: See I originally based my drawings on manga, and I sort of evolved over the years as I discovered more and more styles of manga. And then, once I discovered Drag Race (season 2 specifically) and started watching each new season compulsively, the faces transformed to basically drag. I still thought of them as women, but they weren't even slightly comparable to the manga shit I originally drew.
G: Oooh that's fascinating. You know I think of manga design as having a nice mix of iconic silhouette and overall minimalism so that makes sense for you!
M: It sounds like you had a much quicker evolution though?
G: Oh well I don't know. I never keep a course or refine... I just bounce all over the place! So I guess it's hard to tell how I was evolving except that the competition forced me to buckle in and nail skill after skill like "this week you're gonna learn how to draw beading/pearls until it kills you!"
M: Ok, so I can picture it more like adding valuable items to your treasure box, that you can pull out at any given moment to show off any number of things that Ifora is.
G: Yes! I'm allergic to consistency which is a gift in that I think my range is broad but it also makes me deeply envious of how refined some of my fellow queens like you are
M: Hahaha there are worse things to be allergic to! Now that actually links right into my next question: You get off to a rocky start, with a low-placing look in week one, but then do a full turnaround to a freakin’ challenge win in week two. Now I know from our previous interview that your thought-process for candy week was very focused on hitting the targets of the challenge. But what I want to know is how this affected your confidence going into week three: did it instil in you a renewed faith in your capability, or was it more like, ‘ok, so I guess I gotta pander to these judges’?
G: Great question cause it was a mindf*ck. In all of these I've tried to hit home with people a sense of the psych component and this is the best example. Week one I felt like I had achieved such a poetical tribute to my neighborhood and my best rendering ever and got "this looks like blankets wrapped around your waist" and then week 2 I felt like I went so far towards what the judges want that the win felt good but almost only on a competition level. Thankfully at least I picked my actual favorite candy and the weirdness of a mean lady angle so I still had that to console me otherwise I would've felt like an imposter. Going into week 3 I felt pretty confident and I was paired with Minty so the team thing overtook my focus but I think this came into play over time as I didn't get a win until beard week (which people may not know was added due to the double save) and I slowly lost my mind because I felt increasingly like my one win was a total fluke and I was doomed to be patted on the head but never winning. The Ms. Cracker problem.
M: I have to say I felt similar, but you managed to break out of that with a hat trick at the end, winning beards, ball and then the whole damn thing! What I think is particularly interesting here is that, at this early stage, the judges probably didn't have quite as good an idea of how eclectic Ifora could be. For candy week, even though you were intentionally moulding her a certain way, you were also showing off a legit facet to the character. Do you think the judges applauded this versatility in you? Personally I think they might have found it confusing to begin with, but it worked out in the long run!
G: Honestly, I think that was never appreciated properly. I think tactically that was one of the smartest things I ever did for three reasons: artistically, it gave me something to keep myself interested in outside of the judging, psychologically, it forced me to improve my skills each week which gave me a pride outside of judging, and competitively, I've said this before but by the time the end of the competition came it differentiated me from Bettie's curated aesthetic and allowed me to pull out the total surprise of my ball theme without it feeling random or unnecessary. My absolute strongest advice to anyone competing is set your own goals and meet/top them because relying on your run to nourish your soul is a surefire way to go bananas!
M: This is sound af advice, and I absolutely second it. I'm not saying don't pay attention to the judges, because there's an element of that which comes into all this - in fact, I dare ye, try NOT listening to them. Their words will fuck with your head and you will not be able to control it! But playing the game on your own terms will take you very far and ultimately will go hand in hand with the competition, and you'll only be pleased in the end.
G: Yes exactly. The judging is honestly really helpful. Like I’m the kind of person where i’m like “look at this weird horrifying thing. Isnt it great?” And people are generally like “i don’t want to look at that.” The judging taught me to see the gap and build a bridge. It’s a super important skill as an artist to build the bridge between your vision and other people IF you care about connecting to the world. If not... i guess draw in your journal? Lolll
M: Hahaha I love that analogy. I can literally picture this in situ. Now, your designs are known for having very thoroughly explored backgrounds, a lot of them built on intricate cultural or historical foundations. Was this approach something you were conscious of in your process, or was it something that only occurred once you started picking apart the prompts and seeing where they took you?
