07-31-98 I know how long that text is If you don t wanna read it please jump at least to the last paragraph (line 78) Pretty much everyone knows how bad the scene is today Though it seems to be getting better The few next lines are just to point out what I believe are two things that cause this so called art scene to be that messed up I d say the most influencing factor is the general boredom of everyone It has always been like that people started 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 good as they re normally supposed to be Can you name only one good artist who started drawing this year So what happens is when people that have been drawing for a few years lose the interest in ansi or simply can t find the time to keep working on this interest 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 going to die even though people say it ll always be around because what keeps people in this scene 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 there are more people dropping out of the scene than good people joining Dying without having children pretty much sucks if you ask me Who s gonna benefit your experience For myself having children and showing them things I ve learnt is somehow a way to 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 with the art scene We have worked our ass off learning how to draw and no one s gonna benefit of this when we drop out This is stupid This is a call to every good artist out there Get to 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 don t need to do much Working only a few blocks help the person so much and you wouldn t even believe how happy it can get someone I myself feel to have contributed in that way to the scene I helped Fluor out when he started and am still helping him today got Grindstoned to draw good ansi and got him in Dark after he s been drawing for 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 related 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 life all started out on local boards where you would see your first ansi pack start drawing until you d wanna join a local group or even create one And 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 access to the internet what used to be everybody s local scene is now #ansi Sad but true I don t wanna start saying shit about how lame #ansi is cauz I d have enough to write a goddamn 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 brought a shit load of new not so good groups Now the 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 those 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 scene s not owned by anyone Another way would be to only let packs of decent groups on archive sites like acid s artpack archives reviewing 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 opposite 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 and get things organized If we wanna go further in ansi exploration I think we need to help the most people possible and the fastest possible 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 real life I haven t really been able to find something that different I mean we re a 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 How 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 you need to know before you can say what looks good and what doesn t You need to be educated and no one could say the opposite Look 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 an association It s called the Big Art Scene Brothers I m pretty sure you all know what are those big brothers associations in real life The purpose is pretty 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 just 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 association 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