Once we fell off the strictly monthly artpack release
schedule some five years ago, weve found that despite
getting all fired up in the second half of each year, it can
be a little tricky getting things into gear on the other side
of the winter holidays. Theres no lack of inspiration out
in the world, and of course artists are making art all the
time, but something about the delicate dance of curating and
collecting it into artpack form can be a little rough as the
cXc winter turns to spring.
Nevertheless, if youre reading this we must have somehow overcome the speed
bump and gotten the ponderous apparatus into motion again. There are a great
many worthwhile regular themes for collections we visit and revisit time and
again, and also plenty of deserving themes weve never yet lighted upon...
but what were doing with this opportunity here indulges neither of those
compelling options, instead taking a good look at the art that artists in our
community have been quietly making to satisfy their own creative urges
without being instructed or requested to by anyone. For the most part this
here is the art that they wanted to make, on subjects they found personally
compelling. This is another, circuitous way of saying that this artpack is
something that most of the artpacks out there are -- basically, fundamentally
unthemed in regards to the topics engaged by the creators artworks. Beyond
a baseline common formal element of being made in vintage computer and text
art styles, most of the pieces in this collection really have absolutely
nothing to do with each other, other than that members of the same extended
community had been working on them relatively recently. I like to think of
the unthemed packs as a way of knocking on artists virtual studio doors and
asking Hey, so what have you been up to lately?
This allows us to present satisfyingly substantial servings of new works from
artists who sometimes quietly disappear for extended periods of time into the
rabbit holes of their art practice, such as axb, Joninscii, Kalcha who
shares a suite of 24 Shift-JIS takes on traditional Japanese ukiyo-e
portraits, Melodia with a thirsty lost .MOD from the 90s!, Mavenmob,
Mozz whose portfolio I cannot recommend you visit strongly enough!,
Picrotoxin who has recently been confined to a sickbed, doomed to stack ANSI
blocks in some kind of demented Misery scenario and a wild pile of BBS
screens and promos by Zeus II ... a delicious repast garnished with a
handful of works by amouse, CoaxCable, Consolejockey, Kirkman, LDA,
littlebitspace, Moth and Sassafras. All told, this artpack is composed of
just under a hundred pieces for your enjoyment, some major, some minor, some
novel, some variations on a theme, but between them all we like to imagine
that theres something here for everyone.
As we get further into the year our release schedule will likely be
picking up, but for the time being theres much here to mull over, so try
to enjoy it at a relaxed pace and well see you in the spring!