Hello all!
I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season. I’m currently taking a break from my own writing because I really wanted to write a thank you to all you artists and followers for being the amazing people you are. January 19th will be the one year anniversary of Asexual Artists and this site has become bigger than I ever dared dreamed. And that’s entirely thanks to you.
I started this blog in large part because when I was in a very vulnerable state, someone told me I would never be an artist because I was asexual. There were few resources on asexuality available at the time and I couldn’t find any openly asexual artists, so I pretty much lost hope in achieving my dream of being an author.
Fast forward to this year, I’m an openly aro-ace fantasy author who has gone the self-publishing route and yet, all the examples of ace representation I can find are written almost exclusively by allos. I’m infuriated by that and by the way people seem to settle for this kind of representation. Asexual-identifying people deserve so much better. And for f*cks sake, can we please pay a little attention to the indie ace authors out there?
I thought about my days in the closet and how much less painful they would have been if I’d had even a single example of a badass openly asexual author. I know I’m not the only ace author out there, but everything about asexuality revolves solely around asexuality itself. There’s no attempt to show a person as being both asexual and a fantastic artist.
So, I figure, “Why not make a site that I would have found hope in? A site where artists talk about their work and their asexuality? Where people are shown as artists who happen to identify as asexual?” I quickly get to work and set up the Tumblr account, which is later followed by the WordPress site.
I figured I might get to interview maybe 50 artists if I’m lucky (I thought 25 was more likely). Perhaps I’ll even get 100 followers. My voice may be small, but maybe I’ll be able to introduce some people to artists they never would have found otherwise.
As of this writing, I’ve done over 200 interviews with asexual artists and the blog on Tumblr has well over 3,000 followers (I think there’s about 60 on WordPress). I’m just beyond amazed at this point.
Thank you, artists, for trusting me to interview you and show your art to these sites. There have been many times that I’ve been moved to tears at the beauty of your work (that goes for writing and visual arts too). Your kind words and emails have often taken the sting out of some of the bullying and hatemail I occasionally receive. When my dog passed away last month, running these sites helped me deal with the pain of losing him. So thank you for that.
I’m continually amazed by how you’re all unique in your approach and your subject. This site is what it is because of your courage, your talent, and your passion. I’m beyond humbled to have been able to talk to you. Know that you are all so wonderful and ridiculously skilled. You have been the highlight of 2015 for me 🙂
Thank you, followers, for following this blog. Thank you to those who signal boosted interviews, who left incredibly kind comments, and for those who just read an interview or two. These artists work so incredibly hard and sometimes those comments and likes can make the immense amount of frustration worth it. Thank you.
*************
I hope to continue highlighting the phenomenal art of asexual-identifying artists into 2016. As long as there are artists who are willing to be interviewed, I’ll continue running this site. Because we’re here and we’re creating and our stories deserve to be told. So please, keep signal boosting the site and keep supporting each other.
Most of all, keep creating. Because you’re wonderful and amazing 🙂
Happy holidays, everybody!
Asexual Artists 