Read Me
by Philip van Allen
We thought it would be great to put together a small Web site focusing on the Los Angeles contemporary arts scene. We'd put a few pages together and see what happens. Yeah right. Before we ever made one page, the idea for this Web site attracted great excitement and support in the arts community. With the input we received, the concept changed and grew in ways we never expected. So here we are nine months later, launching a completely new business, built from the energy and enthusiasm of the people of Los Angeles. Welcome to the premier issue of ArtCommotion, The Los Angeles Contemporary Arts Magazine.
Our goal is to expose interesting and provocative contemporary art in the greater-Los Angeles area. For the moment, we're focusing on the literary and visual arts only. Our approach is to take risks, encourage new expressions, and respond to the community we cover.
To those ends, we'll feature unpublished and experimental work from the area's best writers and visual artists--the well-known, and those who've just flashed onto the ArtCommotion radar screen: Scoop (literature), Scoop (visual arts).
Of course, we're excited about helping to shape new media, and we'll be commissioning interactive work on a regular basis. Equidistant is our first interactive work, created by Kim Abeles, a mixed-media artist whose work is often made of the stuff of L.A.-- trash, driftwood, smog, and other found objects. In this piece, Kim's palette is the cityscape itself, juxtaposing the sights and sounds on equidistant sides of Los Angeles' primordial La Brea tar pits. Equidistant is an example of the experimentation and collaboration we plan to make a central part of ArtCommotion (thanks to Kim for taking a risk with a new medium and a new publication).
We also plan to make ArtCommotion an essential resource for artists and for everyone interested in the arts: So check out ClickPicks, Classifieds (free!), and News. On June 21 we'll begin free e-mail subscriptions to the weekly News, so sign up now.
We're very proud of this first issue. But we know ArtCommotion needs to grow through dialog with you, and we encourage your comments and criticism in Letters (for thought-out responses) and Graffiti Wall (for instant dialog). Speak up.
Finally, I want to thank our supporters and our dedicated Drones (especially Joe Nuccio) for bringing this hive to life. Enjoy.
Until next time,
Philip van Allen
Publisher