INTRODUCTION


In early 2003, thousands of fifteen and sixteen year olds across Australia were entering their final two years of secondary school. For them, this was an important and consequently, very tumultuous year. Some became seriously depressed as the ensuing year progressed, or carried such depression with them from previous years, only to find the feelings magnified.

Others were simply bored and terrified with the workload which would show itself. They desired a need for a new medium, that could allow them to both procrastinate from the task that be and also express their misery.

And one website, Deviant Art, provided the exact platform for which both these things could be performed.

For some Brisbane students, this eventually evolved into a new social scene – at lunch tables everywhere at St Peters Lutheran College you could hear the familiar words of “Did you see that thing on Deviant Art?”. New friendships were forged and old ones were abandoned. Newfound respect was shown to some folk where it had never been shown before, simply because other sides of their personalities could now be expressed in true form. To outsiders, unacquainted with this new lifestyle it seemed rather wacky, and even scary.

This is the story of Deviant Art, through the eyes of some Brisbane students.


IN THE BEGINNING...


The first to go on Deviant Art, according to accurate sources, was one Jack Gable of the Kenmore scene, under the name “~Mr Pantz”. For those who would come to know him later on from St Peters, it was his DA name, and not his real name which would prevail (until only recently). Jack was a pioneer who came on DA many months before the St Peters scene began to play its important role in early 2003.

St Peters would have to wait until January 15 2003 - Kate Woodcroft would enter the realm of no return (she later left, only to come back again, and is now just indifferent). Following her charge, Madeline Offerman decided to make her presence felt as well, just three days later. The precedent was set.

As it worked it out, these two deviants were perfect for spreading the word while continually contributing note worthy artistic input. From these humble beginnings we can see the source of one of the most ‘productive’ periods of the future, The Dark Ages, but we will speak of that later on.


THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT


Woodcroft and Offerman, pleased with their experiences on the site, began to enlighten their own community of the site. Soon such peoples as Benjamin Outerbridge (February 2), Karl Eisner (May 2 See ~Spoonfish) and Chelsey Knott (May 24) sought to see what all the hoo-ha was about. They’re joining resulted in a much wider input of dark poems that was to come to the forefront in the subsequent age.


THE DARK AGES


This period is named so because of the large amount of dark, gloomy and poignant pieces produced by the artists on the site. Each person was experiencing personal problems, and consequently became drawn to Deviant Art. It was a medium in which one could freely express their emotions and feeling without the outside worlds judgement, and it also aided in a feeling of togetherness – a kind of “I’m not the only one experiencing pain” way of thinking.

All this may sound nasty and cynical, yet these circumstances definitely aided in a sense of rehabilitation for many serious sufferers of depression.

One hypothesis however is that certain members merely joined in order to fulfil their insecurities and as a means to fit in, and not as a result of any major state of depression. These people are hard to differentiate – you cannot merely say to someone “you were only on DA to fit in; you weren’t actually depressed”. But this author, in a move of bias which is unheard of in major history texts, is freely publishing that he is suspicious of certain members’ of the community’s motives. Now that that’s off my chest, I shall continue.

June of 2003 saw a large number of people join up such as Rohan Richards, Katy Hartman and Benjamin Wood who easily fit into the gloomy atmosphere of Deviant Art. It must be noted that although poems were the most popular artistic piece of the time, Rohan and Katy both defied convention by submitting a large amount of their own brand of visual art.

The on coming months saw the high point of this age, when Teagan Pettet, Steph Birch, Rosemary Robb and Taryn Yat all joined from St Peters. Jack Gable gained a companion in the form of Caitlin Sharp. Coincidentally he also lived next door to Outerbridge, much to the amusement of everyone.


OTHER CONTRIBUTORS


During the Dark Ages not everyone was necessarily into artwork portraying their state of mind. Lea Withnall, with complete lack of artistic talent somehow pioneered her own art form – that of going on Deviant Art merely to write journal entries. She went on to inspire such controversial future deviants such as Greg Stepowski, Tony Smith and Benjamin Leece (although Leece attempted some narratives about his obsession, flying. Sadly no one read past the first few words, much to his frustration). It must be said though that Lea did once go out with Sebastian Brown.

Eric Vaughn published some pixel art and different photo forms of himself bent over clutching his bass guitar. However he found his true calling, when he realised he enjoyed tormenting ignorant and arrogant Americans who supported George Bush. Eric perfected the controversial forum thread technique, something for which we owe him greatly. Later he made a T-Shirt design saying “I want to KILL President Bush”, with the hilarious caption “here come the conservatives”. It was a great time to be on Deviant Art.


SARCASTIC COMMENTATORS


This can be summed up as Shane McPherson and Tom Gardener. These two folk were almost revolutionary in that they thought everyone else’s depression was highly amusing, and snubbed it with their superiority. Although this sounds highly insensitive, at the time it was very refreshing, and this bias author congratulates them for doing so.

