06.20.06
Internet based art
6/16/06 Blog is such an ugly word although a Web Log is what I am attempting to do here. I don’t get much traffic at this particular site. I use it as a business card so I can tell people I have a website. About half of the messages that come to me through this site are spammers and con-artists from other areas of the world trying to scam me out of some money by playing on my artistic strings. What really matters to me is the art, and a website has been a poor choice of audience for someone like me. Until now.
My eyes have been opened to something I have really missed out on in the art world. I have recently bought two paintings. One is painting number 739 from an artist named Sala. He and his wife are the authors of Onethousandpaintings.com This is the most exciting thing to happen to the art world for quite some time. This guy actually uses HTML to make art, I have checked out my own website with it after buying my 739 painting. Critically I know that this is conceptual art, not concerned with only the surface of his works. But there is such an excitement and buzz from this type of work. It makes so much sense on so many levels and (at least for me) it was dirt cheap to buy into the whole thing. I am so happy and excited about the internet and art made using it as inspiration. It is a sign of our times. It is a wave I am glad to ride. I wish him the best and I will post the painting of mine when I get it (sometime in August I suspect – fine by me.) I found out about this whole thing from reading blogs – some great information out there – and from that reading I found other paths as yet untrod by my ignorant eyes.
The next is Anthony White – he is the guy painting his own money, currency based work, making one painting after the previous one sells. Another web based idea since he sells some of them on Ebay and markets quite a few through his site – where I bought mine from. He has been written about quite a bit in the art blogs, along with Sala. I bought his painting for $60. I bought into some actually fun, interesting, exciting and highly conceptual work that is all about today’s day and age. I encourage anyone who gets a chance to see what they have to offer, to talk about it with them, me, or anyone else, to enjoy exciting art. Anthony talks about the resale of his work, and how it is making much more money on the secondary market.
I like to think of this work as a text book I am buying, before the semester starts, on the subject of art, internet, money, and interest. On second thought, text books are normally more expensive, usually dull, and past tense. I am not just buying artwork, art lessons, and a story for my wall; I am buying a piece of my time and my age ~ now how much is that going to be worth in the secondary market of my life.
I have been working so hard on my own innovations that I missed out on a lot simpler and potentially more enjoyable aspects of the art world. That generated buzz – the novelty of the new and exciting – for around $200 I learned more about a side of the art biz I have always wanted to be apart of. And I have two stories on my wall (soon) that will constantly remind me of COOL art, not just how excited I get from it, but how exciting it can be for the whole world, how there is a community out there in love and lust with the power of thought and ideas. These works won’t change the world or the way I paint, but they can change my biases. These are the lessons I have been looking for. The quality of the paintings will always be paramount – my next step is to learn how to make it as exciting as I always feel they should be.
