PART 1 of 2
or, Isla Maia reporting as dA Groupie


Okay, I'm finally done with loading up the photos I took during the dA World Tour meetup in front of the Louvre. I added the photos from the day before too (when a handful of us had the precious opportunity to meet with $spyed and $Heidi earlier for a tour of the Louvre ... that really made us all feel we won the lottery!) - so the upload this time and this day would just be all the shots related to $spyed and $Heidi's visit to Paris. I've tried to keep my own stuff out of the way so hopefully, this week will be devoted to just the HQ dA World Tour 2009 - and in particular, their coverage of Paris.

I had written earlier, but my computer froze and I lost what I had drafted - it's good that I was able to take a snap shot of my computer screen so I could add back the earlier lost journal. Unfortunately, the first two paragraphs got cropped off the screen ... and that's really annoying because I wrote some funny bits and when you're made to recall them, you don't feel funny any more.

Anyway, the one thing I did remember from the cropped paragraphs was that it's TGIF (Thank Goodness It's Friday) today and the weekend mood has finally affected me, considering I didn't get infected by it last week. There was so much happening that I felt like I was on a constant adrenalin high and rush with no sign of stopping. So whew, TGIF and I can finally r.e.l.a.x. and write.

Earlier, I was really worried about the weather as it had been rather erratic the last two weeks - swinging from hot and sunny, to cold, wet and windy - and that kind of weather always gets to one's mood or it affects the health. My mood was great, I've been on a high the whole month as it's the month before I travel again, so everything was moving quite fast and I was doing quite a lot of interesting things. My health got affected this time though, and this occured last week when I got drenched by a sudden downpour and didn't bother to take an umbrella or wear a raincoat. That, plus the hot/cold treatment from the weather and I'm now battling a cold to prevent a flu.

But you know ... when there's a will, there's a way ... and yes, come hell, high water, rain, cold ... I was determined to make it back again to see $spyed and $Heidi in front of the Louvre in Paris, and hopefully, other French deviants. I have to explain why I'm really keen to see the other French deviants - they're exceptionally shy and more so because for everyone, myself included, English is not our mother language, so there's always a certain amount of timidity that acts as a barrier. It's probably a fear of being laughed at for speaking English funny, I guess, and anyone who is artistic or creative tends to be extra-sensitive to being made fun of when forgetting to construct a proper sentence in another language. Because of that, most French will refuse to speak and communicate in English, and France can be perceived to be not a very friendly country to visitors from English-speaking countries.

I also wanted to see how many French deviants would really make the effort to come and see $spyed and $Heidi. I would take the outcome as an indicator that deviantART had made a wonderful and strong impression on the French artists if they really came despite the weather, work and school exam deterrents. So I fell asleep with a bit of a trepidation 6am on Thursday morning (and mind you, I was too groggy to note the weather by that time too)!

When I woke up at 8am (yes, I ran on two hours of sleep) on that same Thursday morning ... I saw the sun! So I happily went about preparing for the day. Unfortunately for me, like everyone else in Paris (Versailles is fairly close to Paris and by train can be about 25 minutes away at the first stop inside Paris proper), I packed a full Thursday, and I had a scriptwriters’ workshop to conduct near the Notre Dame early evening so I had to go about like a school-girl with a back-pack, video-camera bag, computer bag and my old favourite orange Y’saccs cross-body bag to contain my Paris map book, my Navigo metro and train pass, and mobile phone. I had left my whole afternoon free until 18h30 so I could cover the Paris dA World Tour.

I was off! Took the bus, then the train from Versailles Rive Gauche station to Paris (no one wants me to drive so I commute when I have to do things on my own) – dashed into the first cabin, plonked myself and my bags down, and got surrounded and squashed very quickly by young Swedish girls, all students, although their plunging necklines, and blond hair made me think otherwise, and I had the song “If I Were a Boy” funnily running through my mind suddenly. I had to suppress a smile. I actually felt more like a mom than a boy as I wanted to say to them ... "... excuse me, but could you pull your blouse up higher ..."

