An online community for artists by artists
Malcolm Levy interviews Angelo Sotira via telephone, May 19th, 2007
Angelo Sotira is one of the founders of Deviant Art, one of the largest online forums for printed art and culture. The community web site aspires to create the most powerful outlet in the world for known and unknown artists alike. They post their work, receive feedback and even sell prints at a sister Web site.
Malcolm Levy: On the web site you speak about the origins of Deviant Art, saying “We took the road less traveled and arrived a little later, but on our own pure and untainted terms. We're doing it our way." What did you mean?
Angelo Sotira: We started Deviant Art in the summer of 2000, and at that particular time, all the other Internet properties that were focused in any way on entertainment were going out of business. We have been able to remain entirely private; the only way that we would not remain private or fully in control of the property is if we found it greatly to the advantage of the community to alter that strategy. And we have had many opportunities, and many offers, but we have walked away from all of them because we didn’t want to lose control. The employees of the company, my partner and I are directly in charge of the operations of Deviant Art. So we have done it our way. There are no board seats available outside the organization. There is no money that would come with any strings attached; we are a no-strings organization.
5/24/07
