***Thanks for taking a moment to do the happy dance with me! I was just gonna let the day slide without mention. But then I got to thinking-- and that's so dangerous for me-- and I realized that 10 years is a looong time! That's a decade... just a little less than 1/7th the average life expectancy in this country. And fully 1/5 of my life because I turn 50 this year! I mean, holy cow, Batman!!!
I opened IA because Tiger Lilly just didn't have the energy to run her classes and look after her EROtique ng (which she'd opened in response to some folks not being comfortable working with nudes). At the time, there were a couple other imaging ngs started by students or those in the first group that had played with all those buttons at IM to figure out what they did...
I think Suzanna opened Art4All even before TL began her first "official" class. And, of course, Jane/Lady Timeless had been around for a while with her graphics and stuff, along with a few others I've long since forgotten... I'm pretty sure Choco/MsV/MrsK had her own group, too, for sharing graphics and doing sigs and stuff, but I didn't become aware of her until she joined TL's first class...
(pause, trying to remember point) Oh, so anyway, I opened IANG so the folks would still have a place to share both erotica and regular art. Unfortunately, I am not a natural hostess. Despite the occasional flair up of a repressed need to show off, I much prefer the shadows back-stage to the limelight at the front. Also, I had stuff going on in RL that wasn't really conducive to creativity as such. As my interest in imaging waned, so the group began to flounder until it was just me, popping in occasionally to keep the place opened for when the imaging bug bit me again, which it never really did, darn it...
Sometime in late '03 or early '04, I made a final post, saying good-bye to the place as I felt it was time to just let it suffer the "natural" death of being deleted for lack of posts-- don't recall if it was 14 days back then or still 30 before automatic termination..? Either way, I turned out the lights and left, with maybe 2000 total posts, tho' I don't actually recall the number...
A few days later, I get an email from one of TL's former students, a lady named SweetJean, asking if it would be okay for her and a small group of friends to start using IANG to share their imaging. I remembered her from TL's first class (known as jran becuz TL kept typo-ing jean), and told her to have at it and just email if she needed me to play mod and remove a post or ban someone.
I lurked a few times the first couple weeks, just to gauge the tone of the group. They were fine so I went back to brooding and didn't check 'em out again until Jean emailed and asked if I would ban this one gal who was being a smartass and trying to stir trouble. So I did, and removed her offending post. In doing so, I had to get the number of the post and was surprised, both to find the board at 1500, and total count above 12,000. Curious, I started looking at the art and was blown away by the beauty going on under my shamefully indifferent nose. Over the next 6-8 weeks, I stopped in a few times to say hello and express my admiration. I also kept track of the post count and, on June 17th 2004, was tickled to give out IANG's 15,000th post award to the lady who'd made it happen...
(extremely long pause to get something to eat and watch Supernatural on TNT, decide to go to bed, sleep till 9pm, get up, clean up dog poop, wash hands really well, unload and reload dishwasher, greet hubby as he comes in from the shop, watch TV until he goes to bed, log on webby, read a few posts, hear thunder, power off and unplug, get something to eat, load the evening's dishes and turn the washer on, do word puzzles till the lightning's so far away I can't hear it, plug in webby, power up, re-read all of the above and seriously consider tossing the lot as the rambling's of a mad woman, shrug, change mind, start to think about what to write, hear dishwasher rinse cycle stop, get up, go open dishwasher and, to save electricity, pat dry the wetter stuff and leave door propped open to air-dry the rest. Of course, if I were truly concerned with conserving energy, I'd hand-wash the darn dishes in the first place, right..? Ah well, life's a compromise, and on far more serious matters than washing dishes. I mean, I stopped voting 8 years ago when I could, in good conscience, no longer choose between the lesser of two weasels)
(ahem)
((where the heck was I..??))
Um, sigh... I guess that's what happens when you try to hold a thought for 14 or 15 hours. Maybe if the dishwasher hadn't stopped and interrupted me (yeah, blame it on the kitchen appliance, that'll hold up in court). (pause to re-re-read all of the above)
So, anyway, in October '04, post count hit 20,000 and just kept climbing. SweetJean was sweet, indeed, and natural-born hostess. Not to mention a fantastic artist... okay, I mentioned it anyway... She loved the art, the art-making, and socializing with the people making the art. And it showed in everything she did...
In short, she was everything in a hostess that I wasn't able to be and I still love her dearly for it. And, just so you know, I don't say that disparagingly of myself. Just stating the facts. I'm not a social butterfly, Jean is. I killed my ng. Jean recreated it in her image. Laid back, no pressure, fun-loving, fun-giving... Her work, not mine...
In the Summer of '07, Jean decided to say good-bye to webby and focus her talents on the computer and PhotoShop (she still posts sometimes in Lacey's Boardhost group). That's when Sleeper and CaliKat stepped forward and split the job between themselves, with me posting on Tuesdays (Two for Tuesdays, 'member..?). After some time, another gal named Susan joined in for awhile (can't recall her last name?). And sometime after Susan left, Mary Ann bravely raised her hand and proclaimed, "Um, hello? I can help."
I say, "after some time" and "sometime after" because my brain is fuzzy on issues involving the passage of time. For me, one day is much like the next, or the last. I usually only know what day it is by which of my TV shows are on that night. Weeks become months and seasons change from hot to cold and back again in the blink of a lazy eye...
To be brutally honest, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to 2009... and '10, and '11... The fact that it's June 2012 kinda blows my mind. Weren't we just celebrating the turn of the century..?
(pause, gather rapidly scattering thoughts) Eventually, CaliKat and Sleeper had to move on as well. As they did, I stepped in to do... well, what I do. In Jan, 2010 (I have Sleeper's last email, that's how I know the date), Mary Ann became IA's full-time hostess, carrying on the tradition of keeping this place a warm, relaxed and welcoming place to make art and have fun...
Now, in closing (awkward chuckle and a brief prayer to the tangent gods, "don't sweep me away again!"), I'd just like to say that, contrary to one man's very kind and truly appreciated words, I am not the heart of IANG. That honor belongs to the hostesses who've kept it alive. Mary Ann is the heart of IA... and you beautiful art-makers are, and always have been, its life-blood. I'm the doorkeeper, and a mostly silent partner who admittedly experiences odd moments of verbosity from time to time and finds herself rattling on about whatever pops into her busy-like-a-buzzing-bee little head... (say that 3 times real fast)
(ahem, again)
My little happy dance is in celebration of YOU ALL. Every artist who has passed through these walls, and every Hostess who has given so much... IS giving so much... YOU ALL did this. YOU ALL have kept this place open for 10 years... And I want no arguments from any of you, ok..? I'm just giving credit where credit is truly due. Cuz I'm as comfortable with my many shortcomings as I am my many charming attributes (pause, blink innocently), so there's no ego involved in telling the truth here. You guys did this... Nicely done... (: group hugs, susan-humbled-a-little-bit...***
And I'm still kinda humbled! Before Webby closed, I opened the group on Boardhost. Then Webby closed and it was about 8 months before I got a computer. When I got back (May 2014), CaliKat was running the joint and it was rocking! Sometime in 2017, I started imaging again (that's where all my headers come from). In 2018, CaliKat 'retired' and, for the first time since I opened the group, I was the sole hostess again.
And here we are now! The imaging bug left me but I vowed to keep the lights on as long as anyone was still posting. And I'll continue doing that! Gloria, Linda, I'll be here as long as you gals are. Thanks for hanging around and making it all worthwhile!! Love to you, both...
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