JOAN G. STARK

"The Queen of ASCII Art"

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Her self-portrait and signature

// WHO IS JGS

Joan G. Stark, also known by her pseudonym Spunk or her initials jgs, is an American ASCII artist. The Usenet newsgroup alt.ascii-art dubbed her "Queen of ASCII Art", a title that remains undisputed.

PSEUDONYMS

Spunk, jgs

ACTIVE PERIOD

1996 - 2003

PRIMARY MEDIUM

White-on-black ASCII

CREATION TIME

15-20 minutes per piece

She works free-hand, creating each piece directly at the keyboard. Many of her works have a folk art quality: whimsical, accessible, and deeply human despite being made entirely of text characters.

// TIMELINE

Summer 1995

First exposed to ASCII art

July 1996

Begins creating ASCII art, posting to alt.ascii-art on Usenet

1996-1998

Website receives over 250,000 unique visitors, updated monthly with new creations

1996-2003

Creates several hundred works of art, the most prolific output in ASCII art history

2009

GeoCities shutdown; her original site at geocities.com/SoHo/7373 goes offline

Present

Work preserved through archives, mirrors, and projects like ASCII-Ching

// BY THE NUMBERS

700+

ORIGINAL ASCII ARTWORKS CREATED

If you search for ASCII art anywhere on the internet, jgs will be the initials you see most often. Her signature appears on more ASCII artwork than any other artist in history.

In ASCII-Ching, Joan's work forms the backbone of the oracle. Of the 448 images in the collection, her pieces appear more frequently than any other artist. A testament to both the quality and versatility of her creations.

// HER STYLE

Joan's ASCII art is instantly recognizable:

✓ Folk art quality: Whimsical, warm, accessible
✓ Free-hand creation: No conversion tools, pure keyboard artistry
✓ White-on-black: Designed for terminal displays
✓ Incredible range: Animals, people, objects, scenes, holidays
✓ Consistent signature: The iconic "jgs" appears on every piece

"Her imagery [is] an example of ASCII art becoming 'softer, more stereotypically feminine.'"
— Media Anthropology, 2005

Her involvement in ASCII art has been cited as an example of increased online participation by women in the early internet era.

// LEGACY

When GeoCities shut down in 2009, countless websites vanished, including Joan's original gallery at geocities.com/SoHo/7373. But her work was too important to disappear.

Today, her art lives on through:

→ Archive.org's Wayback Machine
→ GitHub mirrors and preservations
→ The ASCII-Ching oracle (this site)
→ Countless email signatures, forum posts, and text files worldwide

As long as ASCII exists, Joan Stark's work will be discovered, shared, and appreciated by new generations.

// DEDICATION

Every jgs piece in ASCII-Ching is a small tribute to her legacy.

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            *        .  jgs
      *                       *

Thank you, Joan.

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