. Xiao Hwen Artists . Xiao Hwen Artists . Xiao Hwen Artists . Xiao Hwen Artists . Xiao Hwen Artists . Xiao Hwen Artists .
_____.: A History of Xiao:: :._____
This is how the shop started off.
Xiao Hwen Artists was originally started by Shuura, also known as Chuwei, way back in March '05. It was supposed to be the next step up from Shuura's tiny art shop called "Shuura's Scribbles", a small modest shop where Shuura scraped together a living selling scribbly headshots for modest prices. However, after a period of time, Shuura discovered that 1) she was getting tired of headshots and 2) she was spending increasingly more time and effort on each piece, so she wanted to offer more options and better-quality art for a price proportional to the effort she was giving out.
Around the same time she was considering this matter, Shuu's raburi sistar Silver-Ruby, more commonly known as SAR, decided that she wanted to make a re-appearance in Gaia as well, and asked to mooch a space off Shuu's shop to offer her own commissions. Shuura accepted gladly and started pimping out her wanderfol sistar's artses, but because SAR joined late she was unable to edit the front page, and as Shu couldn't be there 24/7 to update the front date for SAR, this resulted in various complications. They both realized that it wouldn't work out in the long run, so through some code tweaking, script writing, and the evolution of Shuura's mule, Shuuru, who underwent a name and wardrobe change to become the notorious Xiao, Xiao Hwen Artists officially opened in August '05.
Xiao Hwen Artists had a very modest beginning smile At first there was just Shuu and SAR. After some plodding around and some procrastinating, they quickly realized that two people would be too lonely and decided to call for artists to apply and join them in their queerness. The very first person who answered the call (as well as getting accepted right away!) was InvisibleFriend, known as IF for short, who has been with Xiao since page 3. IF is the only artist of Xiao who we didn't know at all previously--the rest of the Xiao artists are nearly all mutual or near-mutual friends--but you'd never realize it just by looking at the thread. She has come a very very long way with us, and we adore her biggrin .
The next victim we acquired was 0m3g4, the guy who sets the standard for our love of hiatus cool Shuu discovered this fabulous artist by chance some time ago when her old art shop was still active, and through conversations over fashion and whips and mutilated kiki kitties came to recognize in him the same caliber of eccentricity that so characterized the artists of Xiao. Therefore, when he offered to join the shop, his application was tossed without a glance into the wasteland of deleted Gaia PMs, and we unquestioningly welcomed him to jump onto the bandwagon with us. 0m3g4 and IF joined us at about the same time, and fwoom! Within the first 3 pages of Xiao's opening, we already doubled the size of our family! X)
RoChan, also SAR's wife, was the 5th additive to the crazy Xiao family tree biggrin Among the Xiao Artists RoChan is probably the one with the most R&C experience. She has managed her Shinobi Art Shop successfully for longer than the combined time that Shuu and SAR have been active on Gaia. Ro is also the one responsible for all the pretty graphics on this front page heart
Zimmay is a newcomer on Gaia (pronounced GAY-ya, not GAI-ya cool ) and brings zest and spice (SPICE UP YO LIFE!!!) to our oddball environment cool . She first made her debut on Gaia in Finni and Silveh's Wedding, and after several months of lurkage, came out of the closet hiding after Shuura and Finni's GAY-ia brainwashing, and at Shuu & Fin's insistence is now part of Xiao Hwen Artists where she was, for a few brief days, single-handedly in charge of raising the productiveness of the joint shop xd . She is learning our ways quickly, though, and is currently on hiatus to focus on her senior projects.
Last but not least is Finni, Fishgirl extraordinaire, SAR's twin, and Shuu's sistar. 8D Finni was actually responsible for getting Shuura to join Gaia in the first place as well. After lots of debating she finally took it upon herself to join Xiao officially. Although the last to become part of Xiao, she was pretty much already unofficially a part of it ever since the notion of Xiao got flushed out of Shuura's brain, for Shuu SAR & Fin are sisters and Fin is very very loved <3.
Xiao Hwen prospered for 2 years before, in 2008, real life took over the artists. The entire year of 2008 was spent with regulars chatting amongst themselves and the occasional post by one or two artists. The end seemed near when the new year began...
...however it would not be so.
In January 2009 Ro and IF vowed to restore Xiao Hwen to it's former glory and went forth to create a recruit thread. They were not expecting much and were actually quite overjoyed in simply being able to ponder over the revival of the beloved shop. Never did either expect such an overwhelming response... nor such hilarity.
Five pages into the thread Atmarelle appeared with a quick witted response to what seemed like a simple question. "What does Xiao Hwen mean?" Atmarelle's answer? A dancing Goat. That goat forever sealed her fate to join Xiao Hwen Artists. As Ro and IF toiled with how to ask her to join the crazy crew, she posted her application and the two artists snatched her and her goat up immediately. Atma has fit so well into the thread it is almost hard to believe that she was never part of it before.
The later days became something short of amazing. More and more applications came, more and more insanity spread. However it was nearing the 11th hour and IF, Atmae, and Ro were set to the grueling task of selecting 4 more artists out of 37 applicants to continue on the spirit of Xiao Hwen Artists. With so many great artists wanting to be part the shop and with so little spaces it was a difficult task and the three of them had no idea what they were getting into. They spent over 5 hours pouring through the applications (of course with complications in PMs, then getting RoChan set up through AIM only to discover she couldn't join chatrooms, then setting up chat through some other program, the three artists getting distracted in chat, Ranko taking over RoChan's keyboard, etc etc) going through each and every one. It was overwhelming but they manged to come to a unanimous decision on the next Xiao Hwen crew.
On March 2nd, 2009 at 12:36am, the artists were annouced.
Scyerline, Sakimi.Chan, McFly, and SaiLun. Each has proven to be a joy and a spark of laughter and we are ever hopeful to learn more about them.
Scyerline has proven to not only be as crazy as the rest of us, but also turns out to be a cosplay fan. Her quest to dress as ChunLi has claimed the respect and awe of two ChunLi fans. She also has provided us much humor and has an odd taste in food...
The true purpose of Sakimi was not only because she seems to be such a lovely person, with a shining personality.... but because her art is so beautiful that it burns into the eyes of everyone with light of a thousand suns.
Originally McFly was to be added as an artist soon after Atma's join date, but just as IF and Ro finally finished PMing each other on how to go about asking her... McFly suddenly pulled a Houdini and disappeared from Gaia. Everyday the two waited for her appearance but in a true Xiao Hwen fashion... she didn't come back until afterward.
SaiLun's addition was actually quite humorous. At the time she had applied with a mule that was well known in the R/C forum but there was a slight problem... there was a disassociation with her and her mule's name. At the time of choosing the artists went round and round before Ro mentioned that Sai was the FFX2 fan who liked the songstress. That clinched her application. Of course she has lovely art as well. ;D
And now a new adventure awaits...
