A huge round of applause and multi-coloured kittens to all the participants for the first week's challenge! Here are the submissions we received:







Black Christmas by ~joshisgross

Cheer by =darkdescartes

Just another day... by =MSJames

Adventist by ~trihardist

Artery by ~novembrandt


Lovely, aren't they? Five visual submissions and five poetry submissions exactly, which is rather nicely symbolic of what the Artery's all about. Very impressive all around!

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The Artery Database

The Artery Manifesto mentioned forming a list of interested collaborators to work together on projects that crossed genres. This week we're going to start putting that together! So if you're interested in being on our database, post a comment here with your name, your particular skills and what collaborations you'd be interested in, and we'll add you to the list. This first nucleus of our database will be posted up at the end of the week, and added to with each successive week. So any time you want to be added or removed to the database, just let us know!

And on a related note, we'd like you to register your interest in an Artery chatroom. Think it's a ripper idea? A stinker of an idea? A small peacock carved from butter? Whatever your opinion, let us know!

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This Week's Challenge - brought to you by ~maxine!

This week’s challenge is a traditional one, so it’s mine to introduce (myself, being the artist mostly known as ~maxine). The New Year has been rung in and I am feeling rather topical, so the challenge is:


Produce a simple visual piece on the theme of birth or rebirth


- and why not try something new whilst you’re at it, a rebirth of your own? Have a play with a new medium, a new style, a different set of colours. ENJOY YOURSELF! The thing the Artery is most about is fun and inspiration, so don’t spend hours getting stressed about this – ten minutes is fine, half an hour is fine. A sixty hour orgy of creativeness is fine too, as long as you’re having fun!

And for non-visual artists, the challenge is simple: have a play with some visual art, try a doodle or two – doesn’t matter if you think you can’t draw, give us the best stick man you can, and feel free to write about the experience!

Deadline for submissions: 14th of January 11PM GMT

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Coming up in the next week - a poetry focused challenge from =zebrazebrazebra!