Tom Gardener contributed such deep pieces as “Leaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”, a poem which portrayed Tom Burger and Lea Whitnall making out in a tree. It confronted our imaginations like no other thing of the past, and took us out of our comfort zones.


SIGNIFICANT ARTISITIC CONTRIBUTIONS


Maddy Offerman and Chelsey Knott led the way in the most creative poems, while maintaining a steady rate of production. Knott achieved an unheard of number of watches (not the ones you wear on your wrist, silly), many from people she didn’t know personally and lived in other countries, which was a great feat. It is greatly debated which poem is her best, but this author believes it was her 4 line ‘epic’, to people with red hair.

Karl Eisner, produced perhaps the most creative work of the period, but could not measure up to the productive capacity of Offerman or Knott. Two of his pieces, ‘Twisted Harp Strings’ and ‘Idiosyncrasies of the Lost’ highlight Eisner at his creative peak. The latter poem traversed the rigid rules of the period (restricted creativity and promoted self absorption) and stands out as one of the best pieces produced to date.

Others such as Pettet, Sharp and Birch aided in the overall mood of the day with their steady stream of artwork.


THE END OF AN AGE


There are various reasons why the wave of depressive work ended. Some felt rehabilitated by what they had experienced on or off the site, and felt no further need to continue their work. Others never dealt with their problems properly; subduing things deep within their souls, only to have such problems arise at a later occasion. And others just felt no inspiration anymore.

Today some express their time on DA during this period in a most ashamed manner. Benjamin Wood commented that “That whole thing was just so stupid – the depressed poems and all that”. It is said that Woody, in the past, has stood up in the shower.

Some of the “old guard” deviants now felt almost marginalised, as new people signed up without the intention of participating in the ways of old. Some new deviants even ridiculed the ways of old, which seemed the final nail in the coffin for the old, uniform, dark artwork.

As a result some deviants left altogether or greatly reduced their time spent on the sight. Others managed to adapt to the new way of things, but did so with disgruntled murmuring under their breaths.


THE AGE OF JOURNAL ENTRIES


2004 saw a decline in art and an increase in journal entry’s and other ‘non-artistic mediums’ such as photos of people getting drunk at parties, and people fire-twirling. It was creatively a low point for Deviant Art in comparison to the past. Humour was welcomed into this new world, as sadness took a respite. A few stand-out artists took up the torch and ran with it, so that everyone didn’t die in a fit of boredom.

The coming of this period shows perhaps that people were exhausted of the inward-looking, sad thoughts of old. However, people’s workloads generally increased as they moved into grade 12, so the element of procrastination as a catalyst for creativity lived on.

Initially this period was a move away from what some argued was the selfish and inward-looking ways of the Dark Ages. However as this age progressed it too became bloated, self-serving and pretentious. This is reflected perhaps in the longest journal entry competition, or “Great Duel”, which endured during late July early August of 2004. The main contenders were Benjamin Leece and Greg Stepowski, Morgan Roberts and Lea Whitnall (who quickly withdrew because she thought it was pointless and would rather watch lesbian sex and bombs on ‘The Bill’).

These contenders in the past had produced exciting editions to the art of journal entry writing. However, the competition resulted basically in the contenders striving for quantity, not quality, and very boring journal entries ensued. Leece ended up winning “The Great Duel”.

Other memorable moments of this time include Ryan Stewart’s photos of him fire twirling. This led to a brief craze of everyone taking pictures of everyone fire-twirling, including new artist Caloey Carew-Reid.


THE AGE OF MEDICORITY


The journal entry thing opened the flood gates for patchiness all round. Old deviants rarely submitted and lost interest. Middle-aged deviants became cynical, and sarcastic, and continued writing bloated, self-serving journal entries, which no longer included interesting concepts. “The Great Duel” had taken its toll.

Nevertheless popularity for the site increased with an almost a two-fold increase in numbers, a reflection of the on-going procrastination being practised by the St Peters seniors.

Thank heavens one of these new member included Alex Ridley, possibly the most talented person to come on Deviant Art to date. His quirky journal entries became the envy of the old dinosaurs such as Greg Stepowski. His poems were refreshing – they were quirky, creative and inspiring – such an example lies in the form of ‘Fight the Clichéd’. Another great piece is ‘Intoxicating Moments’, a child-like yet very mature sketch of some fantasy guys who did some stuff.

Jack Gable, no longer the pant wearing man of old, also came into his element with his brand of disturbing and eccentric sketches. Eric Vaughn grew up a little and began to show off his painting skills. His portraits of Gaz Coombes from Supergrass and that other guy from Regurgitator were highlights. Perhaps his most famous piece, based on the concept of Pac-man, titled “When Ghosts Attack”, is under high demand from the public at present.

However Vaughn recently came under criticism for his new persona, that of one trying to find a universal truth, and who philosophises a lot. Whether it is just an egocentric, attention-seeking path of his or a genuine passion, only time will let tell.