G: This one is complicated emotionally for me actually. I think I’m a natural storyteller so that approach was just how my brain worked with the prompts. It was a very f you move on my part to be like I’m gonna bash through the fashion design expectations of the competition and make it a character design comp essentially and as a competitor I was proud to push boundaries in that way cause it’s always nice to expand what’s possible. That said, when I reflect on it, I realize I would feel regret if I had conveyed to later competitors the idea that the fashion element can be abandoned or something. Something MPAR taught me is if you’re stubborn/full of yourself enough to try and work outside of the scope of something, you have to get good enough to do what they want PLUS what you want not what you want in lieu of what they’re asking. I look back and think my approach was both cool and disrespectful which makes me feel conflicted.
M: Wow I never realised you were being so rebellious! Well, here at least. You were overtly a lipsync rebel, but we'll get to that later. I think as not only a fellow competitor, but also a real life drag queen, one of the most frustrating things about the competition was the huge focus on fashion. Even in the character-design challenges, there was so much emphasis on pertaining to looking good as well as looking right, and as someone who felt very irate at the idea of being booted for following my ethos of 'it's very Carmella', this definitely wound me up. Let’s look at fairytale week: the winning team was by far more fashionable, and I think that played a huge part in their win. THAT SAID, rebellious though you were, I think this method kind of fits into the idea we discussed of setting your own goals and playing things your own way. I'd maybe recommend to future contestants not taking quite as much of a risk though :p
G: Haha I know! Fair. It’s a tough line always. Also, i would be happy for the competition to expand away from fashion as well personally! I just don’t know if it can be forced through so suddenly. Perhaps like drag race... by season 10 it’ll be a whole different bag. I personally want the art factor to keep pumping up because I dream of a day when one need not even think of Drag Race next to ours but I dont yet know what that will look like.
M: The way I look at it, fashion is all very well and good, but you're also competing as a consistent character from week to week, so rejecting the element of character design in favour of fashion is not the way to go. But I definitely would appreciate a slightly less heavily-weighted balance!
Which of your looks are you most proud of? In terms of how you feel about your designs compared to how they are received, where do you derive the most satisfaction?
G: Honestly... probably the ball. I think it’s way weird but also fashion. I think no one else would’ve gone with that angle. I hated circus but managed to do something I was proud of anyway and won! Lastly, it includes the political, science fictional, historic, scary, emotional... just a bit of everything in it which is what I’m after. I think my ball is cool as hell. Also sorry one more note: the week I worked with Minty I was really scared to be overly pressuring because of our age gap and I was so happy that we came out of it feeling proud if it together. Same with my other team week.
M: It's ironic that the challenge that called for the most cohesion actually led to you winning because of your eclecticism! I think the team weeks are the ones you really feel the most validated from being judged highly, because it's more than just critiquing an outfit, you're critiquing a whole operation.
G: Yes totally! They’re also the weeks where I think I had the most unfair advantage. At 31 I’ve worked in professional environments on teams with every possible personality and managing communication and emotions and egos is a skill I could and do put on my resume. That said, other 31 year olds are immature dolts so that may just be me and using your skills is the point of the competition.
M: Hahaha well regardless, I always applaud someone who knows their strengths and plays to them. So, onto the next item: I think one of the most defining qualities of s3 was the range of incredible lipsyncs we saw, and you certainly contributed to this trend in your own unique way. Tell us about the comics! You’ve drawn comics before, right?
G: I have though not in any super professional way. I’ve been on such a zigzag course in life that I feel like I’m just starting to figure out how to build a career. That said, I worked with comics so I’m very very versed in their history and how they work so it was a natural choice for me. My goal from the start with lip synchs was to give you PERFORMANCE and I was like expectations be damned. I know yours were also basically ready for direct to life translation as well and I love that. I hope people feel pressure to push their lip synchs as far as they can going forward.
M: Well for me, I work my drag around the songs I want to perform, so interpreting music into a look comes naturally to me. What doesn't though is actually drawing the way I would perform it, which is where I feel your comics had a remarkable edge that the rest of us couldn't tap into. How do you think the perception of your comics compared to the way the rest of the cast's lipsyncs were regarded?
