Well, the Holiday season is all but over, and things are
getting gradually back to normal, hopefully all of you have
enjoyed the festive season and had time to recharge the
batteries for another year full of great art.

This, of course, is the start of the second year of this
Artzine, which has started as an experiment with a handful
of subscribers, but has surely become a runaway success.
It is the power of the Internet, who could have thought, that
in these few years, the world would become connected in
this amazing way? … And who would have thought that a
publication like this would find readers in very remote
places such Israel, the Emirates and Kazakhstan!!

It is the power of the love of arts as well, for art lovers
develop a universal desire for connecting with others of like
mind and providing an environment like this, helps to foster
a sense of camaraderie, community and belonging.
Publishing an e-zine has been an eye-opener to say
the least, for while it is essentially a labour of love, the time
consuming nature of something like this, is the major
drawback, but it has been very rewarding to interact with
the majority of readers, with the sporadic few cyber blows
being exchanged here and there, with the occasional
”pat on the back” thrown in for good measure …

Whatever disagreements might have occurred or any
criticism that have been directed towards some editorials
were all in good humour of course, and the main thing
is to establish an ongoing discourse, anyhow, as they
say;  that is the nature of the beast J.

What is ahead for 2001?
Lots of new ideas are being evaluated at the moment and
hopefully will be implemented as we go; two in particular
are high up on the drawing board. The first is a sister
e-zine that we’ll call OZ Bazaar, it will be devoted to the
global marketing of specific pieces of artwork, a kind of
advanced e-mailed classifieds, if you will, and it will be
open to all Australian and overseas artists, it will run on
the same e-mail list on a trial basis, and yes it will be
absolutely free as well! ....Please tell me what you think
by e-mailing your feedback to Bazaar@oz-artfocus.com

The second idea going online soon, will be another step
towards developing more relationships with local and
international artists on the web, it will be in the form of an
award that we’ll call the “OZ golden shield of excellence”
and it will be awarded to outstanding websites with the
view of highlighting their presence on the web and having
links exchanged for our mutual benefits, this, in addition
to the link page on our website, however having very
different functions and target audience, will complement
each other and help in furthering our cause and realising
our desired end-goals. Some other ideas need a bit more
development before implementing and will be published
as the plot unfolds… there is, surely more to come.

One last affectionate look back at 2000 is, perhaps, all
we need, before we set our sights firmly on the year ahead,
as it was a good year for many, with many important and
varied happenings in the Australian arts world as in general.
So, 2001 here we come…!