Other blogs

Here are links to the other blogs I have been using as projects.

http://mydayshistory.tumblr.com/

http://myvirtualwedding.tumblr.com/

http://24hoursofinternetting.tumblr.com/

http://interactiveinternet.tumblr.com/

This is just a little funny.

Success

My blog is the most successful thing about me- if you count success in pageviews. I have a skewed version of success apparently. I'm not sure what it is really. That people like you? That you have a lot of friends? If those are the requirements, I fail. People seem to like my photos, but in art school, I have to do more than photography. I have to do sculpture and drawing. What if I'm not a sculpture? Does that mean I'm unsuccessful? If I don't have a goal, and I don't accomplish that un-goal, then did I really fail?

Grades in school are the ultimate factor depending on success of failure. In grade school, if you get an F then you fail, don't go on to the next grade, continue to fail, don't go to college, work at a fast food restaurant for the rest of you life. If your goal was to accomplish working at Burger King, then did you fail? In the worlds eyes, yes. But what does that really matter? "Don't care about what other people think of you" we're always told. But we do. It's human nature. We can't help but wonder if Sally likes our dress of if Cameron thinks we're smart and pretty.

What is success? What does it matter? Does it mean anything anyway? We have multiple stages in life. If you fail one stage does that mean you automatically fail them all? Who decides if you succeed or fail? Are you letting someone else decide on your future? Do you trust anyone enough to do that?

Do I fail?

Website Project

I did some videos for the class. They are on the website here.

It's ok. I'm an artist now, but it's a very strange place to be.

In my last post I said I didn't feel like an artist. Lately, I have felt like more of an artist than a person.Is a person an artist or an artist a person? This my be the cause of my current migraine.

People that I grew up with have started thinking of me as more of a photographer than as someone they have been friends with since the sixth grade. I've focused on my career more than my actual school work. I have been hired for weddings, done photo shoots, and have had people volunteer to be a model. I am in the process of setting up some shadowing positions for photographers in my home town. I am only in my second year of college, so is this really necessary yet? My twentieth birthday is in a few weeks and what I have asked for is more photo equipment.

Let's talk for a second about audience. Who is my audience? I'm not really sure, actually. My art blog, IntegArt, reached 2,000 pageviews yesterday. I started it in March of this year and in the past few months it has really taken off. I post new projects or themes on it weekly and then post the link to Facebook. I know my mother cannot have been all 2,000 views. So who is looking at my art? One of the referring sites that has popped up is a website that is very exclusive and the link is posted in the "private boards" of the site. Not having been a "good member" of the site, I cannot view those boards, so I have no idea who posted the link and what kind of people have clicked on it. It bothers me some, but I have no shame in my art and I know it is appropriate for anyone to see.

Why is my art gaining popularity? I'm just a kid with a camera, and not even a really nice one at that. Ever since I started, my parents have told me that I have a gift, but what makes me different from everyone else? I've done this for about seven years now, but I haven't had any formal photo training. Based on the evidence, I should be a nobody, but according to the numbers, people like my art.

So. What now?

A few thoughts for today...

I'm not an artist.

I don't feel like it anyway. I've always wanted to be an artist. I'm finally here, so what's wrong?

I don't paint. I can't really draw. My art vocabulary extends to words that I can count on one hand.I take pictures. What am I doing here? What do I want to do? I have so many questions.

What counts as an artist? Are musicians performance/sound artists? Can you paint with words? What about writers who provide such imagery that may be more powerful than any visual representation could ever be? Most of all: What is the point?


Art is only for art people. Everyone can look at it, but how many people actually care? Art people. Let's do a little experiment. What do you see?

This is Georgie O'Keefe's Ram's Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills. 


Normal Person: I see a skull. With a flower. And some sky. Pretty cool. 
Art Person: I see fallopian tubes. A female reproductive painting. This work is all about femininity and embracing the power of woman.


Art has messed me up.

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This is practice

The Plan

I have a lot of ideas that I am working through to do for this class. Today, however, I was made aware that they will not be enough. The bar has been raised.

I suppose that my different ideas should be made public, but I'm not quite ready to tell all. But here they are just in as little information as necessary form.

GIF of pregnancy

Mindlessly searching the internet

HTML code for class schedule

Google maps -- important things that happened in my life

Lecrae "Don't waste your life" rap

Aphrodite monologue

And that is all you get.

What do I do?

I find myself reading articles. Lots of articles. The internet is so big of a place with so much to learn from. Sitting and watching .gifs or looking at memes can be fun, but if I do it for an extended amount of time I start to feel numb. I would rather be intellectually challenged instead of just entertained. The articles are more writing than art, but I feel that they are necessary to the internet as a whole. The popularity of top ten lists continues to grow, as they are both informational and entertaining. It may not be an art form, but there is something about the way they are presented, the content, and the conciseness of the short lists (which prove to be enough to engage the reader, but not overwhelm them with information or text). Some of the best websites I have found for these lists include:

Cracked
Top Tenz
Smashing Lists
Listverse

And if you like compilations and themes:
Lists galore!

These may not be art, but they are certainly an important part of internet culture.

Disappointment

So the other day Jayson Musson came to speak to us. Frankly, I was disappointed. His Hennessy Youngman videos are an excellent critique of our art world and they're freakishly funny (although the language does get to me sometimes). His paintings and other art, however, were the things I had issues with. I'm conservative, maybe even old fashioned. I don't like seeing naked people, or illegal activities (such as stealing hundreds of dollars worth of sticker paper). I know, I know, I'm just a little artist and no one cares about me at all. Except my mom. But I'm ok with that. My art is acceptable for both my mother and my grandmother to view without me feeling ashamed.

I guess the way I feel comes from the way I was raised.  I feel like art is for the people, so the people (all included) should be able to see it. Who cares if they don't get it? If a four-year-old walks up to van Gogh's Starry Night, they probably will think it is pretty. Most likely, they will not understand the theology and serenity of the painting because they are old four years old. I ask the question. What is wrong with pretty art?

I suppose my time in art school has only produced bitterness and frustration at the lack of understanding I have from my classmates. So I want to make pretty art. There is more of a market for a picture of a pretty flower than of a photo of a nude person standing in a field with blood dripping from the slit in their throat while their talons are warding off a pack of murderous rabbits. But it's art.

In the name of art, please stop.

Daily Routine

I'll be honest. I'm still trying to figure out this net art stuff. But I'm really working hard at it and actually starting to get it. I figured that a good first blog entry would be my normal internet routine, So here goes.

Wake up.

Facebook
Yahoo! Mail
Weather Forecast
Google Plus
Dear Blank, Please Blank
I Waste So Much Time
Attack of the Cute


At some other point during the day

IntegArt Stats
Hulu
Lists Galore!
Netflix


On a weekly basis

PostSecret
StumbleUpon
Blackboard
IMDb

My basic understanding of the internet contains a lot of kittens, Star Wars, and celebrity gossip. Certainly there is more to the internet than that. With the net artists I have discovered, there is an approachable quality to some but an unreachable quality to others. I find myself thinking a lot, "I don't get it..."