Please fave the news article. How I hear you ask? Look [here].

This issue’s letter is:

I

The deviant that is being featured and interviewed today is:

~impersonalinfo

My name is Pilar, I'm 30 years old, work as a teacher, and I'm married with two kids. And somehow I still find the time for art. Very "small" art.

Hard question to answer... I used to be on IRC a lot 10+ years ago and noticed lots of links to application skins and other customizations site showing up on this new "deviantART" site. It wasn't really my thing at the time and I didn't find out until later that they were hosting more "traditional" artworks as well. I admit I've drifted in and out of this site over the years posting and then deleting various crappy pixel arts and pencil drawings that I won't bother you with recalling, but I think I'm finally starting to find a use for myself on here.

I have an annoying habit of revealing too much about myself online. Even the answer to question #1 makes me a wee bit nervous tbh. Sorry.

I think I've answered this question before but I really really really like the PEOPLE you can find on this site. It's a really big tent and there's no viewpoint so outrageous or unpopular that you can't find at least one person on dA supporting it with their art. But with all that diversity, the community is still much more civil than you'd expect. Recently I noticed a stamp supporting something that I strongly disagreed with. I created my own deviation in response to it, and then both of them wound up making `stuck-in-suburbia's stamp feature in the same week. I think that's the kind of event that really highlights what kind of community dA should be, and often is. I think it helps that the structure of the site really keeps the focus on art and when deviants first encounter each other, it's almost always through something they hold in common (creating/loving art) and every other exchange takes place on that foundation.

I've never been on the forum - no specific reason, I just hate internet forums.

I started playing the piano when I was two years old and most of my creative focus has been in music. I've dabbled in drawing all my life but never successfully. Every once in a while I've tried working on visual art (like seriously trying, with how-to guides and stuff) but usually I just wind up filling a sketchbook or two with horrible HORRIBLE scribblings and making myself feel depressed. Making stamps does a lot to soothe my fragile visual ego though.

:thumb196958944: :thumb197963414:

I like looking at other deviants' art, but I don't think I draw very much "inspiration" from it. When another work inspires me (to create my own) I'll usually collect it or give some other form of recognition. Visually I tend to enjoy more minimalistic or abstract works (Mondrian, Malevich) and in literature I have a great appreciation for the poetry of Ben Johnson and (much later) the imagists, and also the haiku of Basho and Issa.

People who can't spell... overused plz accounts... piss-fights between anime fandoms... honestly all these things are pretty minor. I think most of what we think of as dA's "problems" are either dealt with effectively or turn out to be self-correcting if you wait long enough.

There's nothing about stamps in and of themselves that should make them ineligible. On any given day, there are probably as many stamps deserving of DDs as there are other art forms, so it's perfectly appropriate if one is chosen every now and then - if it's a good example of the quality of work dA wants to highlight, etc. Of course, there are some stamps that look terrific but are short on effort and originality (stamp versions of screenshots, imagemacros, etc) but I like to think a work like that isn't likely to be featured.

:thumb198187875: :thumb197957870:

Lessee... in my Napster history right now I have: Suzanne Ciani, Gandalf, the Velvet Underground, Symphony X, Daddy Yankee, Indian Raga by Moonlight, Will Ackerman, RelientK, and a selection of Mozart piano sonatas. Yup, I have the most ridiculous tastes in music ever. But the short answer is everything except country.

I don't watch movies very often. I like some action flicks - Sucker Punch looks freaking awesome. I also try to catch all the kids' movies - because of my job even if I don't get to watch with my family.

Congrats to the rest of the alphabet chosen for this series, and to all deviants - keep making art and getting better!

:thumb190153649: