The Root is amazing, you will not find a more talented group of people. A couple of us post here on HN. It's invite only but getting in is just a matter of having a connection (you do) and an impressive portfolio (do you?)
Because of the trust that's formed the last decade, we've had meetups all over the world. No matter what country you're in — there's usually a rooter who's got an open door. In addition, TR42 isn't just about art... it's a living community and people share very personal details that they don't want index by spiders or viewable by the general public. I'm not going into specifics but it gets very personal.
And yes, pxlpshr speaks truly--Ben is a great designer, the founder of the root, and he was the first rooter to work for FB.
I can send you an email with examples of my design work. Should I send it via the contact form on your site?
Don't think my account is still there though... ;-)
Edit: I just wanted to say that I was joking there, since it might not be obvious. The detriment of course would be that we'd lose out on the advice of the non-technical members we have here.