We are a group of musicians, writers, artists, poets, and people who have come together to inspire each other, to sharpen our forms of expression, and to help support those who are normally over looked by the commercial art world.
The setting is a place that has found itself as being defined as a college town called Columbia, Missouri (CoMo). In a place where the calendar starts in August, and like squirrels on a acorn falling day degrees run ramped. On a warm September day there was a guy sitting in his room pounding away on a key board believing that no one would ever see the Novella he was working on. He went to college but found no inspiration in those studying for test in subjects that they would never really consider the information that was handed to them. The only thing that he really enjoyed at this point was writing and hip hop.
Two blocks away another guy is creating new concepts with only some plywood that he scored out of a dumpster and a sharpie. His pieces and presentation are innovational, yet he has been turned down by "Art Galleries" because his work is unconventional. It is not only the sharpie that this man uses as a tool to describe the world around him. He is also a poet and writer that tries to skillfully describe the world around him. His first Novella was self published and could only be given to those who he respected which typically were not people who could afford to give him compensation for the work that he had put into it.
Two blocks from him a girl is hungrily ingesting a new way to express herself on the canvas. This girl does not have a niche so much as a love for the simple act of creating. She will use any medium that is available to express herself without fear of making a mistake she creates pieces that could leave seasoned artist with their jaws finding the ground. The only desire she has is to express herself by any means possible.
Across town from these three is a girl who has never considered how moving her pieces could be. She never really tried to make a piece for anyone but herself. She just liked to paint. Being an artist seemed like something that was reserved for rich kids but she kept on looking for ways to make each piece an explanation of what she was feeling, moved by, or in need of dissecting.
Back closer to down town there is a guy sitting in his bed room finding new ways to make his instrument sound altogether different than what is expected out of the instrument. Meshing sounds not typically placed together he is not bound to what his instrument can’t do because is spends his time looking for what it can do. His decision to transform the classic understanding of what music should be and how it should be played has help to start a band that excites the audience and creates an interactive show that keeps the audience waiting for the next song.
One day these five people met up and started talking. This was the conclusion of the conversation; "We inspire each other to sharpen our tools and become the best that we can. We inspire each other not to settle into doing something simply because it sells, but instead because expression is the highest form of communication. Even though we see a different world in front of us than the typical (artist, writer, musician) we are a force to be reckoned with when we are together.â€
We knew that there were more of us out there, but we had no idea how many. We knew that there were people who had no where to go show people something new, and damn we were more right than we knew. We knew that there were more of us out there who simply didn’t have the resources to show the rest of the world what they have to offer and in no time we realized we were surrounded by them. Suddenly we knew that it was time for a reaction to the idea that expression is a product to sell rather than a reflection of the world we see and a message about the world we wish to live in. We knew that it was time to change the way expression was perpetrated, and that we could be stronger together.
We are different, we are underground, we are ready to change the way that the world views expression.
We decided to start the Mischievous Gnome Collective because it was time. Maybe it had been time for quite some time and all that it took was a handful of creative and inspired social deviants to make it happen. In only a few weeks from our founding we were over-whelmed with people who felt as we did and wanted to help build an expressive community in CoMo. We had only let a few people in on what we were doing and some how the idea spread like wildfire. By this time there was no backing out and we knew that this was our chance to build something for those of us who are more concerned with the quality of what we create that the quantity that we sell.
