FEATURED ARTIST: JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE
Check out the story behind "Rogers Park" in the blog section
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Stalking The Muse is a place where Nashville-based artists come to be vulnerable. Inspirations are a deceptively complex and discrete set of phenomena. In crafting a piece of art the artist draws from direct and abstract histories of events and influences. It is often very difficult to discuss, and usually impossible to fully describe. All artists stalk the Muse. But, it takes a lot of guts to crawl out of the shadows and look it in the eyes. That's what the artists who participate in this project do. They are given no limit on how much or how little they can write. They are not given any direct instruction on what to write in anyway. They are not censored. All we ask is that those who contribute to Stalking The Muse write about inspiration or influence. We are interested in how the Muse is seen, remembered, translated, and immortalized.
This community project was set-up to see if we could help the Nashville arts community continue to feed itself and grow, even if just a little. As our site grows, and our readership grows, we're anticipating being able to bring an increasing scale of attention to the artists that contribute to STM. STM posts written stories and essays by local artists about things that influence and inspire their art. We have Featured Artists who have pics, music, and their writing featured for two weeks, and Artists of The Week whose pics, music, and writing are featured for a week. We try to have these posting coincide with events specific to the bands (CD releases, shows, etc.).
STM IS:
-For the community.
- A place for all Nashville-based artists and their appreciators to share stories and ideas, ask questions and learn from each other.
- A place where the contributors can feel safe presenting their ideas, inspirations and influences without worry of exploitation.
STM IS NOT:
-Exclusive to type of art, genre, collective of artists, etc.
-About accruing extraordinary power for the purposes of world domination (unless such powers that would allow for said domination are offered by a credible entity, e.g. that Gaylord guy).
A few other things:
1) We keep links up of Past/Current/Future contributors in the "Band Members" section.
2) We provide Contributor logos to all contributors to place on their page, thus helping to increase traffic to our page, and exposure for the artists on it.
3) We post a show calendar that features local shows of our contributors.
4) We post bulletins to help promote shows and other projects.
5) We host local shows that put artists in contact with novel fan bases.
6) There is no monetary exchange, in fact at this point we have spent nothing on this project (except time, and fun time at that). If we ever start taking in money via merch, shows, etc., we will become a non-profit organization.
7) We love this community and we love what we do.
Note: All artists who submit written or audible contributions retain the copyrights of their works under intellectual copyright laws. Any opinions expressed by the contributing artists are not necessarily those of Stalking The Muse or its managers. Stalking The Muse is service marked to the profile creators. Thanks. -STM
