New "Wetpaint Please Touch" Virtual Painting Website Fosters Online Expression
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Interactive Contest Celebrates Artist Collaboration
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Interactive application lets users easily “paint” online masterpieces to share with friends who then can supply additional strokes


Seattle, WA – June 19, 2007 – Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com), creator of the consumer-friendly Wiki for collaborating and publishing online, today unveiled Wetpaint Please Touch (www.wetpaintpleasetouch.com), a free website that lets anyone with Internet access become a virtual artist. Highlighting the launch of Wetpaint Please Touch, Wetpaint also announced a virtual painting contest for online painters, seeking submissions for best overall artwork and most collaborative painting.

Like a Wetpaint Wiki, which allows users to create written content that can be shared and edited online by multiple users, Wetpaint Please Touch enables visitors to easily create an online painting with the input of their friends. The Wetpaint Please Touch contest starts today and ends July 2 at midnight Pacific Daylight Time. To participate in the contest, online artists must complete a painting that is displayed on Wetpaint Group Art (www.wetpaintgroupart.com). Two prizes will be awarded, one to the artist who creates the Best Overall Painting and the second to the artist who starts the Most Collaborative Painting. Judged by Wetpaint, the Best Overall Painting will be assessed on artistic merits, while Most Collaborative Painting will be awarded to the painting that undergoes the most versions. The two winning artists will receive free one-year memberships to an art museum of their choice (maximum value $250).

“Online collaboration is growing exponentially because people want to work together to express their passions and interests,” said Ben Elowitz, CEO of Wetpaint. “With Wetpaint Please Touch, it’s easy to extend the Wiki collaboration concept to online art, unleashing the digital artist within all of us. We can’t wait to see the entries to our contest, and see and share the fruits of our users’ collective creativity.”

Wetpaint Please Touch: Free and Easy
Designing an online masterpiece with Wetpaint Please Touch is free and incredibly easy. Would-be artists can navigate to www.wetpaintpleasetouch.com and click on the "Paint" button to begin their group art project. Starting with a blank canvas, the user can dabble with a variety of painting tools and colors to create their mural. Photos and text can also be added to the painting. Once the masterpiece is complete, the canvas can be forwarded to friends so that they can contribute additional touches. Once finished, the paintings are automatically exhibited in an online
gallery located at www.wetpaintgroupart.com. Visitors to the gallery can explore and rate their own paintings as well as those of others. Wetpaint Please Touch artwork can also be downloaded to post on other Wetpaint sites, MySpace pages, and Facebook profiles; or emailed to family and friends.


About Wetpaint
Wetpaint is changing the way people share and collaborate about passions and interests online through its consumer-friendly Wiki platform. For the first time, anyone who knows how to use Microsoft Word can use Wetpaint to click and type online. Wetpaint has powered more than 400,000 user-created community sites since launching in June 2006. The Seattle startup has also caught the attention of prominent consumer brands such as ABC, BET, CBS, T-Mobile, and HTC. These companies have partnered with Wetpaint to create community sites for their most active and knowledgeable users. Wetpaint is backed by Accel Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Frazier Technology Ventures. For more information, visit www.wetpaint.com.