Whether you heard the buzz, stumbled in to get out of the weather, or you just like the sound of the name, we're glad you are here.
Artocratic Magazine is an online gathering place for artistic, philosophical and cultural inquiry. Though we're based on the west coast of the United States, our community of Artocrats consists of people from around the globe. So, from wherever you may hail, you are most welcome to join in the discussion.
To get the detailed overview of our purpose and intentions-- the who, what and why of our magazine-- click on our Manifesto and Submission Guidelines pages.
A quick bit of housekeeping: Whereas we previously published our material in quarterly batches, we are now posting pieces on a rolling basis. So check back often. To be notified of updates, please use the link to the left. To share general comments about Artocratic (which we love to get!), go to our Contact Page.
...The light switch is on the left, and clean towels are hanging behind the door...
Make yourself at virtual home!
New for August 2010:
Interview with Beb C. Reynol, a photojournalist who has documented the lives of the Pashtun and other ethnic groups in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Report on our Foodist Art Party: On July 18th, Artocratic held a local event after hours at Seattle's Greenbean Coffee House. We invited folks to bring food dishes in the form of art. We also held a "Food For Thought" open mic with poetry, songs, stories and memoirs shared. Every aspect of the event was a blast and surpassed our expectations! CLICK HERE to see some of the creations we enjoyed.New for March 2010:
Poem: The Nursing Home of Your Heart by William Doreski
Poem: Apocalypses I Covet, Apocalypses I Don’t by Justin Hamm
Two new "That's AWEsome!" Blurbs!
New art by Ann Tracy, Leah Oates and Danna Ray adorning our manifesto and the new material listed above
Here's what's new as of December 2009:
We're pleased to present two new Artocratic INTERVIEWS – Maria-Jose Soerens discusses the crisis of national identity in her home country of Chile, resulting from the trauma of the Pinochet dictatorship, and how art might play a role in healing it. Ron Hale-Evans gives us a guided tour of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, the novel widely considered to be one of the greatest works of the twentieth century, but actually read by very few.
To inaugurate our new videos section, we have an animated short film from Michael Nagasaka that narratively portrays a perspective on the slippery philosophical concept of "Qualia."
Also in that section, we've posted a video of highlights from our premiere party that was held at Richard Hugo House October 10th, 2009, in Seattle. Several of our contributors gave live readings and performances of their work, adjacent to a mini-gallery of paintings from our local artists.
Another video montage from that evening shows sonic snippets of the insta-compositions created during the outrageous music happening led by Dewanatron (subject of an earlier Artocratic interview). In addition to Brian and Leon Dewan on their Dual Primate Console, the jam featured people playing saws, typewriters and wine bottles as well as a complement of expected instruments... including appearances by a trio of guitar wizards named Mark (Blackwell, Mohrlang and Shephard – we didn't plan that, it just happened!) Do check it out, if only to see the super groovy slideshow of ARTOCRATIC artists' works serendipitously projected on people's shirts!
In our ESSAYS section, philosopher and artist Robert Pepperell contributes "Mind-World-Art: 6 Paintings and 60 Notes" a far-reaching treatise on consciousness and aesthetics, illustrated by his paintings.
New material in the FICTION AND POETRY section includes two poems by David Sklar: "The Decline of the Beat Poets" and "My Last Seattle Poem"; flash fiction by Matt Lawrence: "The Playground"; and "Bodies Fly" a short story by Linda Ceriello.
New "That's AWEsome!" – one woman's tale of being shunned from an airplane because of her jungle funk.
As usual, you will find the pages lovingly decorated with vivid visual ART. This month our splash page art is by Liz Meyer, whose work is built from patterns she creates skating on ice. We are also proud to present work by Melissa Harshman, Rye Twombly, Nico Vassilakis, and returning artist John Howard.
Please feel free to use the comments section at the bottom of every piece, and/or send us an email. Artocratic is free – all we really want is attention and love. And your submissions, for our next installment.
To share general comments about Artocratic, please go to our Contact Page.September 2009:
Since we've just sprung from from the half shell, a little tour of our current "issue" is in order:
Artocratic is pleased to bring you an interview with cousins Leon & Brian Dewan about their organic approach as inventors and performers on innovative electronic musical instruments.
We also have an interview of Dan Filbin, a Seattle writer, window-washer and aspiring filmmaker... Dan talks about his ideas for a documentary that would reveal the humanity of people who experience mental illness. Along the way, we explore notions of celebrity, averageness, prophecy/insanity.
Greg Dember contributes a short-short story, She’s Got Everything She Needs. It begins, “I call her Jennifer. I suppose I could learn her actual name just by taking a look inside her mailbox some morning, but then I’d feel like a stalker ...” Enough said, except that Greg wants you to know it’s not in any way autobiographical – well, except in a metaphorical sense, of course.
We have five poems that will take you crashing into the boundaries of identity and poking through the other side: from John Howard, one of our featured artists, we have The Introduction; Marc Vincenz offers Invertebrate and Maverick Metaphysick Askance ; Linda Ceriello gives us When the Idiots Came and Tired Coat. Poetry should never be summarized, so just read it. You’ll be glad you did.
Daniel Grandbois shares with us three pieces of flash fiction, each of a surrealist bent.
E.R. Womelsduff, a student at Azusa Pacific University, writes a brief and poignant musing about Divorce.
Laura King ponders the nature of grace and poker in her micro-memoir Just My Luck.
Matthew Lawrence reveals his creative journey in coping with a major loss, in his essay How The American Book of the Dead Saved My Life.
Conceptual Wallpaper is our catchall category for all things uncategorizable. Our current entries playfully explore Categories of Human Interlocution and Fun with Idioms.
Artocratic will soon sport several columns to which we will ask readers to contribute. Our first is “That’s AWEsome!” which features a metatextual explanation of why we've gone so crazy for these two little words (read it to find out how it is that, "It's now actually cooler to be AWEsome than to be cool!"), and several vignettes that can elicit no response other than... “That’s AWEsome!”
Please click around at will so that you can get a sense for how visual art not only peppers the site, but, thanks to featured artists John Howard, Christine Elcee, Andie Francoeur, Susanne Friedman, Angielena Chamberlain, Kathryn Andrews and Roger Shurtleff, makes a house a home. Like in the rooms of a house, the artwork shows up on various walls and around corners. Our Art Gallery page is where our guests can see thumbs of all the pieces in one place and access the artist statements.
We hope that what you see here provokes your artistic spirit, and that we'll be hearing from you!
–The eds, Greg Dember (gbd@artocratic.com) and Linda Ceriello (linda@artocratic.com)
To share general comments about Artocratic, please go to our Contact Page.