Don't believe what the emo kids say - arteries aren't just for cutting.

The Artery isn't a club or a community, in the usual sense of the word - it doesn't have its own account and it doesn't have lists of its members. What it does have is a method for connecting accounts and members to each other. Just as a real artery pumps blood from one part of the body to the other, The Artery promotes the exchange of ideas from genre to genre, ferrying inspiration from one group of artists to another (and back again - I realise that process would technically be called The Vein, but there's only so far one can carry an analogy.)

This initiative grew out of my long association with noted traditional artist ~maxine. Throughout our long history we've constantly created artworks that complement one another - she's illustrated my poetry and I've written accompaniments to her paintings. I have never had a more fulfilling creative relationship. We want to share this experience with you all!

Each week The Artery will run activities for artists and writers alike, varying in focus but always designed to bring these groups closer together and promote cross-genre collaborations. These activities could be anything from a joint 'stream-of-consciousness and sketch' exercise to artists working to illustrate the pieces produced in the last week's poetry exercise, or indeed vice-versa. There's so many possibilities to be had from getting artists and writers together - as we discover more, we'll run them!

We will also keep a database of active writers and artists interested in more specific one-on-one collaborations. Want to find a writer to create an accompanying poem for your most recent painting, or a good pencil artist to make sketches of your characters? The listing is your first port of call for finding like-minded deviants.

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This Week's Challenge

We're starting off with something simple - a warmup, so to speak. For all artists and writers from all walks of creativity the task is the same. Submit it to your gallery or to your scraps and link it to us here - we'll collect all the contributions and feature them in the next article!

Spend no more than 10 minutes in the medium of your choice illustrating Christmas.

Deadline for submissions: December 31st, 11PM GMT


Coming up in the next week - a traditional art focused challenge from ~maxine!