So, along with all the other changes this site is going through, we are embarking on a total overhaul of the Nexus art gallery. Among other things, we plan to feature work from the more creative community members as part of the gallery. Although it's likely that the new gallery won't be going up for a few months, we'd like to start collecting the work sooner than later so we don't have to deal with everything arriving all at once.

Requirements:
1) you must be a DMT-Nexus member (new members are welcome!)
2) to have a gallery of your own, you must submit a minimum of 6 images to begin with
3) work can be in any medium or style, as long as the work is inspired or informed by the use of psychedelics
4) for glass or sculptural works, presentation matters- get good photos with clean backgrounds

Instructions:
1) get all of your images sized so that their larger measurement is 1500-1800 pixels, saved as a JPEG with the compression set to 10
2) write an artist's statement describing who you are and what you're aiming for as an artist. Save as a SimpleText or Word document. Can be as short or as long as you want. Possibly include something about psychedelics have influenced your art
3) name all your files with your username, followed by an underscore, followed by the title of the piece, as such: Guyomech_BeaconOfFaith.jpg
4) put all the images and statement in a folder, title that folder with your username, then upload it to my FTP server, as described below:

For those not familiar, FTP is like a Neanderthal version of Dropbox. To use it, you'll need an app known as an FTP client. For Mac, I recommend Fetch: http://fetchsoftworks.com/fetch/download

For Windows: http://filezilla-project.org/. And click "download FTP Client"

It's free.

Once installed, open the app and it will ask you for three pieces of info, which I'll provide via PM to anyone interested. Enter that, wait a second and a folder will open on your desktop. Look for the folder called "Nexus Stuff". Drag your folder into there, then wait until it shows that the upload is complete. Done.

PC users will likely need to disable any security firewalls etc. before uploading.

Once you have your folder uploaded, you can continue adding new images. Doubleclick the NexusStuff folder, and it will open to show all the artist folders that it contains. You can drag new images into your folder.

If you only have a few images, feel free to email them to me at guyomech@gmail.com. Please keep each email 8mb or less; use multiple emails if necessary. If you are able to use FTP, though, that saves us a step at this end.

For those of you who do not have access to a means of sizing and formatting your images, do what you are able and submit them as they are. In these cases, please title your folder with your username plus the word "unformatted", as such: Aegle_Unformatted. This allows us to know at a glance that your work might need a little Photoshop work, and then Art V or myself will take care of the details (Art has volunteered to help out with the behind-the-scenes aspects of this).

Anyway, I'll be keeping you updated as the project develops. If you've got any questions or if you need the login info for my FTP server, please PM me.

This is really awesome news. Like I said before the support here for artists already is awesome and personally has given me alot of new inspiration and motivation, and also opened my mind to other mediums. I think this is something that could really be beneficial to the artist and the community.

One thing I was thinkin about, I know there has got to be some artists here of the other kind, musicians. I know of one member in particular making some truly visionary tunes (i have the pleasure and the honor of doing the album art for this). Maybe we could consider something similar for the musicians? A place to showcase their music, recordings, maybe videos of live gigs? In my opinion these 2 kinds of art really go hand in hand when trying to express this kind of thing, and I think if we can get more of a sense of unity going between the 2 communities of artists it can only be mutually beneficial for everybody.

Excellent! I'll start getting stuff together!

Great idea! I was in fact thinking about this a few days ago, that it's a bit weird that there's so much amazing art by nexians and none of them are in the current art-section.. So this is very exciting news.

But does that mean that the old art will be removed or will it just be separated from the nexian art? Just wondering cos there's alot of cool stuff in there too, and sometimes I just love to look at them , get some inspiration, let my mind wander..

Guyomech

I am so excited, I have goose bumps running all the way up my arms... I truly cant wait to see the gallery once it is completed.

Happy days indeed.


Much Peace and Respect

oh sweet!!! I'll have to upload some stuff this weekend :]

I imagine the other images are all subject to the same copyright problem that the original banner and front page image has.


I'm excited to contribute. I'll start picking out some pieces. Technical question: any reason for the 150dpi? I thought max web resolution was 72dpi.

Seconded, I was wondering when someone was gonna bring that up. This seems like a good idea, maybe my recent work might be of some contribution, since I've either sold or destroyed most of the stuff I have posted in my old art thread here, and the photographs were never that amazing, besides two of them which might be good. I'll be following this thread to see how things develop.

We're going to endeavor not to violate any copyrights, only using works with artists' expressed consent.

Part of Guyomech's intention here is to include artists from the more established visionary art world (not that they've got anything on a few of our budding young winderkinds). Needless to say, this entire project is going to require an enormous undertaking on his part (and Traveler's, and whoever else is involved), and we should all feel most appreciative. This has already become a much more art-minded community in the brief time we've been fortunate to have him here.

