http://ulandkrzyz.blogspot.com/
We'll see how long this one lasts...
Blogs are always trouble for me, as I'm skeptical of their use, or, more particularly, the various uses I get out of them. Without expounding too much, I'll just say that they can act as a psychic crutch for me.They make me feel like I'm doing something, and I start up with various strategies for doing it better. They tend to detract from what I think if in my more sober moments as the real world and what I'm actually doing in it. Blogs aren't a part of that real something.
But I'm a sucker for any opportunity to rant and blather on. It can help toward the communication of ideas, of course, and it's fun to interact ( yes, interact. Leave comments. tell me I'm wrong.) I'm just going to go forward with one eye on the reality meter, I hope.
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19 comments:
Blog is web log… I like to think that it shows the different steps and periods. I didn’t allow the comments on mine. May be I should.
Must admit I'm struggling to see the point of posting art on blogs myself.
It's great to have a peer group and get their comments/criticisms, but just seems such a throwaway way to show art that's taken real effort to produce.
That's why I've been taking a backseat with EBD and being very selective about what I post, either posting quick sketches or things that are on the web anyway.
Yeah, I think posting on Flickr is worth it for me, as it's brought some interest, but I'm hoping to limit my web presence in terms of art and instead save things up for zines/prints pretty soon. Once the zines are done, then maybe post pages, but more to promote the zines.
The blog is definitely more like an online notebook, though I'm sure I'll post art here and there.It's like a repository of things I happen to be doing or interested, like Gahaiin said...
Hi,
I stumbled upon your Blog while doing a search about ducks on Google. It then came to my attention that your blog is popular. Are you aware that you could be making an income with your blog? You should check out www.bloggingtothebank.com. It's a site that shows you how to generate an income off of your blog. It's 100% risk free. I tried it and am very satisfied with the results.
Isn't the internet amazing, we have kind souls showing up at our very doorstep, simple folk in search of simple things.. like ducks! And what do they do when they find us? Why offer all sorts of amazing methods through which we can make a quick buck!
Seriously though, the blog thing, for me anyway, comes down to three things. Discovery, as with Monster Brains, Exposure, which every gig I've ever received was due 100 percent to what I've posted online, and interacting with other artists like you freakazoids. Which is a constant source of inspiration.
I've come to realize that the building up and tearing down of blogs is part of your process, Uland. I would suggest trying to keep at least one place, if only your flickr gallery, as a permanent source for your work to be seen by others. I'm a huge fan of the favoriting option on flickr, it's proven to be an amazing way to find new artists.
And as much as I love participating in books and magazines, you have to realize that in the end, 90 percent of your potential audience, which includes a lot of people who will become your fans and want to spend money on your art, are only ever going to see your stuff through the internet.
It's all about looking for balance for me, figuring out how I can approach all these things in a way that works for me.
Time/pace is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. I think I like the idea of a slow build rather than the online pace, which I feel is something that you have to try to keep up with.
I'm going to keep posting work online though. It might be in a limited capacity, but most of all, I want it to be after the fact; after the zine is done, after series a or b meant for hanging is done, etc. .
It might mean I don't post new drawings for weeks, or maybe months at a time.
I tend to always look for a clear context in which to work. Too often that context is "blog"; I'm making drawings to post them online. It was good for a while, and I think it really helped out. I'll still post drawings here, but none of them are going to made "for" posting online, if that makes sense.
Life seems to move by too fast when I'm wrapped up in that mode is all.
-I realize that sounds like a distinction without a difference.I'm good at those..
Yea I make posts for all the zines I’m part of. Somebody (whom I’m not working with) once wrote to me that I didn’t have to do that, that it would be better just to show my artworks. But actually I still do it. I mean I want to help the zines I’m part of to grow. I guess I’m making interviews, now, partly for similar reasons, it’s good to advert things you like which are related to you. I like books and zines so I’m active for them. To be honest I used to search on the internet almost only things I had seen in zines and almost all the friendships and contacts I have with artists whom I’m working with were made in the real world or because of fanzines. I’m pretty sure the links I have from publishers’ web sites or blogs are for more efficient and meaningful than the ones on flicker.
@Aeron: I guess the fact that you’re making digital art induces that your relation to computers is very different from ours. Basically sometimes computer can prevent us from drawing. Also one-line comics are good but it doesn’t allow the same page settings than on paper. If I want to develop one-line comics I’ll have to think about what’s best.
@Uland: Once I criticised what I was saying because I though I was making a distinction without a difference. And a Friend of mine said to me that it wasn’t that; may be some kind of abstract lobbies would like me to think that way so the common ideology would not be harmed. The language is about nuances. May be inside a given system both assertions were the same… but may be one of them worked as well in some other spheres.
I'm coming to this a bit late, so apologies for any inadvertent repetition. Aeron's words were, as always, sound, prudent, practical and wise. He seems to have a way of cutting through a lot of bullshit and laying the organs out properly, for some real, hardnosed haruspicy.
I agree that blogs can be problematic. There are so many of them out there, and while the quality ones seems to thrive, things always seem to settle into niches. Unfortunately, given the nature of the internet, there can be a lot of incestuous link-peddling as well so truth in the world of blogs can be as rare as hen's teeth.
Personally, some of Uland's concerns resonate quite deeply with me. A blog is, by it's very nature, an extremely public thing. Regardless of the layers of secrecy it may be wrapped in, a blog always seems to be somehow trying to draw attention to itself. Not that that's a bad thing, but I think it's an important distinction to be aware of when maintaining one.
For me, I constantly struggle...and I mean struggle deeply, complete with sleepless nights and long midnight walks...with whether or not to make my art public and try to share it, for fun or profit or both, with the world or to become a complete recluse and never show another soul. I still haven't found the answer.
Yes, there is something appealing about both extremes....Balance...
Not to come across like a backpedaling pussy, but I wanted to clarify that what I wrote above was not meant to cast the comments of Uland, Logoeme or Zeke as "bullshit." I don't think any of those comments were bullshit. I merely wanted to emphasize how marvellously free of it Aeron's comments were.
I always say about Aeron that I wish I could maintain that kind of singular vision.
Thanks. It's a weird sort of fragmented singular vision as my imagination is cracked in half across the drawn and the digital.
Something you have to beware of is the curse of combining facebook/myspace/flickr/twatter/blogger/etc. It seems like you're supposed to be posting at ten different social networking sites to be relevant.
All I care about is money, and the internet hasn't brought me a fucking dime.
I'm hoping someone comes up with an application that lets you make one single post that will automatically post across multiple networking sites.
Word!
That's why I have Flickr and MySpace accts but never post anything there cuz it's a goddamned pain to do the same thing 53 times for 53 different sites. FaceBook lets you import your blog posts automatically, but sometimes it's a bit "iffy" -- and I think they only allow you to import from one site.
I hear about people making all sorts of connections or successes on one site or another (Etsy, for example)and get all worried I should post to my various accounts, then I think, Fuck It: My site is my site, and all these other sites should merely refer people back to my main address.
You know, I want to make art, not spend all my time posting work all over the internet.
That's the problem with being an artist and not having an agent. We gotta do all this fucking legwork and be productive in our art. And nowadays, legwork means a lot of time on the internet and not mailing art sample packages to who knows where. Altough the traditional approach might help still, but then you have to worry about printing up a mini portfolio, packaging it, mailing it. Eghg. .
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