Society6, the online service that provides custom art in the form of tapestries, rugs, pillows and a variety of other home and gift products—all with a goal of empowering its stable of artists—is launching the second iteration of its bound soft-cover publication, Art Quarterly, this month. Featuring original works from 50 different artists, the publication debuted in January. Wesley Bird, art director for the site, discussed the publication’s many insights and inspirations with EAL.
Society6's second, and most recent, issue
Tell us about your curatorial process. How do you decide what fits in the quarterly?
With thousands of artists joining each month, and similar numbers of fresh designs uploaded daily, the selection process is both painstakingly endless and infinitely rewarding. The Society6 creative and curation teams pour over active talent within the community to identify both emerging and established masters of craft across multiple disciplines and subjects—the cross section of which culminates in a beautiful book of pure art, featuring 50 dynamic creative voices from all over the world.
Can you share an interesting story from one of the pieces featured in this latest issue?
For this edition’s cover art, we selected work from artist and graphic designer Victoria Seimer. Victoria—aka Witchoria—is a Brooklyn-based artist with a penchant for surreal digital manipulation. She’s a fantastic representation of the caliber of design housed within Society6 and a powerful female voice that’s just begun to echo. Part of her allure is her caution-to-the-wind propensity for sharing moments of extreme vulnerability through the lens of a digital generation, often a mirror of collective insecurities we’ve all experienced.
How does the quarterly embody the mission of Society6?
Society6’s mission is to empower the world’s artists by whatever means necessary. It’s easy to focus solely on the merchandising side of our project, in which we’ve paid out more than $20 million in artist royalties, but we never underestimate the value of exposure alone. Over the years, we’ve amassed a robust following of creative leaders, from marketers to directors to interior designers, that source fresh talent from our roster. The Society6 Art Quarterly is intended to help with the heavy lifting by bringing a small but potent segment of our talent into the spotlight. Creative success through independence is everything, and we strive to blaze all trails on behalf of our members.
