the Urban Artist Group presents...

In a world where the hordes of consumerism crowd the aisles of supply and demand, where neon signs call out to one's periphery day and night, where billboard propaganda lines the highways of this planet from state to state and city to city, where we overhear talk of the wars being fought on foreign soil, where we see people praying to gods who will never answer their prayers, and where televisions play a larger role in a child's upbrining than his or her own parents, we are teetering on the very edge of it all, from which we will either plummet to our deaths or soar away with newfound wings. There are two choices left: change or collapse. Oh, and we have dreamt of the former, while we have had nightmares of the latter! With a growing awareness of the world, we have embraced anarchism as the pursuit of a better world. We have developed an understanding of Freedom and Individuality, as well as Love, and just how indispensable they are to the continuation of a free and sentient human race. But just as much as those things, we realized the importance of art---yes, the painings that depicted the beauty in the world, the photographs that captured the more meaningful moments, the poems that served as the artisitic language of the mind and heart, and the music that sounded throughout the world with chords of hope and words of the real life moments that mattered above all else. We are truly the young and the doomed! We are the Suicide Generation! And even so, we have somehow found a way. We have abandoned society for the Underground Communites of the City Earth. We have made art our lives, our religion, our revolution. And many of us actually believed, and still believe that art can save the world.

-Issue i. of the Urban Artist Group (maga)zine ---artwork by Richard Olmsted

 The purpose of the Urban Artist Group is to both support and showcase the work of the underground artists of this vast and crazy City Earth in which we live; which is to say, the artists who have starved and suffered for their art, who have refused to sellout, who have avoided the profiteering corporate giants of Big Business America and the many evils of marketing propaganda geared towards manipulating the minds and hearts of the targeted cultures of our times, and who create art for the sake of art itself. The Urban Artist Group is not exclusive to any one type of artistic medium, which means that we have and will continue to work with: poets, writers of all kinds, bands and singer/songwriters, photographers, painters, graffiti artists, cartoonists, tattooists...and, of course, those individuals who have endeavored to invent new and interesting artistic styles that are nameless, unconventional, and highly experimental. Most of the artists we work with are unpublished and/or unsigned, save for zine publications and online exposure. And then there are some who have been featured by independent media and whatnot, videos and interviews and so forth. But we do not, under any circumstances, show the work of any mainstream artist whose work reflects all of the other assembly line copies of uninspired artistic garbage, or anti-art, for lack of a better term, which is created for the singular reason of achieving some level of recognition, and for that recognition to lead to wealth and a more desirable status on the rungs of that social ladder toward the top of the hierarchal pyramid, etc. Quite simply, we are very much against prostiting our art, as well as assisting others in prostiting their art...for there are far too many art whores in the art communities as it is, to be sure.
        The Urban Artist Group is an avenue through which we can reveal all of the important, meaningful, and worthwhile art and artists in the City Earth Underground, while sharing with the world all of the inspired and original masterpieces born of these infinitely talented and driven individuals. It is rebel art. It is the art of Freedom and Individuality, which in my way of thinking is nothing short of synonymous with anarchism. And what is anarchism other than the pursuit of a better way of life, the desire to create a better world for everyone?! I mean, next to Nature itself (or Herself, as some would say), and next to the few undeniably breathtaking things born of human civilization, Underground Art is the most beautiful and natural thing in existence. Like the generations before it---the Lost Generation's F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, whose literary achievements changed the literary world irrevokably...and then the Beat Generation's Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg, whose poetry and literary work went against the literary and artistic standards and norms of their time, causing a literary and poetic revolution (the likes of which hasn't been seen since)---the Urban Artist Group began with the Suiciden Generation. As an artist I represent the Suicide Generation, and it is my job to hold the door open for those of the new generation, for those who may want to take part in our artistic and literary revolution.
        So...send in your photographs (preferrably black-and-white), your sketches, your poems, your short stories, your band's demo...hell, send in your whole damn portfolio, if you're so inclined, and we will definitely consider your work for the next issue of the Urban Artist Group (maga)zine. Bands and singer/songwriters, simply label your packages: Sounds from the City Earth Underground Dept.

Submission Information:

the Urban Artist Group HQ
attn: James G. Carlson
102 E Main Street, unit 6
Macungie, PA 18062
usa

610-443-5014  (fax)
theUrbanArtistGroup@yahoo.com  (e-mail)
http://www.myspace.com/bruisecoloredhorizons  (myspace page)
http://www.theurbanartistgroup.blogspot.com/  (blog site)

Submission that we do not accept are NOT returned to the artist, but are rather stored in our archives, from which we may one day re-discover them and use them (crediting the artist for the piece of work, naturally), but not before contacting the artist for further permission to show his or her work. As of right now, we are a non-profit collective, so we do not pay artists for the submissions we do accept. In the future we hope that will change, though it will NOT change unless we can find a way to do it without joining the corporate world, the mainstream rat race, the propaganda whores, and capitalist pigs. Selling out is NOT on the agenda, and we stand firm on that. Also, if other parties contact us----other zines, independent media, online sources, record labels, artists looking to collaborate, etc---we will contact you with their offers, rather than give your information out freely to whomever come who may. But...once you're part of the Urban Artist Group "family," are primary concern is looking out for you, our fellow artist, and your best interest as such. That is, we would like to see all the artists with whom we work succeed on some level. We would like to see them be rewarded for their artistic contributions. And we will do what we can to ensure that such things do happen.

 -James G. Carlson
(chief editor & lead writer)
the Urban Artist Group, 2008 

So far, the Urban Artist Group has had the priviledge of working with the following bands and singer/songwriters, whose articles either have already been posted to this site or will be posted eventually. So far, the bands and singer/songwriters listed below are the Sounds branch of the Urban Artist Group family tree:

Robert Sarazin Blake  *
imadethismistake  *
Timber Timbre  *
the Good Day Sir  *
the Ghostwrite  *
David Dondero  *
Raise Up Roof Beams  *
Tin Tree Factory  *
Autumn Picture  *
Naomi Hates Humans*
Tim Holehouse*
the Future Kings of Nowhere*
Yeller Bellies*
the Devil Makes Three*
Fistful of Dynamite
the Andrew Jackson Jihad
Tomorrow the Gallows
Saint Joe Hazelwood
the Boy Bathing
Josh Bond
the Motorcycle Industry
Your Heart Breaks
Da Comrade!*
Mischief Brew*
Daniel versus the World
Jenny is a Boy
the Barons of Tang
Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival
Richard Olmsted
Mother Nevada
the Exotic Aquatic
Pete & the Tar Gang*
Catgut Mary
Travis Vick
the Chop Tops
Season of Nightmares
Mosquito Bandito
Sean K. Preston
Hail Seizures
Etc...

 The band names or singer/songwriters that have asterisks (*) next to them already have articles / interviews posted on the Articles or More Articles sections of the site.

 THE URBAN ARTIST GROUP, 2008