Now, as mostly every tourist goes to Versailles to visit the Château de Versailles, I've gotten used to the summer mass of tourists cramming into the trains after all these years of periodically encountering them, and so I normally wouldn't pay much attention any more to them, unless someone stops me for direction. It's easy to switch off and into a world of your own when you have your choice of music filling your mind and you can turn your attention to the view outside. Of course, having the bunch of buxom Swedish girls come in and jostle themselves about you doesn't quite allow you to indulge in any out-of-body reverie tout de suite. You had to wait until the jostling and bumping about stopped - they really couldn't keep still until I threw them an annoyed look finally.

I got off the train about 35 minutes later at the Musée d’Orsay station (a favourite museum too) and it was really wonderful to make the short walk from the Musée d’Orsay across the Seine and towards the Louvre, a brisk 10 minutes walk even though I was a human camel. The sun was nice and warm, but there was a slight wind too – and that became progressively stronger and colder as the day wore on – still, better sun than just clouds, rain and a depressed temperature!


In sight of the Louvre and the glass pyramids, I made my way towards the line of mini-box pillars that $Heidi stood on … but as there’s a few about, I had to look out sharply for what would be a crowd formation around one of them as several tourists kept hopping on the pillars and taking pictures. Sure enough, smack right in the centre of the glass pyramid, one mini-box pillar stood out because there was a crowd – and, it was a deviant one!

No mistaking artists and creative types when they all get together – they are so colourful! Not only in hair colour and make-up, but clothing and bags and shoes, and hats, tattoes and accessories of all kinds, and it was really just fantastic to see them all there! They really came and I guess if I did an estimate assessment of the number that turned up as the day progressed, it would be a little under a hundred people! Okay, let's say over fifty people to be on the safe side. That’s really not bad! BRAVO PARIS!!!


So I whipped out my camera, took photographs all around (that's a good strategy to adopt if you don't want people paying too much attention to you and you don't want to stand there looking slightly lost and out of place because you're a human camel), and when I had a bit of a break, I asked who everyone was on deviantART. It was amusing to do that - we were all given dA sticker badges by $Heidi to help others identify us, but it was still fun asking who everyone was. We’re all under a pseudo and some would prefer just that - to be known under their deviant pseudo. What really tickled me was getting to know them in person and then connecting them to their amazing works and gallery. It’s like – where did all that come from when the person in front of me looked so shy, adorable, gentle, and sometimes cool, trendy, funny or excitable! Yes, we had some outstanding characters and some amazing costumes were worn – it was super! Now I wish I didn’t forget my pink bunny ears at home! I was asked what I did on deviantArt and I answered ... well, mostly quite a lot of things although the work I've been posting up recently are more photographs. In reality, I work with a number of artists on several projects and I like coming up with creative projects always. If I could load more film stuff later, I'd do that as that's the format I mainly work with these days ... especially documentaries, shorts, TV shows. deviantArt's really great when it comes to a massive congregation of global artists and if you interact well with them on the dA virtual community, you get to be embraced and thought of occasionally and kindly - which is really heart-warming and special as you can feel the sincerity in the affection.

I have to mention the new deviants in France, Belgium and around (Germany, I believe) who came and who I met, some briefly, some I had a chance to get to know – but I wish there would be more time next time – it’s also fantastic now to link up on deviantART and watch everyone!:

~Falang - thank you for baking those wonderful madeleine for all of us to eat! You're so thoughtful!

=Nirelleth - amazing, fantastic costume, hair, everything! Captivating and so special - she lent $spyed her quaint black parasol too!

~imogia and ~mateo52 - you guys are cool with your hat! Such style! The animator and the poet!

*Taitai03 - I loved her animal and zoo stories and recommendation of special film and books I should check out.

~petiteUlis and ~GalopaWXY - who sat down to sketch and draw in front of me while we waited as a batch to hear $spyed explain the new dA features.

