Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Artist of the Week: Community in Unexpected Places

This week's artist is the rather snarky, crude, and irreverent bunch found over at Regretsy (warning seriously rude language and gross imagery). The site was founded by April Winchell, aka Helen Killer and the daughter of Paul Winchell, as a place to show the bizarre and grotesque that can be found on Etsy. Some of the finds are hilarious, quite a few are head scratching, and some are so magnificent in their weirdness April has to buy them.

A rather loose-knit community of self proclaimed "Fat Jealous Losers" (a reference to one Etsian's inability to take a joke) has grown in the comments and forums. Occasionally one of the FJL will put out a request to the community to create something special. A large number of the community are talented crafters, some a part of Etsy, and they always rise to the occasion. A very special request was made earlier this year for a TARDIS shaped ceramic urn. It turned out that Tashi's husband was dying of an incurable brain tumor and he was a huge fan of Dr Who.

The outpouring that followed was unbelieveble.

There was a huge number of offers to create the urn. Others tracked down the actors of the show to sign a card for Kevin. All sorts of gifts and kind actions made their way to the very young and recently wed couple.

Kevin passed away yesterday and here was the final message posted by April from them.

So not all of the internet is cold and dark. Amidst the snark there is a warm and loving place. Hats off to you, you fat jealous losers.