Most of our faithful fans know that we here at EK do what we do simply for the love of Art. And if you don't know, now you know. We originally started our site to share our love of Art with the world, but it grew quickly from a fun side project to an intense, all-consuming labor of love, and now, we have been blessed with this beautiful baby whose life it is our job to nurture and grow in a positive, impactful way. Our dream is to be a 90/10 company, meaning we donate 90% of our company's net income and keep only 10%. Take a moment to think about how retardedly difficult that sounds. There isn't a businessman in the world who'd invest in a business plan like that.

Continuing our Artist Roundtable Series we bring the focus on Artist Expression, what it says about the artist, how it is limited by our current society and by the nature of expression itself.  There are so many ways for artists to express themselves, whether through style, content or media. Often more important than the question of what are you, as an artist, trying to say? is the question: What does your art say about you?

Can you define shock value?  What do you think of shock value for the sake of shock value?  Is it cheap?  Is it purposeful?  Does there need to be a greater reason or meaning when pushing boundaries?  Should such work be censored?  Should any work be censored?  Can we draw a line, or should judgment be based on a continuum, when censoring work?  Would it be acceptable to put an artist's depiction of rape on the wall of an elementary school?  The idea of what should and should not be censored is in large part due to the society, how, as artists, do you address delicate subjects to allow them to be addressed and discussed by society at large?  How have you, as an artist, used or eschewed shock value in your own work to accentuate an idea, an emotion or a moment?

Artists often choose to remain silent when it comes to social discussion, whether because they believe the art will speak for itself or for other reasons, they take a pass when called upon to raise their voices and address the important questions.  Because of this the amount of dialogue within the arts community suffers and a group of strong, passionate, creative individuals is broken into so many little pieces to be ineffective rather than a strong, informed community.

Artists often choose to remain silent when it comes to social discussion, whether because they believe the art will speak for itself or for other reasons, they take a pass when called upon to raise their voices and address the important questions.  Because of this the amount of dialogue within the arts community suffers and a group of strong, passionate, creative individuals is broken into so many little pieces to be ineffective rather than a strong, informed community.

Artists often choose to remain silent when it comes to social discussion, whether because they believe the art will speak for itself or for other reasons, they take a pass when called upon to raise their voices and address the important questions.  Because of this the amount of dialogue within the arts community suffers and a group of strong, passionate, creative individuals is broken into so many little pieces to be ineffective rather than a strong, informed community.

Empty Kingdom is excited to announce a new sub-publication, our official e-zine.. a newsletter about art and culture and life.. and tons of other fabulous things. It's going to be more fun than a barrel of monkeys and more interesting than the Dos XX man, (well maybe not, considering he has his own wikipage and EK doesn't yet.)

Artists often choose to remain silent when it comes to social discussion, whether because they believe the art will speak for itself or for other reasons, they take a pass when called upon to raise their voices and address the important questions.  Because of this the amount of dialogue within the arts community suffers and a group of strong, passionate, creative individuals is broken into so many little pieces to be ineffective rather than a strong, informed community.

(Photo by: Matteo Larghi) Hi, nice to see your face again... how are you?  It has been a while, hasn't it?  Feels like a lifetime since we last touched... and not being in your arms has caused us unbearable pain.  But after enduring a period of seemingly infinite agony, we are finally. together. again.

As we near the Holidays, expect all your favorite sites to be wishing you well.  Well, we're beating them to the punch by saying Thank You right now! In the beginning, there was a group of artists who wanted a way to share their inspirations with the world.  And thus, Empty Kingdom was born, and it has been a labor of love for all the people involved.   We are a completely volunteer-driven site, and the only reward we get is the comments and shared love from our readers.  While it is tough to keep the site going when we're also busy trying to make it as artists ourselves, it is because of you that it's totally worth it. When we started we knew had something special, but never expected it to be so successful so fast.  It's crazy because we are doing better numbers then most the art sites that inspired us to begin with!  And we know it is all because of our lovely readers who have been so faithful and supportive.  We truly believe that we are nothing without you, so remember that.  We take nothing for granted, and if we could massively fellate all of you, we would. Empty Kingdom is not just a company or a collection of artists, it's a culture we are working to create together.  You can expect big things from us next year, because 2011 is the year of the Star. We will be drinking shots in honor of you all at our annual company dinner next month. Love, The Empty Kingdom Staff

"The Earth together with the Moon, as seen from the Empty Kingdom Space Station, 08.18.10" We love you all.