From the Gallery

About Us

So, you should know, we were born in one spot, raised under months of gray skies. We learned to walk in snow, giant piles of pure, slowing white. At school we sculpted the wadded gum under our desks and looked out the windows, wondering exactly what was out in the woods beyond the playground. Somewhere along the line, we started emerging from the clay bodies we were all given, shouting, drawing, and asking awkward questions.

We started the AAAlliance in late 2004, with the desire to basically keep in touch with all of our friends who had moved away and were involved in their own creative endeavors. It was selfish, our desire, but then we started thinking we could serve a larger purpose, get other artists seen, heard, and network and collaborate with them. It worked, it would seem.

Somehow, and it was unique to all of us, we found that there were places beyond the borders of our town where people actually lived. We had heard, to this point. We had imagined. Each day thereafter was spent connecting a “point b,” “elsewhere,” to where we sat, at home.

Where are we?

We are everywhere, and you are one of us. We are everywhere, and you are one of us. We wrote songs to, defaced the walls of, and schemed against a landscape that was familiar and not one bit ours, and we’re willing to share them.

We couldn’t think of anything programmatic. More of a loose confederation than an organization with rules, politics or boundaries, we decided we would let our membership steer the way, in whatever medium they chose, and become a free association of kinetic energy willing to be plugged into any project. We wanted what most collectives want—exposure for our members, funding, the ability to provide it to others, collaborative opportunities, greater awareness of the arts and opportunities for artists, but, as we aren’t limited by the term “artist” and prefer the wider“ assignation of people,” we desire so much more. Autonomous artists’ cells and allied artists in every small town and metropolis on Earth would be great. Diverse projects and revolutions not just in culture, but in everyday life would be better. But how best do we as individuals connect with disparate groups and other artists, organizations separate from our everyday existence and people who traditionally cherish working alone? Well, that’s the challenge, right? Distance, it seems, should become our asset, or maybe something we can form an uneasy truce with.

This webpage you’re looking at is the nexus-point, the great facilitator, the channel keeping us in touch and offering inspiration. Since we can’t be in more than one place at one time (which, believe us, we’re working on), we leave it up to you. Join us. Contribute something.

There is life out there. We can prove it.

What can you do? Start something. Anything—a community life-drawing class, a book-club, a movable art-market. Any project. Any passionate display. We need it. Contact another Active Artist and team up. It’s what we’re here for. We set this up to be a meeting-place for ideas. Our goal isn’t solely a virtual place to express ourselves—there are so many of those already. We ask only that you be an active participant in your own life, in your own art, that you observe the blurring lines between the two and send us your notes from the ride to come.

So we're calling out to you, wherever you are. Shake those roots clean and become unstuck. Be as loud as you can so we can find you. Join this harmony coming over the trees. We are beating trails towards someplace as yet uncreated; the markers we leave behind will be catalogued here—some will call it art, but we’ll call it future artifacts of a raw, new world that is becoming more clear each day.