ÛÜ ÜÛ Û Ûßßß ßßÛßß ßß ßßßß ßßßßßßß ßßßßßßßßß ßß ßßßßßßßßß ßßßßßßß ßßß ßßßßßßß² Û ß Û Û ßßßÛ Û ß Û Û ß ß Û Û Ü Ü±±±²Ü Û Û Ûß² ±²ßÜ Once we fell off the strictly monthly artpack release Ü ² ßÞÛßÝß schedule some five years ago, we've found that despite ß Ü ÜÞÜÜ getting all fired up in the second half of each year, it can ² ÜÛÛÛ²ÛÛÜ be a little tricky getting things into gear on the other side ß ± Û Û²Û±ÜÛ Û of the winter holidays. There's no lack of inspiration out ± Ü ßÜÞ°²ßÜß in the world, and of course artists are making art all the Û ß ÞÛ°ßÜÛÛÝ time, but something about the delicate dance of curating and Û Ü ²²²ÝÞ²²² collecting it into artpack form can be a little rough as the ° ° ÞcXc ²Û²° winter turns to spring. Ü ß ßßß ßßßß Nevertheless, if you're reading this we must have somehow overcome the speed bump and gotten the ponderous apparatus into motion again. There are a great many worthwhile regular themes for collections we visit and revisit time and again, and also plenty of deserving themes we've never yet lighted upon... but what we're doing with this opportunity here indulges neither of those compelling options, instead taking a good look at the art that artists in our community have been quietly making to satisfy their own creative urges without being instructed or requested to by anyone. For the most part this here is the art that they wanted to make, on subjects they found personally compelling. This is another, circuitous way of saying that this artpack is something that most of the artpacks out there are -- basically, fundamentally unthemed in regards to the topics engaged by the creators' artworks. Beyond a baseline common formal element of being made in vintage computer and text art styles, most of the pieces in this collection really have absolutely nothing to do with each other, other than that members of the same extended community had been working on them relatively recently. I like to think of the unthemed packs as a way of knocking on artists' virtual studio doors and asking "Hey, so what have you been up to lately?" This allows us to present satisfyingly substantial servings of new works from artists who sometimes quietly disappear for extended periods of time into the rabbit holes of their art practice, such as axb, Joninscii, Kalcha (who  shares a suite of 24 Shift-JIS takes on traditional Japanese ukiyo-e  portraits), Melodia (with a thirsty lost .MOD from the '90s!), Mavenmob, Mozz (whose portfolio I cannot recommend you visit strongly enough!), Picrotoxin (who has recently been confined to a sickbed, doomed to stack ANSI blocks in some kind of demented Misery scenario) and a wild pile of BBS screens and promos by Zeus II ... a delicious repast garnished with a handful of works by a_mouse, CoaxCable, Consolejockey, Kirkman, LDA, littlebitspace, Moth and Sassafras. All told, this artpack is composed of just under a hundred pieces for your enjoyment, some major, some minor, some novel, some variations on a theme, but between them all we like to imagine that there's something here for everyone. ß As we get further into the year our release schedule will likely be Ü ² picking up, but for the time being there's much here to mull over, so try ² ß to enjoy it at a relaxed pace and we'll see you in the spring! Ü ÛÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÛ SAUCE00MIST0226 newsletter CoaXCable mist 20260228ÁP6IBM VGA