GrisGrimly

I can't believe I didn't think about using Deviant art as a platform to get the following information out to art enthusiasts. Well, it's a little last minute and all, but I am doing it now.

I am currently on a tour with the Baby Tattoo Roadshow featuring the artists Coop, Ragnar, Marina Bychkova and I. Here is the lineup: We will be signing in Salt Lake City, Denver, Kansas City, Albuquerque and Phoenix.

Tuesday May 14th
Night Flight Comics
6222 South State Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84107–7227
7pm-9pm

Wednesday May 15th
INDYINK
84 S. Broadway
Denver, CO
7pm-9pm

Friday May 17th-Sunday May 19th
Spectrum Fantastic Art Live 2
Grand Ballroom of Bartle Hall
301 West 13th Street
Kansas City, Missouri, 64105

Monday May 20th
Stranger Factory
109 Carlisle Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
7pm-9pm

Tuesday May 21st
Lulubell Toy Bodega
128 W. Main Street
Mesa, AZ 85201

Come on out and hang with us. We will have books, tour posters, dolls, original art and prints. Some venues will serve food and drinks. But all will provide a good time. Hope to see some of you and let me know if you heard through Deviant art.

Thank you,
Gris Grimly

Deviant Art has been around for twelve years now and I've known about it for some time. But it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that I finally dug my grave and became a member. If you are not familiar with deviant art, it is an online social network focused on art. As of 2010 it gained 14.5 million members and has expanded far beyond that number by now.

I'm not much of a tech guy. I am very much a geek when it comes to horror movies and vinyl records. But a nerd of evolutionary gadgets I am not. I resisted getting a cell phone for years and have only acquired an Iphone two and a half years ago. The last video game I played was Tetris. Even when the first Resident Evil came out in the mid 90s, I hung up my joystick and decided it was time to become an observer. My computers are never up to speed and that is fine. As long as my turntable's motor isn't burned out and I can still spin vinyl, I'm a happy fiend.

Social Networks are no different. I avoided myspace and only decided to join a few years before it wasted away to the ghost town it is today. Same with Facebook. Same with Twitter. So why should it be any different with Deviant Art. I didn't quite understand the need or desire to be on the network. I had friends that were artists and I could communicate with them through email or other social networks. Most of them were not even on deviant art.

Then I met Ron Martino, producer and director at Deviant Art Network, at the San Diego Comic Con 2011. He spent some time explaining to me the community of artists that live on this network and how many of them are active around the world at one time. It is very impressive. But still, I didn't join for almost another year.

What did it was my frustrations with other networks like twitter and facebook. I am an artist. I wake up as an artist, I live as an artist and I make money as an artist. Whether I am writing little fairy tales, illustrating monsters, painting nightmares or trapping moving pictures on digital cameras I live to create art. So I would become very frustrated when I posted artwork on my networks and did not get the response that I was looking for. I could jot down some nonsense (in 140 characters or less) on twitter about my twinky having diarrhea and retweets explode. But a post about a signing or an art piece gets the occasional chirp.

THAT'S TWITTER. I get it. I've learned to play the game. I find myself contriving the most facetious crap that sometimes, and usually, warms my face with embarrassment just to say such mindless babble because that's what people want. I've discovered Facebook isn't much different. I get a good response when I post an illustration or painting. But really, people on Facebook are looking for drama. They want to hear you bitch about your day or complain about this or that. Everybody is a fan of misery as long as it's someone else.

Deviant Art is nothing like that. Deviant Art is a community of artists (whether they are amateurs, hobbyists or professionals) who are on there to share and experience art. It's not about what you had for lunch. It's not sharing that instagram photo of the drunk passed out at Denny's at 2am. It's not about posting your passive aggressive attacks on "you know who".

Twitter and Facebook have their place. I'm not saying anything against people who use them, because I use them and I enjoy them for what they are. But there is no other community for the artist like Deviant Art. Join, visit my page and partake in the largest growing online art community worldwide.

Hey Fiends,
There are some of you who are familiar with my artwork and some of you who are discovering it for the first time. I'm a cartoonist and illustrator who has been working in the industry for 12 years now. I've also done artwork for bands, made two short films and a number of other film projects, had a clothing line in Hot Topic and continue to explore any and all avenues of artistic expression.

I'm just now setting up a Deviant Art page so I can more easily connect with you and the art community on here. Give me some time to get this page set up with more artwork and then I'll be exploring other deviants on here, commenting, favouriting and answering questions.

I'm looking forward to it.

Be Grim!
Gris Grimly