BLOG

I know I’ve mentioned Ms. Emily’s Black Apple blog before… But it’s worth mentioning again in light of recent thoughts about what the future holds for creators in the digital age.

Inside a Black Apple elevates blogging to art form in and of itself. It’s beautifully written. It uses pictures and stories to engage readers in a warm, fuzzy world of the author’s (artist’s?) creation. It has a star! Ms. Emily – always artfully posed in vintage fashion. And there are things to buy – designed or handmade by Ms. Emily – expressly for you.

Its sum is greater than its parts.

So is the blogger an artist? A writer? A businesswoman? I’ve never asked her. My guess is that she’d self-identify as a crafter. But it doesn’t matter so much. The point is that it appears there’s room for creators to make a living online. And those with broadest skills – those who can write as well as paint or vamp or make music – those using all their talents to build domains we want to visit – will do well.

There’s been much talk this week about the future of reading, its decline and the migration of the written word from printed books to the internet.

Fear not, dear readers! There are grains of hope for fine artists in these stories. It’s true, the internet is rapidly displacing books as the dominant receptacle for human ideas. But as it does books will blossom into handmade art objects as revered as paintings for their physical beauty.

Doubtful? Check this out… the recently renamed Maine Media Workshops just added a new program to their always relevant and evolving film and photography curriculum. Design and Book Arts. Hmm…

Have you been following the Radiohead story? I admit, I felt a jolt of excitement when I first heard they’d put their new album up for sale on a pay-as-you-wish system. I knew they’d make money and cheered them on.

Have they been successful? The news is mixed. It’s been a closely watched experiment. You can read a confusing but interesting story about the results on the Editors Weblog.

From what I can tell… Radiohead has made some money. But the percentage of downloaders who paid for the album versus those who downloaded it for free is very low. So the experiment’s reinforced the widening cultural norm that it’s OK to download music for free.

I know there’s been some talk lately about a new business model for musicians. That musicians should look for success by selling t-shirts and concert tickets after giving away music for free. I don’t know about you, but it’s profoundly disappointing to me to see the primary creative product – the music – be so devalued when I know how much time and care it takes to create.

Who benefits from a system in which all digitizeable content is available for free? Google? The academic establishment? I don’t know. But the arrow seems pointed away from creators.

I’m still cheering for Radiohead and wish them every success. But not without some curiosity and concern. The “content should be free” model is a hip one to espouse, but can it provide sustenance to the musicians, writers, filmmakers – all artists – who create it? The jury’s still out. I’m watching closely…

More thoughts to follow next week…

I bookmarked The Art Newspaper months ago but didn’t pay any attention to it ’til this week. What took me so long?!? It’s great! A monthly newsletter laid out in newspaper format. But all the articles are about art. How cool is that?

Here’s a list of favorite art blogs. These are blogs I’ve been following weekly or daily for many, many months. And they never fail to inspire. Most are beautifully written. Some offer compelling images. Or a smile. Enjoy!

The Black Apple
Beautifully written by a young Etsy artist – a painter and doll maker named Emily (thank you, Christy, for pointing the way). I’m impressed by the Etsy, crafty crowd in general. So many of them use blogging software brilliantly to create these cozy, crafty worlds upholstered in vintage fabrics, cupcake recipes, buttons and dolls. Blogging as an art form in and of itself. Ms. Emily’s blog is at the top of the heap. Her paintings are lovely. But it’s her warm writing style that keeps me coming back for more.

Gallery of the Absurd
It’s embarrassing… But yes, I’ve been known to check in on those celebrity tear-down blogs from time to time. I won’t list the worst of them here (they’re really not worth your time or mine) but can’t resist pointing you toward the artist 14’s Gallery of the Absurd. A brilliant satirist, 14’s celebrity caricatures read like Wacky Pack gum cards from the 1970’s. Low humor, high wit. Laugh-out-loud funny.

New Work and Inspiration
Lisa Call is a Colorado quilt artist and art blogger. Her thoughts on creative process are consistently intelligent, generous and interesting. Very easy to read. I don’t know how she does it. (Too many process blogs read like Morning Pages from The Artist’s Way. Lisa’s is a shining exception.) A prolific blogger with an impressive work ethic, I look to Lisa for inspiration whenever I need a boost. Thank you, Lisa! Your blog is sustaining.

PaintersNYC
I LOVE this blog. A simple concept. An anonymous New York painter posts a painting or two (or three) a week from a current NYC show. Debate ensues (many of the commenters are New York painters too). What more can I say? If you’re a painter, you’ve got to check this out.

Paris Breakfasts
Watercolorist Carol Gillot illustrates pastries. Her blog, Paris Breakfasts, brims with morning-lit sensuality. Bakery cases stuffed with rows upon rows of pastel macaroons, vintage tea cups, perfume bottles in Parisian blue. The writing’s minimal. This blog’s mostly about the pictures. And they’re beautiful.

The Sartorialist
Another fun picture blog. “Sart” is a fashion photographer who posts daily images of interesting people wearing interesting clothes on the streets of New York, Paris, Milan, Stockholm, wherever he happens to be. The photos are portraits as much as they’re about fashion. They’ll age beautifully. The other thing I like about this blog is the writing. “Sart” is a good moderator. Comments on the blog are for the most part positive and thoughtful. I love the way this blog teases beauty out of the everyday.

And oh, I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention Alyson Stanfield’s ArtBizBlog. Daily inspiration and marketing ideas for artists. It’s Alyson who encouraged me to start my own art blog here. The quality and quantity of information she gives away is remarkable. A treasure for all artists or anyone involved in marketing a creative endeavor.

I was feeling blue today so I typed the words “something beautiful” into Google in a wistful attempt to cheer myself up. This is how I stumbled onto Something Beautiful – a neat little blog with more or less daily links to beautiful thoughts and images. A visit to the Faberge egg page followed by a visual trek to the Aran Islands (taken with a cup of black tea) did the trick. Enjoy!

When I started this blog back in July 2006 I had two goals in mind. One – I wanted to use writing to create links between the work I’m doing as a painter, a filmmaker (and a beekeeper)! And two – I wanted to give you, my readers, a reason to keep coming back to my site by providing useful and / or interesting dynamic content about artmaking.

It’s been a fun experiment. Now that I’m getting comfy with the idea of writing for public consumption I’m ready to raise the bar by increasing the frequency and regularity of my posts. So starting next week I’ll plan to post weekly with new posts arriving on Tuesdays. See you then!