The Big Shift - Part One, The Success and The Failure

Ann Jacoby's Cover  Art for "Birth,"
December Issue of 

It’s been four months since I did a piece of writing for the Kosmic Egg Projects blog. I was busy, of my own volition, pursuing a concept I had about publishing and the arts. Is there really any way to explain something that caught my heart and dragged me in, except to say that it did just that? Once I started, no matter my growing concerns, I could not stop. I could not stop because I’d promised many people I admire and respect that I would do it, and I felt that this magazine on-line, and potentially a phone app of easy reach, would be a great way to share that respect I have for their work and give a new audience a chance to consider it. I couldn’t stop because I thrived on the person-to-person aspect of the project even if it were just short chats on social media and an email with some jpegs attached. I felt less lonely, less wandering than I had for a few years since my health gave me a challenge two or three. I couldn’t stop because I had a vision that went beyond the monthly periodical towards other types of publishing, and so I guess you could say it was HOPE.

Fionn Wilson's Cover Art for "Flesh"
November Issue of The Arts

Sean Woodward's Cover Art for "Death"
October Issue of The Arts

The magazine was part of a Beta Test for a developing platform called Periodical. There were no promises, but I plowed forward with the assumption that all good things rise to the top. It is with some embarrassment then, that I have to say The Arts failed to deliver whatever the developers needed to further fund their effort. My subscriptions over the course of six months ranged between 2 and 12. Yep. For $2.99 a month, my subscribers accepted that the first six issues of the magazine would be free, and supported my endeavor anyway. You may think, well, you get what you pay for, but really all along I knew that this magazine would be a very slow climb to find that sexy, enticing message that attracts a readership. 

Gwen Thelen's Cover Art for "Remember"
September issue of The Arts 

Deborah Morris' Cover Art for "Heart"
August Issue of The Arts

There are dozens of publications on the arts already, and I was looking for that unique angle that would catch the reader’s hearts as creating a curated monthly arts exhibit caught me. I broke all kinds of editorial rules. I had short articles, not long ones. I put links in each article that could lead a reader away from the magazine. I revisited the same artists more than once with the idea that at the end of the year we would have a one-off magazine about each one. And, also with the idea that I could link the articles together over time, so that even though the article itself was short, a reader could find out a lot about each artist, see more of their work.  I tried to embed audio links into early issues hoping that while a reader scrolled through the magazine, a musical accompaniment could set a tone, but the platform couldn’t sustain it. I put videos in articles, or as articles. I made images more important than editorial as often as I could.  Unless the piece of creation was writing – poetry, prose, critiques – in which case I collaborated those pieces with visual art that supported or contrasted the words. I used my own work to fill in the gaps if I had run out of time to ask for more artists to participate and also to share my own work where possible. Obviously, I played around with those six months with the idea that the magazine was under development, too, and that we’d have time to find our groove.

John Mckie's Cover Art for "Atoms & Electrons"
July Issue of The Arts

https://thearts.periodical.co/ (here you can see it for a few weeks at least - the fledgling little magazine that arose out of many desires)

With the free platform gone, so goes The Arts. I’m not even sure at this point how I will preserve each issue. I will do my best, friends, and link the safety net here in the coming month. I want to apologize to all of the artists who eagerly contributed their work to the magazine. The heart of it is that as artists we all want to be seen as often and as deeply as we can in a world that seems to already be saturated with the work. 

Tomorrow I will explore this adventure of being seen as an artist, or being invisible as a creative person in the new world.