FreakWerx

I haven't had a whole lot of art time recently (though I guess building a home counts as an art, right?)... I was starting to get a bit nostalgic for my old art-swap days. For several years, I ran two art groups. One, ArtDollz, had close to 700 members, and was dedicated to art dolls and figurative sculpture entirely. While I definitely enjoyed that group, my heart and love lay with FreakWerx, which had all of 40 people at it's peak.

FreakWerx was (and is again now) an online art group I started in 2003, with an aim towards sharing...and creating...artwork that was a little askew...a little weird...a little, well, freaky sometimes. Mostly just not the run-of-the-mill that we saw in the book store magazine racks. *cough* Somerset Studios *cough* Pointy hats. A random word stamped on it. Etc, etc. We hosted regular monthly swaps, with the occasional "special event" thrown in there every now and then. Round Robins, special-themed exchanges, the annual Holidaze Exchange (one of my favorites)...but what made FreakWerx it's own special creature, and I think anyone who was part of it would agree, was that more than just the artwork, we created a family of like-minded individuals (most of whom are still in regular contact) who were welcome to share their stories, their day-to-day lives, as well as create artwork together. We chatted, we bull-shitted, we made art together. We saw each other through good times and some bad... it really was a close circle of friends, and we encouraged one another to stretch our comfort levels, creatively. Around 2008 or so, Freakwerx wound it's way down. The days of Yahoo groups seemd to be waning, with the advent of LJ and its ilk.

Enter the previously-mentioned nostalgia.

On a whim, and with a little prompting from http://butterscape.blogspot.com, I decided to start it back up.

Whoa! It makes me quite happy to say that it's hit the ground running, with several swaps having happened already, and multiple ones happening right now. Like, right this very moment, which is why I'll be signing off soon so I can get jiggy with my needles and thread.

It's nice to have these little prompts... these creative spurs in the ass.

On the project table for tonight: Working on an altered stuffed-animal (I hit the thrift store and cleaned out their $.50 bin... even snatched one from the hands of a little girl)

The other that I've signed on for is for a book of self-portraits, which I've already mostly completed. They're printed up (I adore you, Iprintfromhome.com) and ready to go, I just need to decide A) which one I'm using, and B) What they're going on....fabric, paper, etc.

Option #1: "Incarne"



Option #2: "Birth of the Darkened Son"