February 14, 2009 (45/365)

One of the things from the internet that I gorge my brain on is other people's art and crafts*. I'll spend hours just soaking in images from artists' blogs and sites that collect and compile the artwork of others. While I find the experience both inspiring and discouraging in unequal measures, it's led me to some conclusions and observation of a need that needs filling.


-For anyone who wants artwork of any kind, be it wall art for their home, garden sculptures, unique t-shirts, or background "wallpaper" for their laptop computer, it's an almost certainty that someone has already created that artwork for them. There are so many artists and so much artwork out there, it's mind-boggling.
-Given this assumption, I find it surprising that those people aren't able to find precisely the artwork they're looking for. It's like looking for a specific pebble on a beach.... while navigating a huge hedge maze. It's there... You know it is... But finding it is nearly impossible, even with the few sites that are available now that gather the work of many artists in one place (etsy, being only one example).
-Given this assumption and this conclusion, it strikes me that there needs to be a single site, akin to Google though not precisely, where all artists would want to show/sell their work. Or perhaps better worded, a site that makes it easy to find the artist/artwork any given person is looking for. (Are you listening, Google?) It seems to me that this can't be accomplished solely through technology. It's going to require the faith and desire of artists. Desire in committing whatever time and effort is going to be necessary to get their work "out there." And faith that this step will help them in the long run and that it wouldn't just allow people to steal their work. (The concept of online "theft" of artwork is an ethereal subject perched on a slippery slop, and a topic for another time.) I'm not entirely sure this process hasn't already begun. When "search engines" first appeared, there were many, fighting it out until only one was the site everyone turned to. There are already a few sites out there for artists and/or their work. Maybe we just have to wait until one wins out over the others.

*"Arts and crafts." I hate that expression, because there isn't a single person in the world for whom it doesn't conjure images of popcicle stick sculptures, elastic loop potholders, and something covered in glitter. The expression caries the impression "amateur" and things that are "not really art."