07-31-98 I know how long that text is. If you don't wanna rea d it, please jump at least to the last paragraph (line 78). Pretty much everyone knows how bad the scene is today. T hough it seems to be getting better. The few next lines are just to point o ut what I believe are two things that cause this so called art scene to be tha t messed up. I'd say the most influencing factor is the general bored om of everyone.It has always been like that: people s tarted drawing, got good, got bored, dropped the scene and they were then replaced by new artists  who got good, etc. But for some odd reason, new artists don't seem to get as go od as they're normally supposed to be. Can you name only one good artist w ho started drawing this year? So what happens is when people that have been dra wing for a few yearslose the interest in ansi, or sim ply can't find the time to keep working on thisintere st, they drop out of the scene, but don't get replaced  by new artists. People don't seem to realize how bad this is. The scene is slowly goingto die, even though people say it'll a lways be around, because what keeps peoplein this sce ne is the love of ansi, not the use other people make  of it. Of course this is true. I don't see why we should stop drawing only because people aren't gonna use the ansi we make. But the problem is that t here are more peopledropping out of the scene than go od people joining. Dying without having children pretty much sucks if you ask me. Who's gonna benefi t your experience? For myself, having children and showing them things I've lea rnt is somehow a wayto thank my parents of raising me . They are the ones that make me what I am today. Else, you have no way of thanking them. Sharing your knowledge has to be one of the most important things in the world. Same goes wit h the art scene. We have worked our ass off learning how to draw and no one's go nna benefit of this when we drop out? This is stupid. This is a call to every good artist out there. Get t o know someone who is in your area code, who's not really good, whether he be drawing ansi, ascii, rip or vga. Teach him how to draw, give him tips, share your scene experience. Help him be part of the scene, as much as you're helping  this scene get better and rewarding yourself of all those years of hard work. Knowledge is way too important to just let it go with you when quiting. You d on't need to do much. Working only a few blocks help the person so much and yo u wouldn't even believe how happy it can get someone. I, myself, feel to have contributed in that way to the s cene. I helped Fluor out when he started and am still helping him today, go t Grindstoned to draw good ansi and got him in Dark after he's been drawing f or about a month, taught Mass Murderer how to draw. I helped several people on  irc. The second thing that causes this mess up would be relat ed to the internet, though I believe if everyone helps the new artists , this wouldn't be a problem anymore. Before everyone could access the internet, your scene li fe all started out on local boards, where you would see your first ansi pac k, start drawing until you'd wanna join a local group, or even create one. An d by the time you'd reach the international art scene, you'd be pretty good. But  now that pretty much all of the boards are gone and that anyone can get acce ss to the internet, what used to be everybody's local scene is now #ansi. Sad, b ut true. I don't wanna start saying shit about how lame #ansi is, cauz I'd ha ve enough to write agoddamn book. I simply wanna say that the expension of the international scene, or of the local scene, I guess you could say it both way, br ought a shit load ofnew, not so good, groups. Now, th e number of good groups versus the number of not so good groups if I can say, is kinda disappointing. It seems like the quality of the whole scene dropped because of that. I don't really know what to suggest beside helping all t hose new artists out. It's pretty much the only way to make the scene  quality better, because we have pretty much no control on this, since the sc ene's not owned by anyone. Another way would be to only let packs of decent gro ups on archive siteslike acid's artpack archives, rev iewing decent groups, etc. Now don't get me wrong on that, I'm not trying to eliminate groups that don't  get at least 5 out of 10 on review sites/mags. Hell no. I'd be saying the oppos ite of what I said in the previous lines. I do believe we need new artists and doubt anyone could say the opposite, without being wrong. I just think we need to help them out andget things organized. If we wanna  go further in ansi exploration, I think we need to help the most people possible and the fastest possib le. We need to get them passed the ansi level when you really suck and have no inspiration. If we can get them to do in only a few months, what they would've normally done in more than a year, I think our job's done. This made me think about the differences between the art  scene and reallife. I haven't really been able to fi nd something that different. I mean, we'rea community  of people, that talk to each others. As artists do, we produce art and show it to other people. Then, I thought of something. H ow do we educate people in the art scene? We do not. They educate themselves and waste valuable months doing it. People only start producing decent art when  they know their medium. There are things you need to learn in ansi, tricks y ou need to know, before you can say what looks good and what doesn't. You nee d to be educated andno one could say the opposite. Lo ok at an ansi you liked before you really got good. Look at it now. How does it look like? Lemme tell you:  it looks like shit.I know, I've experienced the same  thing. That's why I had this very good idea, that looks very silly: I've decided to create some sort of a n association. It's called the Big Art Scene Brothers. I'm pretty sure y ou all know what are those big brothers associations, in real life. The purpose is pret ty much the same: having someone older (better in that case) than you, who you  can count on. With this association, I wanna offer free help (of course) to jus t anyone who needs and wants to be helped with any of the scene mediums. If you  wanna join me as a big brother, email me at tna@free.xtel.com. I'm not paying anyone for that, the only thing you get is pride, because you should be proud of helping someone as much as your scene. If you wanna join as a little brother I guess, email us (me for the moment) at bigbrothers@iname.com. With this associat ion, I believe we can get a few people to become alot better in a few months. Please support your scene. Please think about it. Alexandre Menard, aka The Night Angel / AWE Lettering. SAUCE00Scene Reflection 2 The Night Angel AWE Lettering 19980808ªPi