19

Liz Gotauco

Let’s start from the top. What number did you respond to?

I received the prompt 19, which is very funny because my birthday and my sister’s birthday is the 19th of the month.

Oh wow, so that answers my first question, which is, “Did this number mean anything to you before this project?”

Yep, definitely. The birthdate. Because of that it’s a very special number to my sister and to me as well as our parents. My mom considers it her lucky number.

Awww, so sweet!

I always play it if I play roulette, which is very rare, but you know. [laughs] It’s a number we come back to a lot.

That’s so cool! That’s so wild that you would randomly get that number.

I know, I opened my email and I was like Whaaaaaatt!

Bait/Switch knows. It knows. Okay, cool, so what happened next?

I knew that I wanted to create a cosplay. Cosplay features original designs, some people will create original characters; mostly though, you’re recreating a character that exists in some form of media, which is usually what I do because that’s how I got into it. But after we talked a little bit, and thinking about what the number means to me, it made more sense to create some original characters. The thing that kept coming back to me for the number 19 is sisterhood. So I used that as the center of my inspiration for it.

So you jumped off this idea of sisterhood and you created some really cool characters. Can you tell me about these characters?

Yeah. Another thing of course that I came to, and it’s probably not a wildly out-there connection, is astrology. I looked at our birthdates and our signs, which are respectively Pisces for me and Virgo for her. I started doing some research on what those myths are and some stuff on the constellations, and it turns out that the constellations and the mythology behind them are actually connected in some interesting ways. That made me want to stay on that path. Both the Pisces and Virgo constellations intersect on the celestial equator and the elliptic plane, so they’re connected in that way. They’re sort of opposite signs in mythology. They both have connections to western religion. Astrology and religion aren’t really anything that I connect to in my life, but I do like mythology. And that usually is a good jumping-off point for characters because you can go in a lot of directions there. I just leaned into creating some characters based off those figures.

I think that’s a really interesting thing about astrology. I do connect with it a lot and use it in my daily life. I think I love it because of the connection to mythology on a daily level. You know? It’s connecting these beautiful narratives and old stories to mundane activities, just makes everything get this richness and significance that I just really love.

Absolutely! A friend of mine does tarot and I love reading what he brings to it. Usually he shares what he daily reads for himself and how it goes in that direction. But then it was funny because… Of course, I ended up taking these photos much later than I was supposed to, so this ended up by accident. But we took the photos right around the Full Corn Moon happening, which is in Pisces, and right now we’re in Virgo season!

And what a hell of a moon it was!

Yeah totally! So that was exciting.

And yeah, Virgo season, this is the season of wrapping up projects, so you’re right on schedule! Okay, so you were working with these astrological symbols, and you’re working with each of your sun signs. Can you tell me your thought process of how to make these signs into characters? 

Yeah! I looked at some old art to see where the symbolism came through, and of course Pisces has a cord that attaches them and is casting them in opposite directions. For Virgo, wheat kept coming back. There were lots for Virgo! I did find some imagery where she’s holding a sword, which I thought was a nice tie-in too, since she connected to the Virgin Mary. This idea of them being guardians and protectors came to mind, especially since sisterhood is at the root of it. So that’s where I came to their connection as characters and who they are in the celestial sphere in this world. They’re protectors of each other, of womanhood, of the sky. And so they kind of became warrior women with that. Symbolism was the base for the silhouette of the garments of course. If you look at the Pisces, it’s very obvious that she’s got a mermaid shape to her gown, whereas I did something a little more original with the Virgo- she ended up turning into more of a Joan of Arc figure than I initially thought with her armor and weaponry. And of course the stars and constellation part of it, as well; both of them were kind of rising up out of the stars in their garments too.

So you see these warrior women who are protecting the sky or maybe some other force. I don’t know what characters or worlds you normally work within in your cosplay work. Do these fit in another world or are they in their own world?

I see them as in their own world, but tied to ours too, since they are personal to family. I guess they would be part of our world but a world we don’t see.

You are our first cosplay artist to ever participate in this project…

Cool!

Yes! I feel like there are questions I should be asking you that I don’t know to ask you. Is there anything that you want to talk about that I haven’t asked you? I know that I’m missing some things here. Just… go for it.

