8th March 2009 - Who's made a mark this week?

Change This! - The Economy Survey
a word cloud of the words used by people surveyed

Change This are about spreading ideas and changing minds. They're making the most of the viral nature of social networking in a web 2.0 world - and using this in a very positive way. I've followed their publications - or maifestos as they like to call they - for some time now.

ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.

Last week they published The Economy Survey . It recounts the themes from responses to a survey in November last year which asked:

• In one word, sum up how you feel right now;
• How is this affecting you?” and;
  
• What are you choosing to do about it?

The cover of this manifesto is a word cloud of the most common responses to that first inquiry, “How do you feel right now?” and each paragraph hereafter is a different individual’s response.

It's a fascinating insight into how people deal with major problems over which they have no direct control. There are lots of different responses and lots of different perspectives and people are doing very different things. But what's refreshing about it is that it's in the words of the people speaking. It's not telling you waht to do. It's showing you what other people are doing. My guess is that if you read it, you'll find something you haven't thought of before or some perspective which gives you a new insight into how you deal with your art and your life right now.

Congratulations to.....

• Julian Merrow Smith (Postcard from Provence) on reaching 50 - here's what he got up to on the Meanwhile here in France written by his wife Ruth
  
• Janie Pirie, a coloured pencil artist, on being accepted into membership of the Society of Botanical Artists - more about this tomorrow on the UKCPS News blog
  
• The Pastel Journal on their 10th birthday see It's a Pastel Party! and the slideshow at The Pastel Journal 10th Anniversary Slide Show
• Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life) whose birthday it was last week.

Art Blogs

Drawing and Sketching

• On my sketchbook blog I posted about: A 'trip' to Borough Market, Southwark, Looking east from London Bridge and John Betjeman and St Pancras

Pastels and Pencils

• You can Meet the Winners: 10th Annual Pastel 100
  
• Prizewinning coloured pencils artist Linda Lucas Hardy (Workshops, News & Other Great Stuff) has been showing off her revamped studio space in My studio's new look... plus you can find out more about her art career here

Painting

• Face to Face is the blog of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian
• Sadie J Valenti (Sadie J Valenti ) is an oil painter working in realism and based in San Francisco - who also does delightful life drawings
  

Printmaking

• Do take a look at Jeanette's splendid fish prints (plus watercolour) - Camouflaged Rainbow and Pisces indecision - that's some standard you're setting for a novice printer Jeanette!
  
• Whoo hoo - The linocut adventure begins............ (Thanks for all the very many helpful comments - I promise to try oil based inks too!)

Watercolour

• I had a couple of posts about watercolours this week - you can find them in the sections for art competition and art exhibitions
  

Art Groups

• Karin Jurick (Different Strokes from Different Folks) has members of her blog group drawing and painting sushi this month and she's written a great post about intuition

Art business & marketing

• On Monday I introduced my MAM Poll (March): How do you price your art? which has attracted a lot of useful comments which I'll be summarising at the end of the month. If you've not yet commented why not click the link and let me know more about your approach to pricing? 89 people have voted so far.
  
• Gregory Peters on Empty Easel writes about Branding 101 for Artists: How to Create a Strong Brand for Yourself and Your Art
• Cathy Johnson has posted about her adventures with social networking in Marketing Part 7 - be open to change it's part of life
  
• Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life) has reviewed her use of a separate blog for marketing her art and her current marketing strategy in Marketing realities and will be making some changes
  

Art Collecting

• ARTNews had an item about How to Buy in 2009. It indicates that Roland Augustine, president of Luhring Augustine and president of the Art Dealers Association of America , is “very positive” about 2009.

“As painful as this contraction is, it’s a welcome time for the art market because the inflationary conditions in the market in the last few years have seen their final days,” he said. “I welcome that. Collectors welcome it. The speculation, at least for the moment, has seen its demise. We have moved away from appreciating the language of art toward treating art as a commodity, and as long as you treat it that way you lose the value of the language.

I think we will also see better art produced. I think in times like these artists will spend more time considering the art they are creating, instead of being driven to produce art for the marketplace. Artists in many cases have spread themselves very thinly over the last decade.”

Art Economy

• Jonathan Jones is being rather provocative in two posts on his Guardian blog this week
• Art as we know it is finished - the opening anecdote of this piece beggars belief!

Art as we know it is finished. It is about to be exposed as nothing more than the decor of an age of mercantile madness.

• How art killed our culture

Drama, the novel, even cinema have all kept a safer distance from the booming monster of modern capitalism than artists did. What I want to ask now is – why? What happened? How did art become the mirror of fraud?

• According to the New York Times business section Larry Gagosian is Pulling Art Sales Out of Thinning Air. However in another article there is speculation that the end of the art-buying oligarchs is be about to happen - which is a wave which will contain some considerable wash.
• Meanwhile Art Market Monitor wants to comment on the NYT article about Gagosian in NYT Tries a Gagosian Takedown
• If you didn't think the RBS bad news story and all the tales about the behaviour of Sir Fred Goodwin could get any worse, now we learn that Sir Fred Goodwin let slip Dutch art fortune. Basically he bought a bank for far more than it was worth but forget to include the art collection (16,000+ pieces worth millions of pounds)
  

Art competitions

• I found out this week that the American Watercolor Society finally delivered its verdict in February on the artist who they've been investigating for the last six months or so - American Watercolor Society Gold Medal - the final verdict on Sheryl Luxenburg. There was an extended discussion in the comments.
  

