Accepted

Other than this morning's fuckery, today has been full of hand-writing letters, and sending acceptance emails to Dragon*Con applicants.

I like to think I'm making people happy.

Seriously, if one email from me can make someone feel top of the world, even for just a few minutes, then...That's Awesome. I know how shitty rejection letters can feel. Believe me.

Anyway. Almost time for bed. I'm pretty tired, and I still don't know where rent's coming from.

Good night.

unknownbinaries has a Dream

First of all, take a look at This Comic. That comic, as she says, is borne out of a frustration with the nature of artistry, on the whole. There is a habit among artists of cliqué-ishness, of secrecy, of a support-of-"friends"-but-exclusion-of-all-others mentality that seems to simply be accepted as "Artist's Temperament," and, honestly, it's kind of bullshit.

Now, I could go off on a rant about the similarities I see of this kind of mentality, within academia, but instead I'll relay something our friend Dennis said, yesterday: "You're basically just climbing the corporate ladder, in another format." And isn't that specifically what we-- artists, academics, "creatives"-- came here to escape?

Instead of the ultra-competitive/-secretive mindset on display, here, mightn't we all be better served by working together? While it's not universally true, it's much more often the case that other creatives-- musicians and writers, specifically, but hell even photographers-- have a greater sense of the communitarian ideal. They have a willingness to give others a leg-up, is what I mean. To say, "I use these tools," "I got involved this way," "here's this lesson I've learned through trial and error and hate and pain, so You Don't Have To Go That Way." Getting that kind of resource sharing out of artists and academics is, at present, like pulling gods-damned teeth, because, even if there are groups, even if there are collaborators, they are insular, because they've always been insular, and they don't understand that they are being insular, and that this is precisely the kind of thing which is holding everyone back from making great, world-changing strides.

Now, again: This isn't a universal. But it is more often true, than not. So you know what? Fuck that. Let's change the game.

Academics. Artists. Writers. What are your tools? What are your resources? Where do you publish, where do you get your prints done? What journals do you find amenable to your work? What kind of work do you do?

Illustrators and Teachers: Where And How Do You Do Your Thing?

unknownbinaries has a dream of a true community of artists, and god damn it, I think that's a really fucking good dream.