Well, I can define it in case anyone is unfamiliar with it. Cosplay is costume + roleplay, so there’s the element of creating or just wearing the costume. Some cosplayers don’t create their costume, but that part’s important to me. And then of embodying the character. In the cosplay world, that’ll mean maybe in a contest if you’re doing something like that, or on the floor of a convention. You know, kids get their pictures with you, and you get to bring those characters to life for yourself. And for other people, though; that’s the more fun part for me. 

Often when you see original cosplays, they’re usually tied to, kind of like you said in your question, another world, that maybe you want to create so you are a part of this fandom or this environment. You see it a lot especially in fantasy fandoms, you’ll get that.

Like, this fandom should have a queer character, like that kind of thing?

Absolutely! Why not? And certainly there are also people who will say, “I’ll take this existing character and make them a queer version,” which I love too. I can’t think of any good examples of an original character, but usually they feel like they’re fitting into an existing fandom. 

Traditionally when I cosplay, I sew something. I create a garment out of fabric and stuff. But this year, during lockdown and, you know, everything was canceled, I started making cosplays out of stuff I had around my apartment. And so that meant not usually fabric! And I don’t have a lot of my sewing materials here. So I started creating these cosplays out of paper and old party goods and towels and housewares and stuff. I used more of that as the base of creating the art piece because I thought it would be more interesting. And so that’s one of the reasons why the dresses are made out of book pages and sheet music and some duct tape and things like that.

Cool!

Thanks! I picked the book pages because I’m a librarian by trade and my sister is a scrimshander by trade, and so I felt like the coloring of the black ink on ivory was a good way to honor what she does.

She does scrimshaw??

Yeah.

Holy shit! 

She’s a cool lady!

I’ve never heard of anyone doing that!

It’s a dying art! Partly because materials are scarce, as they should be. But our father was a scrimshander and it’s a family trade. So we still have a bit of stock. She took that up fairly recently and she’s very good at it. 

That’s amazing. That’s great. And you’re a librarian, which I think is the coolest job ever. I love that and I love that connection to the colors and the materials. How did you both feel during this photo shoot? Did you talk about that?

It was so fun. Initially, I was not gonna involve Jade. I was gonna do both the characters myself and take the photos. It would have been kind of a surprise. I ended up talking to her about it and she got really excited about the project and the fact that 19 was my number. Both she and my mom, their faces lit up. So she was like, “If you need any help…” and I was like, “Yeah, you could take the photos.” But then I was like, “If you’re gonna help me out with it, then you should be the other sister, obviously!” So I designed and constructed the garments and then the photos were taken by her house. For one thing, it was fun to play dress-up again with my sister. It’s definitely something that hasn’t happened for eons, if at all! We weren’t very friendly when we were young, and now we’re best friends.

So that was fun. It was fun to work out the challenges of putting on a paper garment and trying to then walk in it because that’s not very feasible. We were cry-laughing at times! It was great. She had a nice camera to take those photos, and it made a really wonderful memory as well. 

Oh that’s wonderful. You both look so powerful and I just love that. Is there anything that I didn’t ask you about this process or about your work?

I don’t think so. I will say it’s probably, well, it’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like it, certainly. I’ve never created a cosplay off of a prompt and I had a lot of fun doing it. It made me approach my cosplay in a different way, especially after a few months of doing these on-the-fly, kind of comedic characters that I’ve been doing in quarantine, to take it a lot more seriously and thoughtfully than I have in a while. That was a nice way to make my brain grow.

I think it’s cool to have a different way to be limited, that’s different from the mundane and maddening ways that we’re sadly getting used to. You know, it’s a strange time that we’re in.

For sure.

Do you have any advice for someone else doing this, if not this exact project with the numbers? Do you have any advice for another cosplay artist?

I guess my advice would be, first of all, just go for it. It’s about fun. I think, for a while, there was a little bit of gatekeeping in cosplay. You know, you should pick a character you look like, or your body type or blah blah blah, or you should really be a fan of the work. None of that’s important. If someone has a connection to a character or a world that they want to inhabit, they should go for it. And certainly, I love every aspect of it. I love creating a traditional cosplay where I work at my sewing table for months and create something really beautiful there, that looks exactly like someone else’s design. But it’s been really liberating going outside the box for it and I’ve actually gotten more of a response and connected with more people doing these creative crafty versions of it and that’s brought a lot of fun and playfulness, too. So I would say: think outside the box and don’t limit yourself. You know, cosplay is a joy whether it costs $3 or $300 to create. And just have fun with your fellow creators.