COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS

THE PLAN It had always been my intention to make Creative Oddities Studios a collaborative effort (hence the plural "studios"). Way back in the dark ages of the late 1990's, I worked with a crew of creative and interesting artists in my first busines effort, Primal Aesthetic. This was more of a local, cabalistic art group doing shows together and, in theory, heavilly promoting one another. The effort was a success for the artists that made a real effort in the project and a learning experience for all. I took what I learned and used that as the foundation for my efforts with Creative Oddities Studios. COS was still largely experimental during the early years, and I found that I had developed a strict screening process that made the pool of potential collaborators very small. Potential candidates needed to be creative, motivated, and productive. Ideally, they would be engaged in projects of their own similar to this one; promoting their own creative efforts with an eye for the benefits to be gained from cross-promotion. Above all, they needed to demonstrate the same drive to succeed that pushes my own efforts. In no way should they expect to be carried completely by Creative Oddities Studios. TC Downey (The Beast) and I have been collaborating in various efforts for years now, so when he suggested that we form a more direct merger betwixt our two projects it just seemed like a given. I am proud to welcome FeartheBeast.com fully into the auspices of Creative Oddities Studios, and I am confident that the fans and patrons of my work will appreciate the digital madness and dark poetry TC generates from his corner of the abyss. HOW IT WORKS I anticipate that, with this announcement, a number of other artists in my immediate sphere of influence will come forth and take an interest in a similar collaboration. At this point, what TC and I are doing is still in an experimental phase. Much of what we are doing is being done just to see what works, and will be modified over time. TC and I are maintaining our own galleries and web-sites. The main difference between our solo efforts and our collaborative efforts will be the heavy cross-promotion on those sites of our efforts. TC will be treating COS as a "hub" which his home page is connected to. I will be modifying the site to make clear the collaborative nature of this new venture, so visitors will be aware that there is more to see here than just the work of Jason Sorrell. Where appropriate, TC will link back to the COS hub, and my efforts will be treated more like that of an associate artist rather than the whole affair. TC and I will also maintain seperate merchandising ventures simply to minimize the mess that money can make in these kinds of efforts. We will be working on a cross-merchandising project (still in the planning stages) that will include both internet and local promotion of our efforts. Promotion is the main drive of this effort. TC and I will be using our considerable internet venues (myspace, facebook, yahoo, google, squidoo, helium, angelfire...the list grows more expansive daily) to continuously promote our ventures and encourage our fans to promote one anothers efforts. We will also be working on continuous, grass-roots ad campaigns in our own locations...the theory being that the more successful our efforts, the more beneficial to everyone involved. YOU WANT IN? Right off the top of my head, I can think of a few people that would be ideal for this kind of effort, but I am not looking to recruit. Instead, if this is something you feel would be worth your involvement, you need to show the initiative and step forward. Tell us what you who you are, what you have, and what you can do. Keep in mind that we are relatively independent artists already deeply engaged in our own promotion efforts...you need to be in the same place (or clearly headed there) to be considered for a place within Creative Oddities Studios. Things I am looking for: Do you have your own web-site? Do you use your own graphics on your web-site? How active are you on the internet? What do you do to promote yourself locally? How do you merchandise your work? Are you willing to cross-promote? If your interested, simply email sorrellart@hotmail.com and tell me where to start looking for you on the net. We will go from there.