This week has been a little crazy which is why my post is a little delinquent. C and I cleaned our house, mostly our one closet, for upwards of 10 hours (T-E-N people!). It looks amazing and we can actually walk into our closet-no small feat let me tell you. Have you ever read the book "Throw Out 50 Things"? Me neither but I like the idea. I can tell you for certain that I threw out at least 50 things. We have 4 bags + 1 overflowing box of Goodwill donations in addition to about 4 bags of trash. Can you believe that? I felt like we were the most excessive people in the world today. It's so freeing to get rid of things (Let's just forget that we made that Target run to get more items to put in our closets). What remains to be seen is if we can keep it as neat as it is today. I feel like most things have a home-the first rule of organizing-so the odds are in our favor!
Anyway, so for this week's edition of "Five Things Friday," I thought I would share some blogs that I follow regularly to stay up on art but also other things that I like.
1) Arts Journal Daily Art News-- a good overview of major things happening in all areas of art (visual, music, theater, etc) pulled from many other sources.
2) Digital Art News - a new find but there seems to be a lot of interesting news bits that will keep me updated on the world of art!
3) Skinny Taste - yummy recipes that are easy to follow with nice photographs so you know what things will look like! I use her recipes almost exclusively. Everything is tasty although somethings can be a little too much work.
4) Pennychic - Cute styles on a budget. Good ideas for working in a professional office which is always helpful. I want to look professional but my own age and this has some very cost effective ideas. Some would not be appropriate for where I work but it's easy enough to glance through.
5) Ruminate Magazine Blog - I don't actually subscribe to the print magazine (this is a recent find for me) but I really enjoy the blog articles about different writers and different aspects of art. It has a Christian perspective but it's also very real about what art should be (not just fluffy stuff people).
Thanks for reading. The end.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
The Democratization of Art-Bad?
Today while surfing the web for some interesting art news, I came across a New York Times article about photography (I was unable to find that article again, otherwise I would link it). The author argued that with the invention/popularity of camera phones, one of two things would happen to photography:
1) the field of photography would become more sophisticated and people would have an even better eye and appreciation for it
2) there would be such an ocean of photography, that the good and the bad would all get jumbled together and there would be no real way to tell what was good (the real down fall of this is that the profession as a whole becomes obsolete)
The author's further argument was that how do you decipher if something is good when a few thousand of your Facebook friends "like" every picture you post for one reason or another (the face you are making, the outfit you're wearing, because it's black and white, etc).
I think this is true not just in photography but in digital art as a whole. Perhaps the question is not "how do you know if something is good" but "how do you find what is good."
I enjoy looking at digital art but my dilemma is that I continually come across mediocre artworks posted by artists themselves on forums. Because there is no standard system or ranking of how good the artwork is I get to look through everything. EVERYTHING. FOR HOURS.
I think digital art (photography could be counted amongst this) is at a crossroads: either there needs to be some body/group curating, managing the mountain of art this is created or, to paraphrase a Disney movie, when everything's good, nothing is.
There are so many amazing artists out there, it is a shame that more people cannot find and view their works.
To find out more abut the artist below, link to original artwork here
1) the field of photography would become more sophisticated and people would have an even better eye and appreciation for it
2) there would be such an ocean of photography, that the good and the bad would all get jumbled together and there would be no real way to tell what was good (the real down fall of this is that the profession as a whole becomes obsolete)
The author's further argument was that how do you decipher if something is good when a few thousand of your Facebook friends "like" every picture you post for one reason or another (the face you are making, the outfit you're wearing, because it's black and white, etc).
I think this is true not just in photography but in digital art as a whole. Perhaps the question is not "how do you know if something is good" but "how do you find what is good."
I enjoy looking at digital art but my dilemma is that I continually come across mediocre artworks posted by artists themselves on forums. Because there is no standard system or ranking of how good the artwork is I get to look through everything. EVERYTHING. FOR HOURS.
I think digital art (photography could be counted amongst this) is at a crossroads: either there needs to be some body/group curating, managing the mountain of art this is created or, to paraphrase a Disney movie, when everything's good, nothing is.
There are so many amazing artists out there, it is a shame that more people cannot find and view their works.
To find out more abut the artist below, link to original artwork here
 | |||
| Jeanne D'arc by Sheng Yuan |
Friday, September 14, 2012
Five Things Friday-Learn about Me!
When I was inspired by my friend A to start blogging again, I came up with a great and easy way to blog more than once a century. I'm calling it (drumroll, please....!)....."Five Things Friday". It's an easy way for me to blog about something on my mind, about cool art, something I've read, etc.
So, today's edition of "Five Things Friday" is a way for me to introduce myself and tell you something about me. Previously, this didn't seem important when I was only critiquing art but now it seems more important so you will be reading blogs about me and my life.
Let's begin!!!
