No need for a life story: I’ll just hit on the things I think will be relevant to this blog, in no particular order.
Artist: In the broad sense. My BFA is in Art with a focus on Graphic Design. Becoming “an artist” has been my dream since I was very young. In time that expanded beyond just visual art to include writing as well. I’m unhappy unless I’m doing some mixture of graphic art, design, writing and comics illustration as often as possible.
Entrepreneur: I own my own business, Chris Lowrance Illustration + Design, providing a variety of related services to a variety of clients. It’s been my sole occupation since early 2008. While it hasn’t been easy – despite politicians’ claims, the U.S. makes it extremely difficult to run a small business successfully – it has been rewarding. The best part has been making decisions rooted in my own ethics, on my own terms.
Geek: Indeed.
Secular Humanist: Despite their dogged determination to prove me wrong, I believe in the best in people. I don’t particularly believe in a god, but I’m not very committed to proving there isn’t one. Thinking about pulsars, quantum bubbles and universal heat death is more interesting.
Feminist: For me this means “man who seeks to discover and fight sexism both within his society and within himself,” but I also believe you cannot truly fight for the rights of one oppressed group if you do not see how their battle intersects with others. Fighting sexism means fighting racism means fighting heterosexism means fighting classism means fighting any other oppressive supremacist ideology. I recognize I stand in a position of privilege, especially as a white, cis-gendered man. As such, I try to do what I can to help extended the privileges that should belong to everyone, and eradicate those that shouldn’t exist. I was born into a sexist, racist and otherwise discriminatory society and as such there will always be internalized ideas I’m not proud of. But I’ll try for, and fight for, and teach others better.
Ethical Porn Enabler: I do behind-the-scenes tech stuff – mainly WordPress development – for a few different porn sites run by wonderful, sex positive, feminist people. I consider supporting the rights of sex workers another facet of being a feminist and a humanist in general. Honestly, this is probably the most important work I do. Some of my proudest moments certainly happened as a result.
Queer: I’m a man married to a woman and we’re both queer. Take THAT, traditional marriage! We sneaked one by ya’!
