Sunday, March 08, 2009

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.....
Art Blogs

Drawing and Sketching
Pastels and Pencils
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
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
Art business & marketing
Art Collecting

“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. It is about to be exposed as nothing more than the decor of an age of mercantile madness.
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?
Art competitions
Art Exhibitions
‘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.
Art Forums
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
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.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for the comment you made on my blog, Katherine. I was happy to see that you did, indeed, check out Sadie Valeri's blog and mentioned her in today's Who's Made a Mark. I appreciate the good work and amazing effort that so many artists do and enjoy "spreading the news," so to speak, as you do so well.
    I am amazed and so very impressed with the amount and quality of the information you disseminate. How in the world do you have the time and still find time to paint?

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  2. Thanks for the link to changethis, really a good one. Great summary of a strong week on MAM.

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  3. Thanks for the mention for the "Faces of Spring" exhibition!

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