The internet is a very efficient means of sharing artwork and ideas: here is my work, illuminated and explained. At the same time, however, the internet is a much better platform -- in fact a *fantastic* platform -- for sharing every kind of pornography you can think of and pictures of cats asking for cheeseburgers. If you imagined the internet as an ocean, almost every wave would be pictures of Kim Kardashian's ass or ugly people shopping at Walmart, and you'd have to go pretty deep to find meaningful (or successful) creative expression. So why do artists persist with things like portfolio sites and blogs and Flickr pages and Etsy shops and online galleries? Because they think they are sharing, and contributing to some kind of dialogue, and that this in turn validates their work, especially if it commodifies it and they can get paid. Artists (hopefully) create things to say something, to add their voice, to join a community. To express and share talent. But, at least as far the internet goes, I think this belief in some kind of wider artistic empathy is wrong. I think that all you are doing is putting up yet another flag, lost in a sea of a million other flags, the vast majority of which are awful and gaudy, but all of which want to be noticed and acknowledged and paid (and a very few will, which perpetuates the idea that success can happen to you, too). There's too much. I used to go to art galleries. I used to go to shows. I don't anymore. Art comes to me. It bobs all around me, all the time. Every second person with any kind of artistic ambition is sharing something, all the time (including me). I don't have to look -- it's just there. On Facebook on Twitter on Tumblr on Flickr on Blogger on Wordpress on Everything. Right now I must have fifty art/illustration bookmarks on my browser that I never have time to visit. Are we connected on LinkedIn? Good, because now I can ignore you. None of your information is meaningful unless I'm looking for it. In fact, the information deluge has made just about all of it that much less meaningful. And anyway, I've got some topless college girls wearing antlers (artistic!) to look at.
C is friends with the fashion stylist Rebekah Roy (left in both pics above) ... one of those people who personify calm and smiling success. On her blog she presents glamour in this very sincere, straightforward way ... whether she's taking pictures of people on the street , talking about stain removers , her favourite videos , or attending some glittering party . One minute she's ruminating on hair extensions, and in the next she reveals how she's been featured on the Vogue UK site. A real disarmer and charmer (and this without meeting her yet, although I feel like I know her because we both did our time in Winnipeg). * * * * * Coming home from Russia, we did many bad things. ; mixed media on canvas, 10 x 10 inches. In my own life, the glamour is wholly imagined. * * * * * witches, smoke ; mixed media on canvas, 10 x 10 inches. My second go at this one, and for some reason I'm painting a lot of smoke lately (note to self: tell C that I want to be cremated). *
snicker..it is hard to take seriously a device (the internet) that will allow anything and everything to be on it. I browse until I realize that I have quit doing my own art. I get highly confused when I see too much..info overload. I avoid the celeb crap and the porn and sift through the fake stuff and the manufactured by anybody "facts". I see a lot of art and then I sleep and do it over again..It is a subversive addiction that keeps me on caffeine and dulls my mind. Damn you Al Gore for inventing the internet..damn you all to hell!!!!!
ReplyDeleteKay snickers.
ReplyDeleteFern gets a little weepy.
I'd like to unplug but I'm afraid I might miss something!
ReplyDeletesending up a flare here. flag waving, weeping and snorting all at the same time. too. much. info.
ReplyDeletefern! i know, i got depressed, too.
ReplyDeletewhy? why not