Чёрная Жаба - The Black Toad

Hello friends! This is a letter to my favorite artists, to wonderful people whose work I am a fan of, whose work I love and admire.

For a very long time, I've been trying to come up with an interesting project, in which, all of the artists I dig, could take part. And finally! Finally I have thought of something that I believe will be exciting for everyone involved! Below is a break down of this project, code named- "BT".

WHAT IT IS.

I wanted to create a magazine called: "The Black Toad". It would feature work by killer graphic artists and satirical writers. Something in the vein of "Mad" magazine but with an old vibe.

Seemed like a really good idea, but we all know how much of a financial challenge and an overall hassle it is to put out a quality publication on your own. So I put the idea away for a while, but about a week ago, a simple realization hit me, instead of being an actual magazine, The Black Toad should be a collection of just it's covers, made by different artists, as though it has been published for years!

THE IDEA.

Send information about this project to graphic artists I admire (you!), ask each one to create their Black Toad cover(s), gather around 30 works, print them out in high quality and exhibit the entire collection of prints in Moscow, at an art complex where I teach illustration, in one of these galleries.

THE NAME.

Although this is not crucial, I thought it would be cool to explain a little about the name and where I got it.

The words black toad come from a poem by a legendary Russian writer Sergei Yesenin. It is impossible to accurately translate his poetry due to the difficulty of carrying over cultural nuances and meanings. That is why I won't attempt to translate the entire poem, but since the most important part of it is the verse in which those two words appear, I will give you my best translation of IT. I will also drop a few of my own thoughts about it, and then, just let you run with it as freely as you like. Seems like a good way to do this, so here it goes:

"The gift of a poet - to caress and to scrape
Upon it, a fatal seal
A white rose to a black toad
On this earth I wanted to wed."

THOUGHTS.

The black toad metaphor captured my imagination because in my own work I try to combine vulgarity, filth, dark parts of myself and the world, with the delicate, pure, light, and the beautiful. Of course black toad being all the sick, unfair, unkind, dark, painful elements and white rose- the opposite.

THE QUESTION.

Now you know the history and the original thoughts behind this whole concept, the only thing left, is to ask a simple question- are you down?

I have the first cover done, I might tweak it some in the future, but in the meantime, I hope that it will help excite and inspire you to take part in this.

METHODS.

Since this is a "digital output" project, there ARE size and dpi requirements, but besided that this thing is wide open. You can do whatever you want, using any materials, just as long it ends up in the computer. One piece is all I am asking for, but you can make as many as you like, and it's absolutely NOT necessary to have a toad in your image. Same freedom goes for the language used in writing the title, you can do it in english, russian or any other language of your choice.

LEGAL.

You will never be asked to send any hi-res files until all the proper contracts are signed and you are assured that your work is safe. I personally guarantee total and absolute legal protection of your copyrights! A PDF sample of the contract that I provide can be downloaded HERE

FINALE.

If you are indeed down, I really can't express how awesome, fantastic and tremendous that is! And If you are indeed down, please send me a message to let me know you're IN so that I can e-mail you all the details such as the width and height of the file, the dpi and other techical information.

As for the general deadline, I would like to shoot for the end of April if possible. Please drop me a line when you can, let me know what your thoughts on this are. I am really hoping we can get this done because I believe this would be a great show! Thank you for reading all of this! And thank you for being you and doing the things you do!

With all of my love and respect,
yours truly,

-Dmitry.

THE TEAM SO FAR:

Grzegorz Domaradzki - Poland
http://www.iamgabz.com

Edward Ubiera - United States
http://chickensandrobots.com

Seldon Hunt - United States
http://seldonhunt.com

vivaUltra - Italy
http://www.vivaultra.it

Stasia Burrington - United States
http://stasiab.wordpress.com

Karen Aragon - United States
http://www.karenaragon.com

Mario Saviñon - United States
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrognome

Jesse Kuhn - United States
http://www.rawtoastdesign.com

Chris Partelow - United States
http://hellofullgrown.com