Keeping You Informed

May 14th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

Hello Art Palaver Reader,

As you may have noticed the posts have slowed down a bit as of late. It is about time I told you about that. I’ve been working hard under the hood of Art Palaver and also ZAF622. It is taking more time and effort than I expected. I hope in the end though both endeavors are better.

First let us talk about Art Palaver. Art Palaver grew out of my ZAF622 Project which is a webzine dedicated to the artists and art of Fort Collins Colorado. And I have kept the primary focus of Art Palaver on Fort Collins and art close to home. Based on my audience I have decided to change the focus of Art Palaver.

This blog will no longer be focused solely on Fort Collins Colorado. Art Palaver will now be taking aim at what it means to be an artist living in the 21st Century. How does an artist do what they do living in the Internet Age? How does new technology and social trends effect artists? How can artists use these new tools for self promotion and career growth? How can artists connect and learn from other artists these days? Questions like these will be asked from here on out in the posts of Art Palaver.

My goal is in the very title of this blog. I want to have a discussion about art. I want to build a community of artists around this site. I want to connect people. I want to help artists. That is the bottom line.

But I am not abandoning my beloved Fort Collins. ZAF622 will be the place that I continue my focus on the art in the community I live in. That site is undergoing a complete rebuild as well. The mission for ZAF622 is the same though, to meet artists and tell their story.

Thank you everyone who has supported Art Palaver and ZAF622. It is very much appreciated. And very much needed.

I’ll see you in the future,

Posted in Art on the Web | No Comments »

The Modern Day Artist Living In The Modern Day World

May 9th, 2008 admin

Editors note: This is a guest post from Meilena Hauslendale Founder of Silence Speaks for Artists & Authors.

An artist in today’s world faces a variety of challenges that may or may not have been present before. Our goals have changed, our desires to share our imagery and visualization have taken on a whole new set of guidelines and rules. After all, artists have become just as divided as religions with the many facets they are labeled with. When it comes down to it though, we all bleed red, despite the medium we choose to use, and starving or not, we need to create art and make a living simultaneously.

Granted we have programs in place now that allow us to support a livelihood and our desire to create art, but not every artist will be a part of this luxury. It can almost be a full time job just seeking funding, art supplies, applying to residencies, and publishers. The reality is, we don’t have time to go work our day jobs, pay the bills, do art, and seek a valid presence in the art world, but by all means we do make such attempts.

No longer is an artist required to carry their portfolio around to every gallery they can reach locally. With the glory of the internet, land is no longer a boundary. We no longer need to open up a brick and mortar gallery as we have these things called virtual galleries that allows the entire world to visit our domain, browse our collections, and purchase our art. No more heavy commissions that have to be mustered from our already sunken in pockets. No more gallery rental fees have to be paid. For now we have web hosting and the freedom of a 24 hours a day gallery that shows 365 days a year.

With this new found freedom, we are given new responsibilities and challenges. Now that we have alleviated our local gallery owners from creating postcards of our art and sending out invites to their mailing lists, we have also taken on another hat of being an artist. For now, we are marketing representatives seeking a market for our work that is nestled in our homes or hanging in a frame somewhere. No longer are we just creators. Now we are marketers, customer service representatives, and for some of us even web designers. We will be in charge of press, in charge of our production, and in charge of our creating even better new pieces of work.

Some of us will pay an institution for this heavy title ‘artist’ and others will acquire this gift at birth and seek no educational facility to disprove our talent. Regardless our goal is to be an ‘artist’ full-time, however due to modern day inconveniences such as rent, gas prices, food, and other amenities, we still have to keep our day job. In fact we may have several day jobs that have nothing to do with being an artist, but everything to do with supporting ourselves and even family.

We await for the day when we can gain gallery representation, or our print editions become sought after by collectors all over the world. We await the day when we can hit the snooze button on our alarm clocks, put on our comfy clothes and get out of bed only to greet a fresh canvas calling for our visions. For we want nothing more than to be that which we love… an artist.

Meilena Hauslendale

Founder of Silence Speaks for Artists & Authors, http://silencespeaks.com

Inspirational Artist, http://www.meilena.com

Posted in The Process | No Comments »

Art Palaver Did Not Win A Webby

May 7th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, the Webbys are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities.

The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category — The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award — in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. However, you, the online community, determine the winners of The People’s Voice by voting for the nominated work that you believe to be the best in each category. Each year, the People’s Voice Awards garners hundreds of thousands of votes from the Web community all over the world.

The Webby awards are like the Academy Awards for the internet. They have been around for 12 years now, which is ancient in the life of the internet. There are nearly 70 categories. Including Art, Automotive, Bill Paying, Politics, Podcasts, Radio, and even Personal Websites just to name a few. The sites that win theses awards should be the best of the internet. Let’s take a look at some.

That is just a small sample. The rest can be found here. What do you think artists? Is your web site worthy of a Webby? Is it a worthy goal? If your interested in marketing yourself via the internet I think it is a worthy goal. All the sites that are Webby Nominees are good places to go when researching what people look for in a website. What features and content get people to visit your website and more importantly what gets them coming back for more?

Maybe next season Art Palaver can find itself being nominated for a Webby. If that is to be the case I have a lot of work do and a tough journey ahead of me. Want to join me?

Live to Create,

Posted in Art on the Web | 1 Comment »

Planning Culture In Fort Collins

May 6th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

The City of Fort Collins Cultural Services has released a “Cultural Plan.” A 30 page document stating what they hope to do in Fort Collins.

