by Paddy Johnson on January 6, 2017
To Sune Martas. From Terrell Davis.
The holiday season may be over, but there’s always a healthy contingent of people who are still sending their gifts out through the month of January. Count us amongst that group. Last year around this time, Michael Anthony Farley took the opportunity to revisit GIF Wrapping, a project that invites digital artists to play secret santa with each other using GIFs. The project is “unboxed” Christmas even. Farley liked the project so much he requested it be taken up once more in 2016. netartnet.net, (Anthony Antonellis), and 85 other participating artists took him up on the request. What a boon! The website is a treasure trove of amazing Santa rifs, news themed sentiments, and abstractions using holiday color palettes. Merry Christmas to me!
To: Brittny Cooper. From: Sasha Gransjean.
To: LaTurbo Avedon. From: Patrick Sluiter.
To: Sasha Gransjean. From: Max Pollio.
To: Christine Janokowicz. From: Michael Rose.
Read the full article →
by Michael Anthony Farley on January 4, 2016
To Noviki.net from Michael Rose
I for one am always relieved when the holiday season is over, but I love seeing slackers’ past-date Christmas lights dotting stray balconies well into the Spring. In that spirit, I revisited GIFwrapping.net, a Christmas Eve 2013 GIF exchange organized by netartnet.net. Digital artists exchanged GIFs with each other in the spirit of a Secret Santa party, like this Michael Rose creation above. For his gift, Rose received this GIF below from Lsrcv Njry, a mock dialog box “unzipping” a balanced diet based on obsessive nutrition. It’s a great placebo for one’s healthy New Year’s resolutions. 
Other cute exchanges include this one from from Lois Hopwood to Marisa Olson:
And this one from Jan Mensen to LaTurbo Avedon:
Like many holiday rituals, this GIF is inscrutable and potentially traumatizing. That being said, let’s bring back GIF Wrapping in 2016! Or start “GIF or Treating” or some GIF-event-pun related to President’s Day. Leftover holiday GIFs are so much better than watching a slowly-dying tree in your living room.
Read the full article →