Big ups for Guyomech - Rembrandt of the hardcore tripping and flesh desecration set!



Of course, all your work will be a considerable contribution, Orion. You're the Leonardo Da Vinci of the skeletal, multifingered spicehonker set.

Ah that's too bad about the old art.. But I guess I could just save the old page as a backup if I ever want to look at them again..

And yes like Art said, thank you Guyomech for organizing all this! This new site is gonna kick ass..


Afaik, the dpi doesn't really mean anything when it comes to the web, it's just used for printing and stuff, only pixels matter in the web. So that was just Guyos way of saying the longer measurement should be between 1200-1800 pixels.

Basically, I'm asking for double the necessary resolution "just in case". You never know. I can think of a number of reasons this could come in handy, such as offering closeup/detail images of some pieces, or creating video clips using the Ken Burns effect, where the camera pans slowly over the piece. We may never get around to doing any of this but by starting with larger files we'll have more options. It was Traveler's suggestion to start as large as possible.

That said, if you are in Orion's situation and some of your pieces simply aren't available to re-photograph, and all you have is small files, please submit them anyway.

As far as the existing gallery goes, I do plan on contacting the artists in question, but I will need some help identifying some of them. Michael Whelan is one of them (he was a huge influence on me during my 1980's illustration career); another is Jamie Burton (artist whose work is featured on the current Nexus front page). If anyone can help me ID the other artists, please PM me.

Awesome! I will definitely put some stuff together for this. Great idea, thanks Guyo!

G ...I do hope you're gonna contact Justin, Android and AG....I would wet myself if they came onboard...

Awsome!!

I think i wil wait until i have a nice set of stuff to show together coming from the same headspace, but will defiantly be back around for this

thanks for the heads up

peace, love, light, all that good vibes stuff to you all

I like this idea a lot. Cant wait to see the outcome.

Maybe I will try and dig through my portfolio =)

A couple of questions on sizing:

• 150dpi sounds like an odd resolution for the web (isn't saving at 72ppi a standard for screen presentation?) Maybe requesting minimum pixel dimensions like 1500/1500px rather than dimensions designed for print not screen is a good idea?
• Not all of us do large artwork (I, for instance, have not made anything bigger than 15/15cm in the last half of my life), will smaller artwork be accepted?

Ahhh . . . . man . . . . .


I've been in the art game for a spell, a solid member of the underground. I have lived with other artists, in a giant art warehouse, for 6 years, being crazy art people.

But the one thing that has driven me to the point of committing homicide is the dreadful Artist Statement. Never in my life have I read such fevered self-worship and hilariously hyperbolic comments on the meaning behind everything they did. Uhg. It's part of why I always refuse to show at galleries. (Once, at MOMA in NY City, there was an "art piece" that was just a plain white room, and every few seconds a light would blink on and off. On the wall was a SIX PARAGRAPH Artist Statement about the meaning of this horseshit! I puked blood out of my eyeballs for a week after that. True story. The other reason I never show at major galleries is the ridiculously high, and just plain embarrassing prices people put on their art. )

"I realized I'd been touched by artistic greatness at the age of four. I remember holding an orange, off-brand crayon in the light of a sunbeam. All at once, my life opened up before me, and I knew blah blah blah BLAH!"

Ahh . . . I'm having a bit of fun. I do like the idea and will see about entering my non-comic book type art (painted statues and crystals, an obelisk carved from a large dead tree that I plan to carve images on and paint gold, etc.) .

And I do encourage tempered egos with those Artist Statements. Let's try and avoid words like "visionary," "diaphanous," "intangible," "gifted," or "spiritual."

You'll do as you please, of course, but if I have to rag on you a bit for an over-the-top Artist Statement, don't be surprised. I can't help it, my instincts take over . . .

This drives me crazy in particular since I've lived with artists my whole life. It taught me to stay in the shadows. That can be tricky in a giant warehouse with 500 people having a party in a space rated for about 80. (There were only about 8 permanent people who lived there, with about twenty as part of the collective. The parties went on until the fire marshal said enough is enough. The resident old drunk fell asleep with a lit cigarette one night and burned the place to the ground. The old man died and so did one of the resident's dogs, a pit bull named Seed. There were tears for the dog, none for the old man. )

Here's my statement, short and sweet: "I've always liked to draw, that's no big deal."

Indeed, I personally believe art should be able to work without an explanation. I don’t have any reason for art except it just happens. I can’t make up a reasoning for what I do or create meanings for images that often have none except that which the viewer decides for themselves.

Having to create explanations for everything played a large part in destroying my love of creativity when I went through college/university, eventually leading me to push art into the background and focus on design.

Actually it would be funny if that whole post would be your Artist Statement..

Haha, I was looking at The Maxx’s post and mine and thought it was quite ironic in that both could actually be an artistic statement!