When you look at art on line and think you might make a purchase, how much information do you really want about the artist or the art itself?
I like the back-stories, the magical connections that seem to unfold, the details that play out in What Happened Until This Point in Time (leading up to this artwork or body of work being created). But, are YOU also going to want to know more, or is it just me, wrapped up in self-entertainment?
I want to get my work out into the world, and, I’ll admit it, SELL the stuff! I swear, I could make a decent living if people gave me goods, services or cold cash for what I do. But how to go make that happen, that’s the issue at hand.
Sounds like a still life title: Artist with Website. Only, the web site is not a lovely round apple or a plump yellow-green pear. If it was a tangible object I could paint the crap out of it. Seriously! Or, maybe I could do a portrait of the artist with an image of a laptop, the screen would show her website. And, there’s the rub: I want a website. For years this has been an uncomfortable topic and I find myself, once again, at the very rough edge of the lake, looking down into it with great interest. And I wish the weather was just a bit warmer in case I get scared and have to jump back out again.
So, web sites in general: Got Advice? I am new to the personal web site and would benefit from others’ input. I think.
The idea would be to get more of my artwork out into the world and there are plenty of reasons why: mostly it’s an issue of personal economics. Teaching as an adjunct does not pay well and I have a hate/hate (opposite of love/hate) relationship with the art galleries who ask for a hefty up-front rental fee AND 50% of the retail price on artists’ work. Yes, fifty percent. It’s so preposterous to think someone else is worth what the maker is worth. Also, I have far more of my own work in my possession than anyone (not a narcissist) needs. I do have a small collection of work by others, but my own work just seems to accumulate and accumulate.
I am researching the possibilities for where to put said site, how to set it up, how much to invest in this, and whether I put it ALL out there and risk looking like a crazy person who flits from one art form to another like a hummingbird buzzing about so many pretty flowers? Whew. Or, try to rein it in and present a well controlled version myself using one medium or maybe two so it looks like I have direction. You know, I never wanted to be a production potter like some of my friends and former roommates. Ha! Quite the opposite! I cannot answer very well when I run into someone who asks what I’m painting these days. ‘Oh, paint,’ I think, ‘I remember that familiar, friendly substance. Yes.’ I used to answer that question, what do you do? with the simple answer, I’m a painter, an artist, not a house painter, yes, fine artist; I paint pictures.
So, this Artist with Web Site is forward-thinking, taking deep breaths and doing the work to become more than just a presence on FB and the lady with The CD House in the neighborhood. If you can offer some good web site building insight, please do. I will take suggestions or at least try to be open to input. It’s obvious that I cannot think my way out of this, or, should I say, IN to it.
It’s late, I’m late, there’s this feeling of late in the air. It’s snowing, past my bedtime, and I am no spring chicken. The blogging is begun and I love to write, love words, the way in which each word says something and the combinations of words grow in meaning by more than just simple addition. But what am I doing here? What are you doing here? This writing and reading and sharing and sending out ones and zeros into the ethernet.
Ah, sweet midnight, sweet, snowy February lateness of night. Here we are.
Let us begin with the simple phrase, I am a maker. This is and has been my life’s work. Like so many other visual people who just keep busy with doing and making all the time, The Making is only part of the process. Getting it out there, getting others involved in the process of making, getting others to witness and partake of the making, the enjoyment, the procurement, and love of things made. That is the thing I struggle over here.
I would rather (mostly) (I think) stay home, stay to myself, and MAKE, CREATE, DO, DREAM, SCHEME, BUSY MYSELF with materials of every sort. And, yet, I need to make a living. Need. To. Make. A. Living. And, so, it seems I need to be blogging, get a website together, put more of my work and my ideas out into the world.
Samples, here, are of very recent works created in early ’14 with hopes of being included in a juried art exhibit in Pittsburgh, PA. The show is called Edge to Edge and the work was selected by Meredith Ré Grimsley. The Stupid Bra didn’t make it in the exhibition. Rebuilding Process, II did. Yea, me!
detail: Stupid BraStupid Bradetail: Rebuilding Process, IIRebuilding Process, IIStupid Bra in the works
When you look at art on line and think you might make a purchase, how much information do you really want about the artist or the art itself?
Making It 