I'm not an artists and i'm not a writer, per se; but i do consider myself to be a pretty creative person. Art and literary magazines bore the shit out of me. And i love to look at art and i love to read but reading about art is kind of retarded. I dont mean reading about art like a Picasso biography or a review of an art show but looking at someone's portfolio pieces in a magazine then reading about "their influences" and why they like the color green and all kinds of silly shit like that. This isn't really helping me to appreciate the art any more and it's kind of making me not like the artists as much. Layouts in art magazines are also very boring, so as to not "distract" you from the art they are portraying. Most of the words in an art magazines are interviews with the artists. boring. as if interviews aren't boring enough. if artists were great at communicating with words they probably would not have picked art. they'd probably be the ones writing those boring literary magazines. Can you seriously ask someone how they felt when they were pouring their heart out on a canvas? if it's not even the least bit apparent maybe you, mr. interviewer should not be working for an art magazine.
Literary rags, err mags are a little more interesting just because you can read them which put them miles ahead of art rags but lit mags are generally pretty boring to look at. i know you guys are writing but shit give me something to look at when my A.D.D. kicks in. anything guys a doodle, a drawing, random stuff, anything. when i am writing and reading i am a doodler. it's not pretty but atleast it helps me retain a little bit of concentration in a different kind of way. I have ADD like a muhfucka too so i mean i'm sure thats part of it but i'd love some feedback from anyone who dosen't consider themselves to be attentionally deficient. haha
so fly.paper is meant to address both those issues. we have contests for writers and artists regarding a theme. sometime the theme is physical like "urban environments" or it is conceptual like "love" or "confessions" but what we do it take those submissions and pair them together we create harmony between the pieces. So when you read fly paper you get a fulfilling experience of words and visuals, together, for your benefit. Rather than just being about ART, or just being about WORDS, or just being about BIKES, we will give you all those things in a way that is more meaningful because it's presented to you as a conceptual whole.