The time has come...

Dear Friends.

ProjectNEXT has had a great run. The process and product has been tremendous, after a good year of promoting the project and moveing it about the country, its time to decide each pieces fate.

 Before we get to that let me tell you where its been. First off, the project took almost two years total from the start of the first painting to the reciept of the last canvas. I made frames for each painting, all similar with simple hand made detailing. In January 2007 I drove all the pieces out to Austin, Tx for the Star of Texas Tattoo Revival. In the shows new home the project recieved a great welcome. After the weekend I drove the project to Dallas for an artists reception and showing at Strange But True Studios. Jay and Star where excellent hosts and made the reception a tremendous success. In July of 2007 I picked the paintings up from Stange But True Studios and then proceeded down to San Antonio Tx. for the Alamo City Tattoo show. Another great exposure to the tattoo enthusiast crowd. From there it traveled back to LA for a showing and artist reception at the Mary Paxton Gallery from late July til mid August. The week after that show I packed it up and headed out to Pheonix Az. for the Hell City conventions first west coast appearence. What a great show Durb puts on. Not only is it about tattooing but also the art that tattooers create. After that select pieces where displayed at Trigger Happy Tattoo where I work from Sept 07 til May 08. Each day it was a great inspiration to myself and co workers to look at all the great art that came from this project. Graciously Durb gave me space at the Hell City respawn in Columbus Oh. May 2008. Another great showing with tons of people coming through the art gallery space to check out all the extra work that todays tattoo artists create. A special thanks goes out to Marcy for the space at the Austin show, Jay strange for the oportunity to show at his space and great reception. To Anthony from the Alamo City show for the support. To Durb, you sir definately have the key to putting on a tattoo show that showcases ALL of what tattoing has become. Finally to all the participating artists , Thank You for devoting your time to this piece of work, its changed my life and view of what art can be.

 There was a second part of this project that I havent talked much about because it was typically confusing to explaing both parts to the average viewer. The second part was called a "rogue" painting and consisted of me starting a small portion of a canvas then mailing it to a tattoo shop that has proved to be a leader in the art world. Five canvases where mailed out with simple instructions of contribute to the piece or pass it along to someone else who may be interested in participating. Two pieces came back completed and I must say they both blew me away with the result. The first completed panel came back from Newskool tattoo, Even though it suffered a little hiccup with the original panel being lost in a move a second similar panel was completed by Adrian Lee and turned out great. The Second panel that is probably my favorite piece in the whole project was first mailed to Don Mcdonald of Bodyworks Studio, He then passed it on to Steve Morris and then on to Guy Aitchison from HyperspaceStudios, from such a random mailing out of nowhere these guys really made the piece into a great display of what can come from tattooers for the sake of art. These two pices where proudly displayed with all the other panels of ProjectNEXT. The 3 canvases that disappeared into the ether of a busy tattooers schedule where mailed to, Nine Eyes Studio dallas, Hope Gallery in conneticut and Last Rites in new york. Not having much more contact than a piece of paper with a breif outline of the concept of the idea it was more than a success in my book.

 So now the time has come for me to move on to the next collaborative art project. Its called Evolve and documentation can be found at www.myspace.com/evolvetattoo its basically the same premise as ProjectNEXT but it will involve tattooers only. My goal for this project is 50+ canvases. A collection of straight collaborative work on panels, some "Equisite Corpse" style paintings where the other artist has a limited view of the panel to elaborate on, at least 10 "Rogue" panels to see what happens and some other interesting media to be determined when I figure out what to do. 

 Now the what to do with the paintings of ProjectNEXT, I've been told its a much more valuable piece to have all the panels together but some artists have expressed interest in having certain peices for themselves. So I am going to start mailing them back. For those that participated in multiple canvases we can figure out a fair trade of work where we each get to keep a piece. I will keep them in their display frames and if you like I can mail the accompaning progress pictures that where included in each showing. If you'd like me to hold onto the painting and try and sell it thats fine, just let me know what dollar amount you'd like for your part in participating I'll have them up for sale for another six months only then mailed back to you. Please Send Me your mailing address to ship the painting to. If you dont respond in a timely manner i will continue to send this email.

Thanks Again
Darin

And to the tattooers who participated in this work and would like to continue with Evolve it would be my pleasure, just contact me through the myspace page. To the non tattooers I'm always willing to make art so let me know if you wanna do more paintings.