Images and words. Those two ideas come up a lot when talking with Amanda Mohney, founder of The Pigeon Parade Quarterly. They’ve been her stock in trade since she effectively threw all her eggs in two baskets, deciding first to launch herself as an illustrator about five years ago and — later, with the emergence of the coronavirus — an editor and publisher.

“I had been exclusively a business-to-business-type illustrator, doing book covers, logos, posters, all kinds of images — very little direct-to-the-public sales,” says Mohney. “I started the Pigeon in mid-to-late 2020. It’s very much a pandemic project which came out of having additional time on my hands during isolation.”

Much of the impetus behind the visual art and poetry zine is collaboration with other local artists; its mission is to pay for their original work, and to bind that work in a shared context for viewers. “That’s one of the things that I love about doing the Pigeon. I get so juiced by working with other creative people in town.”

Each issue has a different guest editor — an artist and/or poet who has exceptional enthusiasm for encouraging the work of others.

“I think one of the things that’s so fun about the project is the fact there is never a single editorial taste that people need to bend themselves to in order to participate. You never know what you’re going to get. Which means that the project itself is not predictable. You don’t have to know that it’s for you or not for you.

“It’s so difficult to maintain a creative practice. There are so many things stacked against you, and it takes time to find your people. It takes time to find your rhythm, and to maintain it. I value the contributors. And I’m asking the community to help support the process itself.” Those interested can purchase memberships in three levels, all of which include a PDF copy of each issue.

Mohney, a Knoxville native and UT graduate who at one time wrote arts criticism for The Mercury, says, “There’s so much opportunity for images and words to enrich one another, to bounce off each other. It also provides more opportunities for different folks to come together in town; we’ve had more than one set of artists and poets collaborate.” The publication’s ongoing process, she says, results in a sense of community in the Maker City. “I feel like having this open invitation for rolling collaboration is really valuable.”

She invites the curious to take a look; published work is made viewable online at no charge for the duration of the issue at thepigeonparade.com/issues. “There’s always an invitation to drop in and check it out. You not going to like some of it, but that’s the nature of creativity. I think there’s always the opportunity to be surprised, to come to it with an open mind every time.”

Issues of The Pigeon Parade Quarterly can be purchased in person or online at RALA, in person at Union Ave Books, 517 Union Ave., or online as a member/patron at thepigeonparade.com. Anyone can nominate a guest editor by sending an email with the subject heading “Editor Nomination” to pigeon.parade.quarterly@gmail.com.

The Maker City is the greater Knoxville-area community of makers, artists, creatives, and small-scale manufacturers and supporting entities. Led by the Mayor’s Maker Council, we facilitate collaborative partnerships, programming and opportunities in an effort to create a sustainable creative community. For more info, visit us at http://themakercity.org.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: The Pigeon Parade Quarterly showcases, supports local talent