Art Exhibitions

• Last week Eye Level posted about art as it relates to times of economic recession and depression in 1934 All Over Again. The exhibition will run February 27, 2009 through January 3, 2010. Check out also the associated set of images on Flickr. Using the Smithsonian Museum’s collection as a touchstone, the Eye Level blog is dedicated to American art and the ways in which USA art reflects is the history and culture of the USA
• On Monday I posted my Exhibition review: "21st Century Watercolour" at the Bankside Gallery
• Then on Wednesday I saw four exhibitions in one day.
• I started with a preview of the new exhibition - Constable Portraits - at the National Portrait Gallery of which more next week
• Then crossed Trafalgar Square to see an exhibition of 97 paintings by a group of 25 marine artists - Exhibition review: Wapping Group of Artists - 63rd Annual Exhibition
  
• While there I also looked around a very exciting, impressive and busy exhibition by the ‘Prism’ group of textile artists in the other two galleries at the Mall Galleries. I found the notice about the exhibition Headline - A Sense of the Moment afterwards on the web. Apparently the Prism artists are affiliated to the Opus School of Textile Arts

‘Headline: A Sense of the Moment’ offers a wide variety of personal interpretations exploiting techniques which range from traditional textile processes to highly experimental mixed media approaches.

• plus after my trip to Cornelissen's, I visited a brand new exhibition The Intimate Portrait of drawings and prints in the British Museum Print Room which I only saw very briefly but will be back for a longer look very soon. I can already tell you that it's splendid for anybody who likes portrait drawings.
  

• Cézanne and Beyond runs until May 17th at the Philadeplhia Museum of Art
  
• Mariana Carpinisan described the Venice Biennale - City of Art on the The Smithsonian Journeys blog
• Holly Bedrosian (Holly Bedrosian Fine Art ) has had her coloured pencil portrait Self Portrait with tea juried into the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists Faces of Spring 2009 Exhibition - see Faces of Spring Exhibition. The exhibition opened last Friday and runs until April 18th

Art Forums

• Wet Canvas changes its User Agreement - specially for all members of Wet Canvas. Did you see an announcement? Did you understand what it meant?
  

Art Materials and Supplies

• On Wednesday I paid a visit to Cornelissen's as part of my adventure with linoprinting - and took some photos as well. Anybody who has always wondered what the interior of this wonderful art shop looks like. You can see them in my L Cornelissen & Son set on Flickr
• I then decided to create A NEW GROUP on Flickr about favourite art shops - hence (blog post) My favourite art shop is...... and (Flickr Group) My favourite art shop. To avoid any confusion, This group is about photos of your favourite place to buy art materials and art supplies ie the the best high street/bricks and mortar art shops selling eg paints, paper, canvases, brushes, pencils, pastels, art equipment etc. It's intended to be a cheerleading group to raise awareness of the really good art shops and hopefully prevent some of them from becoming victims of the recession. If you'd like to get an invite to become a member read the blog post and/or visit the Flickr group.
  
• Richard McKinley (Pastel Pointers) wrote about Preparing the Pastel Stick

Tips and techniques

• Robert Genn wrote about Asking Your Opinion. Nearly everybody asked to comment on his painting - and 3,000 replied - came up with something a bit different. Bravo Robert for putting that first contribution up (Mike Vandy is a student - wouldn't you know it! ). Personally I thought there was a clue in the title in terms of the best way of talking to somebody about the scope for improvement. In a workshop situation I hope I'd always remember to ask the artist what they thought first!
• Vivien Blackburn (Paintings, Prints and Stuff) has highlighted the scope to Make a font from your own handwriting

Websites and blogging

• I write my draft blog posts in Google documents . Did you know about the Google Docs Help Forum - no, nor did I!
• James Gurney (Gurney Journey ) also gets some help with his blogging from outside sources - see Behind the Scenes at Gurney Journey! :)
  
• Darren Rowse (Problogger) a leading commercial blogger is writing a series about Next level Blogging - here are links to early posts in the series

• Building Upon Your Strengths
• Converting First Time Readers to Loyal Readers
• Keeping Fresh Content Flowing
• Growing Traffic to the Next Level With Search Engine Optimization
• Building Community a sense of Community on Your Blog
• There's an excellent article by Neilsen about the reuse of material you've written - Write for Reuse .
  
• Dan at Empty Easel has an excellent article about Why ALL Online Artists and Art Bloggers Should Use Google Analytics
• There have been warnings about Facebook users suffer viral surge
• Blogging etiquette gets personal - debate is raging on some sites about whether to apply professional codes of conduct to non-work blogs
• For anybody concerned about posting photos on Flickr, the Photographers Rights Flickr Group has a protocol for identified infringements of copyright
• Statcounter has a new global stats tool

and finally.......

Last weekend the Morph flashmob honoured Tony Hart through a gathering of tiny plasticene figures on the Bankside. The video will revive a few childhood memories.