This is the vision statement:

To identify Fort Collins as a uniquely creative community and destination for the arts, culture, and science that enriches the lives of our citizens and visitors, and serves as an economic engine.

The plan lists 6 goals it has in order to make that vision real:

1. Employ arts, culture, and participatory science to strengthen the Fort Collins’ economy, increase tourism, and improve quality of life.

2. Develop the right mix of cultural facilities to meet the needs of the community and to make Fort Collins a destination attraction.

3. Develop and fund an Arts Council to promote and support the business of the arts.

4. Build Fort Collins’ identity as a cultural center and destination by increasing the visibility of the arts, culture, and science activities in Fort Collins.

5. Develop sustainable funding, public and private, to support arts, culture, and science programs.

6. Ensure availability of arts education programing to our youth through future community arts centers, collaborations between schools and arts groups, training and resources for teachers, and funding.

That is the bare bones of the 30 pages. I spent some time looking online for a PDF version but failed to find one. Nor did I find any information on the Fort Collins Cultural Services. The document itself does not list any contact information either. So I am not sure where to go if you want to get your hands on this document or if you want to give feedback.

If I find out I’ll be sure to pass it on.

www.zaf622.com

Posted in Fort Collins | 1 Comment »

A Candidate That Inspires Creativity

May 2nd, 2008 Daryle Dickens

I’ve heard it said that Hillary is a PC and Obama is a Mac. And it does seem that the creative community has embraced Obama. Doing a Google search for "Obama art" yields about 2,380,000 results. Doing a Google search for "Hillary art" and Google asks you if you meant "hillaryart." Crude research for sure but it shows what is happening out there.

And to be fair I did a search for "McCain art." That yielded zero results relating to anything artistic in the realm of the candidate McCain. Near the top of the results page was a story though about how he voted for the Helms Amendment. Some of you may remember that one. It limits government funding to art that is deemed offensive.

So is Obama the artists choice? Or just the internet artist choice?

What do you think?

On that note I’ll leave you with this fun little video:

Have a good weekend,

www.zaf622.com

Posted in Art on the Web | No Comments »

May 1st Is RSS Awareness Day

May 1st, 2008 Daryle Dickens

At least according to RSSday.org. And I think it is a worthy cause. RSS is a great tool that can help you manage all that information out there. Google Reader is my preferred way to manage my RSS feeds.

Do you RSS?

Posted in Art on the Web | No Comments »

Links Links And More Links

May 1st, 2008 Daryle Dickens

1. Can you carve within the lines?

2. Creepy creepy creepy.

3. What’s old is new again.

4. A perfect fold every time.

5. A place you will never find the work of Darren Mahuron. (His stuff is here.)

Can’t forget about number…

6. Who ever wants to sit down and argue about this list I’ll buy the beer. (I can start it off by saying #6 should be #1.)

Posted in Art | No Comments »

WATER | A Photo Essay By Laura Brent

April 30th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

Received this post card in the mail the other day:

So I had to check out her website at www.laurabrent.com. And it looks like Laura has been working hard. Her site has plenty of work to explore. I really like the stuff she has under her “current project” page.

But the best part will be checking out her studio this Friday at Fort Collins MOCA. Yes, it is First Friday already. Where did April go?

Hope to see you out there,

www.zaf622.com

Posted in Event, Fort Collins | No Comments »

Orphan Works Bill: Is The Sky Really Falling?

April 29th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

The visual arts community is currently buzzing about the Orphan Works Bill that was brought before the House by Rep. Howard Berman [D-CA] and the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT]. If you have not heard you may be wondering what "Orphan Works" are. The U.S. Copyright office states that orphaned works are copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate.

Basically this law would allow use of those orphaned works if the owner can not be identified or found after certain search requirements are met. Researching this you will find polar opinions from the idea that without a copyright lawyer retained you will not have any protection to the notion that the bill will not even pass.

I lean toward the latter. It is not just an election year, it is a Presidential election year. A bill relating to the arts is not going to get enough attention to be addressed and voted on. I know that does not mean it will go away forever but it will take steam out of it. (This is not the first time it has been introduced.) But if by chance one day the bill does pass and become law it will be in the hands of the courts as to how much power the law gives those that choose to use works they deem orphaned.

Want to keep an eye on the bills? You can track the House bill here. And the Senate bill here.

To me the real question is why is Congress spending their time on this? I would imagine there are human orphans that could use this kind of attention.

That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong,

www.zaf622.com

Posted in Art History | No Comments »

Art Benefit Show For Alzheimer’s Association At Roundhouse Gallery

April 28th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

Palette Show& Silent Auction

A benefit show for the Alzheimer’s Association

Roundhouse Gallery will have on display 30 original art palettes created and donated for the silent auction by local professional artists. 100% of the proceeds from the silent auction will go to the Alzheimer’s Association. This show is in conjunction with Memories in the Making® Art Auction, Thursday, June 5, 2008 from 6:30 pm at Dan Ostermiller Studio, Emcee Mike Hooker.

May 2nd – May 30th

Come join us for a special opening
May 2nd from 5:00pm  – 9:00pm

www.RoundhouseArtGallery.com

(970) 689-3290

116 North College Ave., Suite 3,
Fort Collins, CO 80524

Three doors north
of Beau Jo’s, upstairs.

Posted in Event | No Comments »