Introducing the Reader Art section!

You've probably noticed that the navigation bar up top has been rearranged a bit. I've added a new page called Reader Art.

If you've followed my work for a while, you know I'm a big supporter of derivative art. I get really excited whenever someone takes one of my poems and uses it as inspiration for some new piece of art, and as an artist myself, it's a mode of art I want to support and subsidize. Over the past two years, a number of very talented people have shared artwork with me that they've created based on my poems, and I wanted a place on the site where I could showcase that work.

If you'll hop over to the Reader Art page, you'll see a link where you can upload an image of your own. You can also add any notes about the work, and there's a field that will let you pick which poem the artwork is based on, if applicable. Any registered member of the site can upload their artwork. Right now, the Reader Art section only supports image files, but soon I'll be implementing the ability to add videos and audio posts as well.

Because I want to support derivative art on a financial level, I'll be giving out a monthly prize to my favorite piece of derivative art every month. At the moment, that prize will just be a $10 Amazon gift card, since I don't quite have the budget to support more than that, but in the future I hope to expand the prize.

If you've ever created art based on one of my poems, I really hope you'll add your work to the derivative art section. I'll be contacting a few of you who I know have created art for me in the past.

Related things not yet implemented:

• A set of thumbnails of all your submitted art will show up on your profile
• An automated badge will be awarded when you upload your first piece of derivative art
• Each month's winning image will have a little Gabriel's Pick icon tagged to it.

Since this first month is a bit special, any artwork uploaded to the Reader Art section this month will be eligible for the $10 prize, even if the artwork was created months or years ago.

Other News

On an unrelated note, the voting for Shelby Living Magazine's Best of the Best contest ends on August 12th. This is a contest run by a local magazine and this site is one of three blogs nominated for the Best Blog in Shelby County category. If I win, it could mean some nice local publicity for me. You do not have to live in Shelby County, Alabama in order to vote, so I hope you'll all hop over and cast your vote.

You can vote by going to http://shelbyliving.com/category/bestofthebest/. Just enter your details, and then scroll down to the Arts & Culture category. Third entry in that category is Best Blog, so select Gabriel Gadfly from the drop down menu, then hit submit at the bottom of the page.

Finally, the print edition of Bone Fragments comes out tomorrow!