Also or note-worthy originality is new-comer JB’s concept of a journal entry. Rather than being self absorbed, he is more interested in other people’s views and often sparks off communal debate. What more can I say? He’s just a councillor put on this earth to take care of those with no personality and who are insecure, and he shouldn’t have a life other than that. And if I was to get in a fight at a party I would definitely choose him to beat up who ever it was causing the problem (me, apparently).


THE TONY SMITH MISSILE CRISIS


This is the only ‘major’ stand out event where, due to popular opinion, one Deviant was discouraged enough to withdraw from participating in community activities.

In this event, Tony Smith, a relatively new Deviant (joined in 2004) came in front of the firing squad of the general DA Community. Anger built up towards him, in relation to what some saw as the ignorance and simplistic nature of his comments, deviations and journal entry.

The crisis came to boiling point when he published his views on MP3 file sharing, as reflected in this comment - “I shouldn't feel guilty, (the artist) should. If they felt any guilt they would sell their records for free because they should not want to have monetary gain but rather the simple satisfaction that their influence on society (i.e. their music) is having great effects upon people. But yeah who cares - those who want to waste money on buying stuff needlessly; by all means go ahead. But me; I'll conserve my (money) anywhere possible”.

The comment created such an uproar that even Kate Woodcraft came back on the site to see what all the fuss was about – she described his comment as “an ignorant and naive sort of communism”.

At first the reaction to Tony’s opinion was somewhat credible, with constructive criticism coming from many Deviants. But soon people, eager to feed their feeble egos after feeling creativity inept, took it upon them selves to lampoon him for relatively small to non-existent slip ups. Woodcroft upon her return saw it fit to publish an insensitive and insulting poll on him, to great popular approval.

Although Smith initially defended his opinions, in a later journal entry he apologized for his comments which he referred to as “arrogant”. What the entire event did for his already shattered self esteem is evident, in that he withdrew publishing journal entries from then on (except one blank one) and all deviations as well.

Nevertheless his comments were continually made the butt of jokes, in particular by Morgan Roberts and Ben Leece. Greg Stepowski even went so far to do a crude comic strip drawing, titled “All In Favour?” calling for Smith to leave the sight.

Rohan Richards was the only member of the community to call for an end of the onslaught directed at Tony Smith. His journal entry read, “Enough is enough. I will name no names… but I will express my anger and frustration towards the recent happenings regarding a certain member of the community…. I must voice my opinion and tell you that I am disgusted and terribly disappointed with… most of you… It's one thing…to have a discussion with someone or about someone…BUT! It is definitely another thing to out rightly and offensively attack (someone) on every word (they) say… for people to find enjoyment in making you feel like sh*t.”

In a private discussion with this author, Richards can be quoted saying “it’s not his fault he says ‘the wrong thing’ all the time. He’s just not very aware. But just because a mute can’t speak, does that mean you beat him and say ‘Speak!’?”.

Although Tony no longer receives insults from the community, the problem is currently far from rectified. To date, no body has publicly apologized for what they said to him. Whether anyone was wrong is debatable of course, but it is certain that many official DA rules were broken during the Tony Smith Missile Crisis.


TODAY


Despite the turmoil and upheaval experienced during the crisis, the age of Mediocrity has well and truly set in. Creative and intriguing Deviations are hard to come by with a few exceptions. Morgan Robert’s photo gallery is highly professional and outstanding – well worth a thorough look. This can be said also for Rohan Richard’ photographic work - he uses the natural world as his inspiration. Caloey Carew-Reid closely follows in his footsteps.

Caitlin Sharp acknowledges that she today struggles for inspiration, yet still creates quite agreeable poetry. The only other poetry being attempted of note is that of Ben Outerbridge and Benjamin Leece.

Alex Ridley’s journals are as good as ever, but are few and far between. Each one never ceases to amaze this author with his creative and forward looking outlook. Tom and Shane remain as sarcastic as ever (hooray). Shane however is publishing some journal entries about percussion timetables and such, and God only knows what it is in aid of. He has received no comments to date. Lea Whitnall now goes on Live Journal to talk about choirs and her boyfriend.

Eric Vaughn now runs two very popular DA groups, ~Hippies and ~Philosophers, both of which have been extremely controversial. ~Hippies was even brought to the attention of the DA board, who banned it for some weeks.

However the rest of today’s happenings seems quite clichéd, cosy and uninspiring. Deviation submissions are few and far between. There’s a whole bunch of some people no body knows who have joined the site to argue about Mr Moreton and chorale. They also enjoy replying to all of Ben Leece’s posts. And they all replied to Ben Outerbridge’s ‘hilarious’ journal of quotes which, if the lack of communal comments would have it, weren’t very hilarious at all to those not it the know.

AND, IN THE END....

Cynical? Yes. Opinionated? Yes. Am I going to get killed? See cynical and opinionated. Did anyone read it? I hope all of you did.