The label below will be present in the exhibition alongside this piece. It is provided here so that fans submitting fanworks know in advance how fandom will be discussed in this project. However, fanworks do not need to take into account the below information and should be inspired by or responding to the piece of art alone: 

Noelia Farías 
Argentine, b. 1978 
A la espera (Waiting), 2012 
Oil on canvas 
38 3/4 x 59 in 
2015.1.2 
Gift of the artist and Dean Jensen Gallery 
 
Noelia Farías’s work has a surrealist sensibility. Often emphasizing nature, her paintings emit a sense of silence and timelessness. Young girls with vacant faces occupy the foregrounds of her works, while the backgrounds—which often feature recognizable geographic landscapes—fade away. She describes her work as an exploration of “surrealist ideas, myths, and stories that we add to everyday life.” Farías is a member of Argentina’s Artistas en Cooperative, whose work was featured in the exhibition “Lejos” at Milwaukee’s Dean Jensen Gallery in 2014. The artists’ collective visited the Haggerty while in Milwaukee, and subsequently five works, including Waiting, were gifted to the museum. 

Emotions and Coping Mechanisms 

Fans regularly have positive emotional responses to their fandom—such as excitement, joy, or enthusiasm. They may also experience anxiety, anticipation, or disappointment when their expectations are not met. Outside of this, however, fans use their fandom to develop new emotional responses that can be utilized outside of fan specific spaces. A fan may turn to their fandom in times of sadness or anger, for example, using it as a tool to help them work through challenging emotions. Furthermore, by practicing certain emotional responses when engaging with a text—compassion, for example—fans may be more likely to engage in those same emotional responses outside of fannish activities.