"To consider the small, in all its detail, is to journey inward, knowing the greatest depths."
"~Cheryl, A Smallist creator"
This new and evolving art movement was formed in July of 2000. The events surrounding the birth of the Smallest movement are nothing less than miraculous. Ironically, all six founders inadvertently met in Tuvalu, the second smallest country in the world (the first being the Vatican). While the circumstances that led each member to Tuvalu were widely different and tremendously spectacular, their experiences culminated upon seemingly mundane meeting in the cafeteria of Tuvalu's only hospital. This meeting revealed the group's common interest in the small and began what we know today as The Smallest Movement.
On July 5th, 2000 Loie Holly Hollowell traveled to Tuvalu to install a large sculpture for the locals on the third atoll. While she was erecting the huge artwork, she lost her grip and the entire mass fell on her head. She was rowed to the main atoll where she remained unconscious in Tuvalu Hospital for a week.
Alisa (XS) Ochoa arrived in Tuvalu with her friend, Exra Larh, on July 8th, 2000. Alisa was on a Fulbright grant doing research on the chain of atolls. Just four days after they arrived, Exra Larh inhaled a spore on the fifth atoll, and was immediately taken to Tuvalu hospital for emergency cerebral surgery. Alisa put her research aside to accompany her friend through the surgery.
After Konstantin Afinogenov's terrible accident (read bio) he had no choice but to travel with the wind, surviving on particles and moisture in the air. He was blown all over the world and eventually landed in the ocean where he rode a current line towards Tuvalu. He arrived in Tuvalu waters in early July 2000.
Cheryl Killingsworth had gone to Tuvalu in July of 2000 to conduct research for her scientific illustrations. While collecting samples of microscopic bacteria and plankton in Tuvalu's dense kelp forests, she found a strange specimen. Upon later examining her find, she realized it was a microscopic human, one Konstantin Afinogenov, the well respected Nanotechnologist who had been mysteriously reported missing, at which point she rushed him to Tuvalu Hospital for urgent care.
Nick Brand unwillingly arrived in Tuvalu on July 12th 2000. His parents, Millicent and Henry Brand, had won a trip on "The Price is Right" to Tuvalu earlier in the year. It was there that they met Fatafutu Moumbatu and arranged for her to marry their son. Nick was put in a straight jacket and forced on a plane to Tuvalu where Moumbatu greeted him with open arms. Her excitement proved to be near deadly, and Nick was transported to the hospital where doctors determined that her squeeze had caused one of Brand's lungs to collapse.
Kristen Black flew into Tuvalu on July 9th, 2000, after hearing of Loie Hollowell's plans to erect a large sculpture on one of Tuvalu's small atolls. Black intended to protest the oversized artwork and set out in a canoe full of picket signs to find it. Upon hearing of Hollowell's terrible accident, Kristen paddled to Tuvalu Hospital where she imagined that Miss Hollowell would be in an ideal position to listen to her passionate protest speech that she had rehearsed for days. Kristen found Loie to be in a coma, but waited by her side for days until she awoke so that her complaint would not have been prepared for nothing.
After Hollowell came out of her coma a week later and had recovered somewhat, Black had grown to feel some pity for her and took her to the hospital cafeteria where they could discuss their differences over coffee. Fortunately, the accident caused Hollowell's reconsideration and then repudiation of all things large. Overhearing the fervent discussion on the virtues of smallness, the other founding members of the Smallists, who were also dining in the cafeteria, approached and joined the conversation, amazed and excited to find others sharing their vehement support of the small.