Visitors contacting a league member deal directly with the artist and not a representative. All league members are self-representing artists and the league does not get involved with any communication between client and artist.

The media used by our members are numerous and varied, and are in 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional formats, including such traditional 2-D media as: oils, acrylics, pastels, charcoal, pencil, photography and watercolors. Some members have taken paths less travelled, using such media as: glass mosaic, pyrographics, scratchboard, fabrics, markers, computers or spray paint. We also have artists creating beautiful 3-D artwork with such media as: rocks, miniatures, clay and bronze. These media are only a fraction of the media used by our members. If you have a specific media in mind, you're sure to find an artist who specializes in it within our membership.

The Evolution of The League
One time, an LAA member was asked by another artist if one has to create primarily animal artwork to join the League. Although at first I thought this to be a silly question, considering our title speaks for itself, I thought maybe I should clarify the league's evolution, which will help answer this question.

The League of Animal Artists was created as a community for artists that specialize in animal artwork. I started out first by creating an Animal Artists webring, managed through WebRing and then created a Yahoo! Group. My goal was to create a viable community for all online animal artists. Soon, due to both the WebRing's and Group's popularity, the necessity for an actual website and community became apparent.

In the beginning, when we were a new, fledgling League, I never dreamed we would have even half the members we currently do. Although I would have preferred that members created exclusively animal artwork, at first I was relatively lenient as to the percentage of a member's work that was of animals. Sites joining our WebRing or Yahoo! Group were not required to have the majority of their work be animals as long as they demonstrated that animal artwork is important to them. However, if only a small minority of their work was animals they were not accepted into the WebRing.

Where The League Stands now...
The League itself is a different animal, though - no pun intended. Once we established ourselves, we required that a majority of a member's work must be animals - and preferably exclusively - to be considered for League membership. A majority is considered 80% or more. If someone demonstrates that their work has not been primarily animals in the past, but is going in that direction for the future, they will be accepted.

The League is an Animal Artists' Community, not an Artists' Community - thus we have the name 'League of Animal Artists - AnimalArtists.org and AnimalArtists.net.' All artists can do animals but are not necessarily animal artists. To be considered an Animal Artist, the artist's specialty, or the primary base of their work, will be animals. These artists have a special passion for attempting to recreate the spirit of the earth's precious creatures. Not only will their work exemplify the best of animal art, but their website and marketing efforts will also demonstrate their passion for animals.

The League is an Animal Artists' Community, thus distinguishing itself unique amongst the myriad of Artists' Communities. Artists Communities are a dime a dozen on the Internet. The League wishes to set itself above the ordinary and be recognized and acknowledged as The Premier Animal Artists Community - both online and offline. Thus, we have established the requirement for members' work to be primarily of animals. We are not a community of portraitists, landscape artists or still-life artists. We are Animal Artists. We are a breed of artists unto ourselves and should proudly announce that we are Animal Artists, not just artists.

Into The Future...
The growth of The League has been very exciting, stimulating, invigorating and at the same time, exhausting and frustrating. But, I wouldn't change it for anything. I obviously hit on something that the art world has truly been lacking and am thrilled to have begun to fill that void. And that is the key word - begun - for we still have a long way to go to be recognized and acknowledged as THE Premiere Animal Artists Community. We take The League seriously and there is so much that needs to be done to make this the community that fulfills it's members' needs to become what they truly deserve.

On May 1st, 2002, I eliminated our original free membership and initiated our current membership packages. This became the date of delineation. The point between then and now. We need to start seriously marketing The League, we need to establish a solid online presence and offer truly viable services and benefits to our members. This takes money, time and people - more than just myself - to make it work.

I have a lot of ideas and plans for The League and will continue to add new services, benefits and venues as I come across them. I am excited about the success of The League and hope that all the members share that enthusiasm and wish to create the great community I know we can become.

Thanks,
Vicky Wertz
Founder / Webmistress
The League of Animal Artists

If anyone has any comments or suggestions about their vision of The League, please submit a support ticket with our Suggestions & Comments Department.