#artissmart Okay! Lets start-

Thanks for your patience.

And so everyone knows there is basically a 100% chance I have seen your work for a couple reasons.
I had people helping me sift and collect the whole week. I saved anything I thought was what I was looking for into my home computer and phone, looked again and again, and followed the hashtag, which is actually way easier and managable than just looking at my basic feed. A lot of people entered, but not even close to the amount of tweets in my @ replies. So I am fairly certain I have seen all of them.

So many amazing aspects to this spontaneous challenge I got to experience this week-
The sense of community, goodwill and general support.
The obvious fun people had, even when it got tough and frustrating.
The absolutely incredible amount of talent. Seriously, I am blown away- the current and next generation of artists is obviously a force of nature, and in an age where art (especially physical) is hard to find, and we are bombarded with gloss and low-risk consumer aimed design, it is really nice to be exposed to all of this creativity that may have been obscured by distance, means, age, or status.There was not a single bad attempt, even stick figures, or the exact photo edited on a camera phone app (which obviously, while not "bad" is not general something I'd accept), all had merit.

Art is subjective. You hear this all the time because it is true. What I like is based on who I am at the time, who I was before that, expieriences I've had, nostalgia, what I love, what I can and can't do.
To me, art is also PERSPECTIVE (they really need to invent an italic or bold for this twitter thing so it doesn't look like you are yelling when you want to stress a word). I feel as an artist, I live or die by the sword of perspective, and either someone values my perspective on the world, or "my take", or they don't. Super simple.

What I was looking for in this challenge was individual perspective, the "fingerprint" as I like to call it, even with music, no one plays the guitar alike, just like no one uses a brush, camera, or scissor the same or for that matter- even a digital tool (and though I am normally not partial to digital art, looking at all of the amazing work has changed my mind on how I feel about it now, so I learned something this week, like I hope you all did as well).

I went with my first reaction when seeing each piece, it's "snapshot" in my brain. What it made me feel, but most important of all, the energy it conveyed. Winners were chosen based on this. Also, on the ability to "let go" and just make it.

The most important bit of the whole challenge, and the bit I didn't talk about when I first issued it, is the fact that I now have been made aware, directly from the artists, of their existence. It was part of the plan, like those old pamphlets where they would ask you to draw the turtle and mail it in, well I was the turtle.

There are now at least 40-50 people I would love to work with in some way if the situation ever arrises. A comic, or art that goes on the cover of an album, something in a video, a patch that goes on a jacket. And just like every artist should, if I need it, or want to use it, you'll get paid.

For the others that don't fall into the 40-50, well, who knows when I'll need that kind of thing as well, who knows how much we will all learn by the time another challenge or job happens. And I plan on doing these as often as I can, because each time I start a new project, I am looking for different things. I know at some point I will need a photographer, or a writer, or even possibly someone that is generally great at photo manipulation, or stick figures. Who knows... I could need a lion tamer.

Obviously, there are no losers here, and to prove this, I spent 2 days creating a special certificate for everyone that entered. It would be impossible to mail everyone physicals (especially with the PO Box mail I still have to tackle) so I will release it digitally as soon as I post this letter. It was made with scraps of paper, original photos and collage, good old cut and paste, borrowed google images, love, free fonts, and a free digital art program called Gimp, which I am finally starting to get the hang of.
Enjoy it! You earned it! Print it out and hang it up! (I suggest matte Photo-paper but that stuff can get pricey). All you have to fill in is your name, I did the rest for you (in the possibility we see each other out in the real world I will also fill in your name, but we can't bank on that kind of thing happening).

(hold on I need to buy 'Punk In Drublic' by NOFX on itunes because I had the cassette, then the cd, and I wore one out and I lost the other)

Ok-
Heres how it goes-

There are 10 artists selected. There was originally 5 but there are too many good ones so I added 5 more places- I wanted to add a hundred.

First place through Runners Up 1 and 2 get what I showed in the photos based on your placing. I will figure out which item per package will be signed.

They also get a physical certificate that I personally printed, stamped, and signed.

Runner Ups 3 through 7 get a physical certificate in the mail, signed and stamped.

I will most likely mail the items next week or the week after, so please be patient.

How I will go about finding who each artist is-

Since I only saved the images, and most of the images aren't signed nor do they have a twitter handle digitally or physically placed on the image, I will DM the artists I can find, and if I can't find you, or don't know your twitter name, I will simply post the photo and trust in people's honesty to come forward. Next time, we must remember to add our twitter names to the images- I totally didn't think of it, but not to worry as I will find everyone. The internet is a small place.

Ok- The list of the selected 10 is coming-
Congrats to everyone who participated, and thank you very much for sharing your gift.

Gee


*As per usual for these longer tweets, I did not check my spelling.

Reply · Report Post