¢mindfuckx, `Norke and =Re-d-D-ot - who came all the way from Belgium by car, and went about getting all our dA pseudos – I should have done that!

*tbfdm - who has my mobile number because he came early and wanted to meet $spyed and $Heidi first then rush to register for school, and return again an hour later. I was to be his GPS so he could track us around the Louvre area.

=GlassSiva - who I didn’t get to talk to much but he was very sweet and shy.

~retrovinyls - who I had a chance to meet again … and hopefully again in the future!

And of course, those who were with me a day earlier: =0ctans, =Eternal-S, ~Nekosumi, super =NEOkeitaro and the amazing, talented and charming `zemotion who was able to meet us all - she had covered the Singapore dA World Tour, and after Paris dA World Tour, she's going to be at the London dA World Tour so look out for her! (I was able to have `zemotion's hard-bound book too - it's beautiful and incredible!)

So we made new friends while waiting for the others to turn up, and then when we became a really big crowd, $spyed got on top of one of the pillars and started to explain the position France had in terms of the number of deviants within a country – I think we’re no. 10. But as I was rather far and circling the group snapping away, I also heard $spyed say that much as we’re no. 10, we’re also no. 5 because … okay, I lost that. Someone will have to fill in the blanks for me.

Then, we were told to get into groups – photographers in one group, illustrators in another, digital artist in another, writers in another, and so on - and as I'm into everything except illustration, I went with the writers; and then we had to wait our turn as a small group so $spyed could explain more of the new dA features. We moved first to one side of the Louvre building where everyone could sit and listen or wait and make new friends – but as the sun was shining so brightly, it was not possible for everyone to see the computer screen even though $spyed was given two parasols to try to shade the screens.

Everyone finally moved across to the opposite building that was pretty much in the shade, and that’s where we all hung out everyone chatting, taking photographs, sketching, telling stories … and then getting cold. There were also those who finished their session with $spyed and moved on because some still had to rush back to work or catch their transport out of Paris before the after-office rush hour blocked them. The wind had also started to blow colder by the late afternoon. Everyone had loved the sight of the sun that no one thought it could get any colder until much later in the evening, but the wind came by late afternoon and brought a strong chill with it even though it was still bright and sunny. We couldn't feel the sun's warmth any more so I knew we had to make a move indoors.

=NEOkeitaro and I went to scout inside the Louvre for a warmer alternative after we informed $spyed who gave us his blessings to go seek shelter from the cold … and a quiet place for us to gather as we were still quite a large group – I think by the late afternoon, we had become less than 50 deviants (I counted about 40 that time), the first two batches had their time with $spyed and went on their way … and the rest was to have their time with $spyed. and we needed to be sure we could all concentrate without shivering.

There was a nice quiet area with benches facing the original walls of the Louvre in an area of the Louvre called the Carrousel du Louvre - it's where the Paris Fashion Week showcases designers shows twice a year - and everyone moved there eventually, away from the cold.

Unfortunately, I had to start making my way to my scriptwriters’ workshop … so I didn’t have the chance to actually sit with the group and listen to $spyed explain the new dA features.

BUT … I was told what they were earlier! So … I’m going to devote some time to writing them out after I post this journal up. I suddenly realised it’s a long one!

And on that note … let’s take a commercial break …

... Part 2 will be more intense - but I'll need to refer to it so I can inform my dA community and the groups within it


Read up on the World Tour here: [link]

_{The other deviants who also posted a journal on the Paris dA World Tour are:
=NEOkeitaro [link]
=Re-d-D-ot [link]
*Vizen [link]
¢mindfuckx [link]
*ZeldaDreams [link]
~Frequence-Coeur [link]
~Lemon-Hat [link]
~dantordjman [link]
~Tagath [link]
*Asmo-chan [link]
~Lioyd-Irving [link]
~Uncoporating-picture [link]
~frenchhastyle [link]
~darkgallou [link]
~mateo52 [link]
=0ctans [link]
~Shadowa-93 [link]
=LeMex [link]
=Eternal-S [link]
=nekozumi [link]}