1) I have been married to my husband (I am going to call him C in my blog) for a little over a year. This August, we celebrated 3 years of knowing each other. It's hard to imagine our lives before we met :)
2) I am a ravenous bibliophile (book lover)! I love going to the library or bookstore and wandering for hours. I generally pick up a wide variety of books that I plan on reading but usually read about 1/10 of them (are you noticing a theme here?). My newest love is my Kindle. Do not fear, book lovers, I still love real books but it is so handy to be able to read everywhere or even in the dark!
3) I love to multitask but I also think this makes me a little ADD. At work, I usually have about 5 windows open and in the middle of an email I will think of something else that I should be doing. I am getting better at not multitasking.
4) C and I live in the suburbs of Chicago. I genuinely enjoy living in the suburbs even though I never have before. I lived in Chicago for 1 year and the parking situation in the winter was enough to make me want to move (plus, I was getting married!)
5) My dream (and I want C to help too) is to have a digital art gallery which host (surprise!) 2D and 3D art. I am working towards this project although it seems too big for me. Thankfully, it seems like a lot of doors are opening so we will see what the future holds.
This concludes this edition of "Five Things Friday". I hope you enjoyed it (or at least weren't bored to death). Have a great weekend!
So, today's edition of "Five Things Friday" is a way for me to introduce myself and tell you something about me. Previously, this didn't seem important when I was only critiquing art but now it seems more important so you will be reading blogs about me and my life.
Let's begin!!!
1) I have been married to my husband (I am going to call him C in my blog) for a little over a year. This August, we celebrated 3 years of knowing each other. It's hard to imagine our lives before we met :)
2) I am a ravenous bibliophile (book lover)! I love going to the library or bookstore and wandering for hours. I generally pick up a wide variety of books that I plan on reading but usually read about 1/10 of them (are you noticing a theme here?). My newest love is my Kindle. Do not fear, book lovers, I still love real books but it is so handy to be able to read everywhere or even in the dark!
3) I love to multitask but I also think this makes me a little ADD. At work, I usually have about 5 windows open and in the middle of an email I will think of something else that I should be doing. I am getting better at not multitasking.
4) C and I live in the suburbs of Chicago. I genuinely enjoy living in the suburbs even though I never have before. I lived in Chicago for 1 year and the parking situation in the winter was enough to make me want to move (plus, I was getting married!)
5) My dream (and I want C to help too) is to have a digital art gallery which host (surprise!) 2D and 3D art. I am working towards this project although it seems too big for me. Thankfully, it seems like a lot of doors are opening so we will see what the future holds.
This concludes this edition of "Five Things Friday". I hope you enjoyed it (or at least weren't bored to death). Have a great weekend!
Monday, September 10, 2012
I hate Mondays...(and sticking to things)
I don't really hate Mondays but today was one of those days where your dreams come crashing down around you (ok, not quite but it did not help that Excel and Access were not cooperating)
I have been working very hard on a project--figuring out the initial idea on starting up a non-profit organization in the arts. Today I felt like all my hard work was for naught and why did I think I had anything to offer to the art world anyway?
So, we will start again tomorrow. Not only with my idea for a non-profit but with other goals that I constantly fail at (see below).
*spiritual reading for 30 min and 30 min of art/career reading
*work out 20 min each day
*tidy for 10 min
I realize that some of these goals probably come very easy to most people but I am a perpetually flaky person. I may make a million goals but I barely ever stick to them. As someone who is a big perfectionist, this is not an easy thing to admit and it's something I don't especially love about myself.
Part of the reason to have this blog is 1) an opportunity to practice writing and 2) a place to have some kind of accountability. It's one thing for me to make a list and never do it. It's another to post it somewhere (not that anyone will read this) and never do it. It's a little more public of a letdown.
So, here we are. I obviously didn't keep my New Year's Resolution (surprise, surprise!) but it's just another chance to start over.
I have been working very hard on a project--figuring out the initial idea on starting up a non-profit organization in the arts. Today I felt like all my hard work was for naught and why did I think I had anything to offer to the art world anyway?
So, we will start again tomorrow. Not only with my idea for a non-profit but with other goals that I constantly fail at (see below).
*spiritual reading for 30 min and 30 min of art/career reading
*work out 20 min each day
*tidy for 10 min
I realize that some of these goals probably come very easy to most people but I am a perpetually flaky person. I may make a million goals but I barely ever stick to them. As someone who is a big perfectionist, this is not an easy thing to admit and it's something I don't especially love about myself.
Part of the reason to have this blog is 1) an opportunity to practice writing and 2) a place to have some kind of accountability. It's one thing for me to make a list and never do it. It's another to post it somewhere (not that anyone will read this) and never do it. It's a little more public of a letdown.
So, here we are. I obviously didn't keep my New Year's Resolution (surprise, surprise!) but it's just another chance to start over.
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