While ART/LIFE is now well established, it began as a four-page newsletter produced by Cardella who, feeling stifled in Santa Barbara's somewhat conservative art community, needed to reach out to like-minded conceptual and progressive artists. "I felt I was in a terribly isolated situation, surrounded by people who were not attuned to what I was trying to do." Reproducing the first ART/LIFE on a photocopy machine, he tells us; "when sent, a communication will hopefully be received, deciphered, and responded to." The result became a phenomenon that grew beyond its California roots and now comprises an international network of artists, poets, and writers. As it works now, artists and writers submit signed and numbered editions for inclusion in ART/LIFE. Cardella compiles and binds them into a cohesive whole. His editing results in striking sequences and patterns among the different art and literary works within each rare, limited edition.