Ypsilanti’s decidedly "Do-it-Yourself”" art scene has bred no shortage of talented artists, musicians, characters and general oddballs who are making their mark on the area, especially as the city becomes, in Mayor Paul Schreiber’s terminology, the cultural alternative to Ann Arbor.

But many of those artists’ work is largely known only within the immediate area, and Ypsilanti has lacked the vehicle to take their work to the rest of the world.

Erik Simmons founder of the new Ypsilanti-based Live, Learn, Inspire and Create Magazine sees this as symptomatic of the Midwest in general, and his magazine’s mission is to change that.

Too often other magazines focus on the coasts, Simmons said, and too often his friends and acquaintances have left for the New York City or California in search of some exposure.

“I feel like there's a really strong arts community, not only in Ypsilanti, but the whole Midwest, and we’re really supportive of that community,” Simmons said. “This is a way for me to give people that are creatively minded an avenue to promote their work, get themselves out there and show the rest of the bastions of artist communities that there’s this creative entity within the Midwest.”

A core group of Eastern Michigan University graphic design program graduates work with Simmons in producing Live, Learn, Inspire and Create, which evolved out of a zine project in Simmons’ graduate level design entrepreneur course. Simmons showed the zine to some friends and acquaintances who recognized the hole it would fill in the community and encouraged him to continue with it.

“It got kind of a buzz and started building from that,” Simmons says. “People were saying ‘This is something the city needs’, so from there I decided I’d give it a shot. If it’s something I want to do, I should try and do it. If I fail, at least I tried.”

Friends and fellow EMU graduates Rachel Auriemma, Andrew Reaume, Alexa Deitz and Matt Smiarowski quickly got involved, and LLIC also became almost as much a show promoter as it is magazine. The latter half of 2010 brought several shows LLIC hosted or had a hand in, and more are planned for the coming months.

The shows weave the people, places and things the magazine features together with good old-fashioned fun. The Laundromat, a sort of dance party/art opening, shows off artists’ work and features DJ sets from several local folks. LLIC recently arranged an “art battle”, which is similar in format to a battle of the bands, but with visual art. A portion of the proceeds went to the local non-profit FLY Art Center. Over the holidays, LLIC contributor Emogene Nightingale presented her burlesque show at the Dreamland Theater.

“I wanted to hold the events because the magazine is self-sustaining, so we take a portion of what we make to support it," Simmons says. “In a way, we’re trying to have the magazine support the community while the community supports the magazine. And we want to have fun with it.”

The Dreamland Theater is featured in LLIC’s debut issue, as is a list of Ypsilanti artists and a few from New York, California and elsewhere. Each artist, musician or otherwise gets several pages devoted to their art and LLIC introduces them with a quick interview of around a dozen questions.

The coverage is diverse. One of the highlights that speaks to how well LLIC covers the entire art community is an interview with Ugly Mug Cafe barista Miro Lomeli in which he relates his adventure at a barista tournament, and LLIC treats his craft as the art that barista-ing is.

Simmons ran a limited number of the print edition magazines that sold out and the 98 page online version is available through a pdf download for $12 on LLIC’s website. The current aim is a bi-annual publishing schedule, and the new issue is expected out in a month, along with a new website.

Simmons called the debut June issue a prototype, so expect to see expanded content, more connection with the local community and more in-depth pieces in the coming issues. One of the biggest challenges so far has been raising the funds for a full run of print magazines, which can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars for the kind of full color - and ad free - book LLIC is producing. But the daunting task of funding such an effort is made easier by the support Simmons says the magazine is receiving.

“Having people get together at these events, having people enjoying themselves and how supportive they are of the magazine and it’s potential - it’s been fueling us,” he says.

Today, LLIC is holding the first Laundromat (The Rinse and Reuse Edition) of the year at 9 p.m. at the Corner Brewery, and on Feb. 18 an LLIC auction will seek bidders for work produced during the art battle. A portion of those proceeds will also go to the FLY Art Center.

Find the upcoming issue of LLIC at select bookstores in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area or order online.

Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com. To read more Ypsilanti stories, visit our Ypsilanti page.