First of all I want to say you are welcome to all the artists who have paid me bright and shiny compliments about putting The Fine Art Department together. I appreciate your kind words and encouragement.
Second, I am thrilled with the interest in this whole project, and just a bit overwhelmed as well. Please bear with me while I correct links (I have a tendency to forget to include the "http://" part of an address, whose bright idea was it to make these small things so important anyway?), typos, and feedburning issues. Still don't understand that one, but will keep at it. I thought I set it up but Katherine says it still doesn't work. Help?
And third, due to all of this interest, I am finding that I will have to put a few guidelines into place. When I initially decided to do this, I just kinda figured that I would get a bunch of artists who do pretty much what I do (I am very self centered:), who are serious about their art and career, who show or have shown in galleries and/or museums, but also sell work on their own, to provide an affordable version of their art, and perhaps to supplement slow gallery sales in this economy. After pondering the alternatives, I have decided to stick with that basic criteria, because, well, I am very self centered. Heh.
I have also decided to limit the number of artists for the time being. Right now there are 12 and I will take up to 25, then reassess at that point, if necessary. The reason for this is because I want to keep this blog friendly and intimate, not overwhelming to viewers with so much info that they can't see clearly after browsing through the site for more than a few minutes. I personally can't stand sites like that and don't want that to happen here.
The last thing I would like to discuss is about jurying the work. I actually didn't even consider that I would have to do this, but now I suspect that I may have to. I don't want to jury, and I am very sorry that I will probably have to, as I do not like to say that I think any particular art is bad, or even really good. I find art is incredibly subjective and who am I to be the decider? So I will just say this, some who want to be involved may not meet the criteria I mentioned above and won't be included for those reasons. Beyond that, I will include art that I either like a lot or may not personally like, but that I find some value in, respect for its energy, quality or other appeal that I may not be able to define. So for now, I will be choosing the artists, however I will not be the decider about the artist's talent and no one should take not getting onto this site as any kind of rejection. 'K?
I understand that by me making these decisions, this project has become less of a team effort than I had initially planned and that makes me uncomfortable. But I will try to be as fair as possible, maybe someone will volunteer to help with jurying? and I will be open to feedback (um, as long as it is constructive and not rude). This will continue to be a team effort as far as I am concerned, especially if we all work to promote the whole project.
And don't worry, tomorrow this blog will go back to being all about me, me, me. Heh.
7 comments:
tracy, well this should be a sign of how hungry artists are for finding supportive places and people eh? I mean there are all sorts of art sites INUNDATED with 1000's of artists... who can find anyone there? so much art it is exhausting. I don't know what it was about your site, your blog posts...something felt so good here and honest. Youre desire to get this holiday thing going felt so personal and real. I was immediately struck by your post. Hope you don't get overwhelmed, I will offer to help in any way I can. Just email me.
all that sounds reasonable to me.. i'll help out to if you need it.
I think a small group will benefit you all while a very large group might run the risk of benefiting no-one.
Personally I like and very much endorse the idea of it being a selection - that makes it a little bit like it being a natural extension of someone's blogroll ("This is the art I like or appreciate").
Plus, there's nothing to stop other people also creating similar groups! :)
Would it be a good idea if one of your criteria is about the regularity with which people produce work for sale - placing an emphasis on steady output rather than the sporadic?
(NB The feed seems to be working fine now - I've got nice big pics in the followers tab on my dashboard!)
Hmm - I'm still wondering about that feed.
The images I've got in my dashboard/followers tab and in the blogroll are a day old (ie it only goes as far as Diane's). On the other hand, your post from this blog (14 hours old) is showing up and appears to update promptly.
Maybe make sure you've done the same for the new one as you've done for this one (in Settings / Site Feed ) and/or any feedburner?
Tracy, thanks for the kind words. Jody was my neighbor before she moved to Utah, and now that she's back our kids are at school together. I've been familiar with your art for awhile from the pieces that she has at her house, you do beautiful work.
I thought about submitting for your blog but I'm just starting to show my work (being a muralist for so many years) so I'm not really ready yet. This may be too much of a hassle but perhaps once a year you could ask for artists to resubmit.
You've tapped into a generous idea to share your "space" with other artists and the fact that you need to "jury" only keeps the eventual selection cohesive. This will better appeal to the buyers you want to reach,better for the artists accepted, and ultimately better for those artists who don't quite "fit". You actually can be in the wrong place at the right time.
Thanks Paula, I appreciate your offer of help, and I may take you up on it. I am glad to hear that this project felt personal to you, thanks.
Thanks Natalya, you are so kind.
Katherine, it didn't occur to me that I would have to place a limit, I was worried about getting anyone to join in! Thanks so much for your support and feedback, you are awesome! (still working on the feed)
Laura, when you are ready to submit a site with your work, just email it to me and we'll see where things are at that point.
Thanks Sue, thanks for making those points, I appreciate the support.
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