Making A Mark Nominations: Learning about Art & the Art Business

You are invited to nominate artists and their art blogs for awards which promote learning about art and being a successful artist.
Instructions on how to nominate for these and other awards are set out at the end of this post.

This is the area which focuses on our personal development - whether that's via:

• regular posts on a blog wholly focused on the development of artists
• a really good series of posts on a particular topic of major relevance to artists
• a new art instruction book
• a new book about the artist and the art business

This is a section of the Making A Mark Awards which is not limited to artists.  To date, people who are not artists have won awards in this section in three of the last four years.

Nominations sought for:

The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal

The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal I value art blogs which share good information about anything relating to art including what they have learned with others.
2006	Justin Clayton (Daily Paintings) who started doing daily paintings on January 1 2006 and provided an extremely informative set of answers to questions he found he was frequently being asked.
2007	Charley Parker (Lines and Colours) for his series of very comprehensive posts on how NOT to display your art on the web
2008	James Gurney (Gurney Journey) James very much deserved this award because of the vast number of posts he has provided during the course of this year (and last) which have been both extremely informative and highly educational.  James is a one-man course in how to draw and paint! People pay fees for workshops from tutors who know much less than James does!
2009	Roz Stendahl (Roz wound up)  Roz is articulate and writes very well and at some length about the topics which interest her. Two of these topics are visual journaling and art materials. Her series on journaling superstitions is a masterpiece! She enjoys experimenting with art materials and paper and her very thorough testing of art materials sets a standard for artists writing reviews on the Internet.

The Make Me Think Gong

The Make Me Think Gong Anybody who makes me think and offers insights which are transferable to the activity and business of being an artist is eligible for this award.
2006	shared by: Alyson Stanfield (ArtBiz Blog)Alyson is focused on the business end of being an artist and her e-mail letter arrives in my inbox every Monday and always gets read as does her blog. Robert Genn (The Painters Keys) Robert Genn's has been twice weekly letter and subsequent clickback for the artist community since 1999.  I've been subscribed to the Painters Keys and reading his letters for a very long time
2007	shared by: Tracy Helgeson (Works by Tracy Helgeson) Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life) They refer to the wider aspects of how we live our lives, difficulties we have to deal with and approaches which seem to produce good results. They speak about both everyday matters and bigger concepts in an everyday way. They often make me step back and think about what I'm doing and how I relate to what they are talking about. In other words they take my perspective out for a spin!
2008	Seth Godin (Seth's Blog). I rarely miss reading one of his posts and very often find that they trigger thoughts about ways in which his thoughts could be applicable to the practice of art and/or marketing within the art economy.
2009	Edward Winkelman (edward_ winkleman) He's a very generous blogger who consistently provides some very useful advice for artists wanting to pursue a career as an artist and/or want to get into a gallery and/or keep being a gallery artist. He also attracts a diverse group of readers which makes his thought-provoking open discussion posts very interesting.

The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon

This award was introduced in 2009 - and I'm anticipating quite a few nominations for this award in 2010.

The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon for the most helpful book written/produced by an art blogger in 2009
2009	Imaginative Realism : How to Paint What Doesn't Exist by James Gurney (Gurney Journey) James' book is going to become a standard and do very well for a very long time. You can read my rave review of it here - Book Review - Imaginative Realism by James Gurney.  This is a book which is highly recommended by me.

As this is still a relatively new award it's probably worth explaining my criteria in a bit more detail. First some straight factual aspects:

• The author MUST be somebody who blogs about art - but they don't have to be an artist.
• book MUST have been published in the previous two years ie after 1st January 2008 in the case of the award for 2009. This is to avoid any bias towards books published in the early part of this year which have had time to build a following.

What I'm looking for is the book which does NOT follow the conventional recipe used of late for a lot of art books produced by traditional publishers.  (see links ate end) I'm certainly not the only one who is feeling very jaded by seeing art books in the shops which are both lean on content and padded out with the perennial sections on art materials and colour wheels at the beginning.

A "blue ribbon book" will have a structure, content and design which speaks of the passion and priorities of the artist blogger who has written it (ie "identikit books" will NOT win this award!). Given the ease with which artists authors can now pursue a self-publishing venture, the blue ribbon book may also have been produced and marketed by the artist blogger. However published, it emphatically MUST add value as opposed to being more of the 'same old, same old'. or just nice to look at.

So you'd like to nominate...........

Although I already have some blogs in mind as contenders for these awards I'm very interested to hear what you all think too.

What you need to do - it's very simple!

• WHICH AWARD: 
• Identify the title of the Making A Mark Award that you want your nominee to be considered for (this is very important!)
• Leave a comment on the post on this blog inviting nominations for that award - BEFORE 24th December
• WHICH BLOG:  Identify
• the name of the blog, its URL (eg "The Art Blog" http://theartblog.blogspot.com) and
• the name of the blogger
• WHY:  Say WHY you think this blog should be considered for a Making A Mark Award.

After a couple of nominations I want to clarify what I mean by art blog.  Only artists who have a "proper" blog which has all the normal characteristics of an art blog and has passed the three month test (ie still blogging on a regular basis after three months) will be considered for these awards.  The reason is that these awards are about excellence in the art of art blogging and you can't establish that with a few posts.  This award is also not a free passport to a link for a new blog.

That's it!  Simple!

I'll collate all the ELIGIBLE nominations and comments in relation to each award and consider alongside those blogs which I have in mind as being worthy of consideration.

The Making A Mark Awards will be announced on the 29th and 30th December.
See my Making A Mark website for a list of ALL the previous award winners and an outline of the reasons why they won

Tomorrow is the last post in this series of posts inviting nominations for the Making A Mark awards. Many thanks to all those who have already nominated for the awards already identified - it's getting VERY interesting!

You can take a look at these by clicking any of the links below.

Links: The Making A Mark Awards 2010 for blogging about art

• NOMINATE ART BLOGS & ARTISTS for the Best Artwork 2010
• The Best Portrait/Figures 2010
• The Best Place/Landscape 2010
• The Best Still Life 2010
• NEW!!! The Best Nature 2010
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: Generating Art
• The Painting a Day Stickability Shield
• The Best Art Blog Project Virtual Challenge Cup
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: Getting out of the Studio
• The Painting Plein Air Plus Prize
• The Travels with a Sketchbook Trophy
• The Going Greener Gong
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: Learning about art and the art business
• The FAQs and Answers Really Useful Medal
• The Make Me Think Gong
• The Best Book by an Art Blogger Blue Ribbon
• NOMINATE ART BLOGS: on The Home Front
• “The Moose” Award for the best animal in an illustrated blog
• The “Tales from the Frontline” Mention in Despatches / The “Amusing Musings” Trophy
• The Most Gorgeous Mouthwatering (MGM) Studio of the Year

Links: Art Books- series of posts on Making A Mark Janaury 2009

• Art Instruction Books #1: different ways of learning
• Art Books #2 - the economics of publishing
• Your favourite art books - what you like