G: Well I think understandably everyone (audience, competitors, even judges) were like wtf how are we supposed to judge this and found it a bit unfair. As I suggested earlier, as a contestant I was totally f you about these things like “this is my run... I’m gonna do my vision” but I appreciate in retrospect that that must have felt... weird. I’m glad it only came up once as an actual competitive element for that reason because I think it made it not such a big deal. That said, I look at Bettie’s finale performance and that to me feels like it’s somewhat charged with the energy of my comics and if I somehow raised a bar or threw out a challenge to everyone to do more... fuck it. I’m happy with that!
M: Yeah, I gotta say I'm glad I didn't have to go up against you because I'm sure it would be a traumatic outcome regardless of who went, due to the polar opposite lipsync styles alone! It's part of your legacy, and I'll be very interested to see how s4's syncs will shape up in lieu of yours.
Now, just have you have done for us all, I've taken the liberty of designing you a little something
G: ahhhhh Omgggg
M: When I look at Ifora, I'm always struck by the sheer tenacity and fun with which I imagine her to go through life. So I wanted a super playful look, but also something that felt like Carmella too. Think of it as like, a merging of our styles, and a merging of our worlds. And where do our worlds merge? We're out on the town, heading into an 80's bar, I'm getting us some cocktails and you're checking your lipstick in a compact while Whitney is playing.
G: Ok so first of all, I’m really moved by this illustration. You did for me exactly what I have been trying to do for others which was to hold up a mirror that at once feels exactly like my character and also like something I would never have imagined for her. I love how playful and feminine it is and while I love Ifora’s butch side, I have felt a little trapped in it lately and this sort of gives me a taste of another side of her. Also... it looks like my sister (that hair!) which makes my heart sing. It also makes me want to go out together for real.
M: Ahhh well I'm really glad I was able to get the balance right. Obviously Carmella is hyper-feminine even when she's doing a menswear thing, so it was inevitable this look would be very girly ;]
G: Yeah totally and sophisticated which is a Carmella standard, I see the mix.
M: Now, spoiler alert, Ifora wins the season. So no All Stars on the horizon. BUT, had Bettie pipped you to the post and won, would you be gearing up for round two? Had you played all your cards in s3 or is there still a whole deck waiting to be unleashed?
G: Yeah I’d totally be gearing up!! I’m so competitive and I found the competition super daunting but also incredibly exciting so I would be so hyped to have another go. I think my story based approach might’ve run its course to an extent so I’d be pretty scared but I would’ve immediately gotten a book or two on construction and tried to beef up my knowledge of actual fashion. Then I would’ve made a list of things to learn how to render even better and tried to master the f out of them. My goal would be to have Bettie’s fashion knowledge and just blitz with avant garde every week. Lastly, I would’ve hidden this but I think I would’ve tried to obsessively study painting style techniques and then hit the AS judges with a fricking actual painting so they couldn’t help BUT cast me. Part of me is a little sad that I won’t have a chance to compete honestly but on the other hand, I think the role of a winner is to expand and improve the competition and hopefully I’m doing so. I think I was a good winner for that aspect of it.
M: Oh my god, you had a whole plan of action ready! Well who knows, maybe in a few years mpar will be ready to let winners on All Stars, or maybe have an All Winners season ;] I think it's clear how much you care for this community and I don't think a more enthusiastic and hard-working winner could have been crowned! Before we part ways, do you have any last words of wisdom or importance to impart?
G: Well before anyone asks I’m down for an All Winners and I swear I’ll gut your fave like a fish and hang them from the illustrated rafters. That said, to everyone out there, everyone: every single person joins this competition at the wrong time. In the same week that I was possibly gonna be eliminated, one of my closest friends attempted to hang themselves and it wasn’t all roses to keep my head in there. That said, this competition may be a relatively tiny reddit thing but it’s a queer thing we’ve built for ourselves and it’s a gauntlet. If you take it seriously, it’s gonna kick your ass and demand that you grow into the strong, focused artist you’ve been too afraid to be so far. So stand up, stand fierce and jump in and face the fires and get ready to transform. I believe in a beautiful queer future for us all. Start moving toward yours!
M: Spoken like a true current reigning! Well Gregfora (as I eternally mentally refer to you), it's been a great pleasure to switch roles, this discussion has been as enlightening and compelling as I predicted. You had nothing to be scared about ;] Thank you again for sitting down with me, and I look forward as always to seeing what Ifora pulls out of the dress-up chest next!
Submitted November 24, 2018 at 01:36AM by itsbrohan https://ift.tt/2DEbgh4
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