Artsramble Archive January 3, 2007
Finding the Artist Place in Myspace
by Ashlynn Browning @ 5:51 am.Edit This Filed under Review
I am always looking for ways to see art outside my everyday milieu. Living in a city where serious artists and patrons aren’t the most common things, I have to find my own sources of artistic inspiration and camaraderie. I read all the art magazines and get to New York about once a year, but these efforts are unfulfilling on the whole when it comes to really connecting with other artists and feeling like part of a network. Enter Myspace.com. Yes, the aforethought teenybopper friend network site has become my latest passion and source of real juice in the studio.
January 3, 2007
Finding the Artist Place in Myspace
by Ashlynn Browning @ 5:51 am.Edit This Filed under Review
I was a latecomer to the game, but a close pal convinced me to give it a try, if only to add to her self-described paltry friend list. You see in the virtual world of Myspace, much as in the real world, a large friend network is a highly desirable stamp of validation and popularity. You start with your actual friends, but adding strangers and people you haven’t spoken to in years is par for the course. For the first month of being a Myspace member I had 10 actual friends, 6 high school friends, and a handful of cousins. It was a slow start.
To acquire a new Myspace “friend” you send an email request, which the person can either accept or deny. A brave artist I know began requesting “friendship” (Okay, I’m not going to keep putting that in quotes. From here on, we will accept the terms of virtual friendship that Myspace offers) from other artists he found on the site and whose work he admired.
I’ve been following suit every since and to date I have 220 friends, a great majority of whom are amazing artists living across the world in Paris, Denmark, Germany, and England. I simply can’t express how exciting it is to come across these artists, view the work on their page, link to their website, and in short, create a vital community for discussion, inspiration, and career networking. It’s like seeing a hundred great galleries in one day with none of the legwork or snooty assistants.
The artist friends I have met and connected with make art that is fueled by my own interests. There is a niche for everyone of course, but you could say I collect the drawing and mixed media aficionados.
Brian Giniewski
Because drawing and illustrative qualities are experiencing an art world resurgence, this trend is definitely reflected, much to my delight, in the artists’ work that I come across. Posted are pages from sketchbooks, intimate blind contour drawings, expressive scrawls, and all of those paper based things I love so. These artists tend to be between 20 and 35, and run the gamut in career level from college students and self-taughts to professional studio and/or graphic artists. Many, such as Tra Selhtrow, Anthony Lister, and Dave Foldvari have professional careers complete with gallery ads in Art in America and Juxtapoz magazine. The refreshing part is that it is some of the traditional gallery outsiders whose work has been the most intriguing to me: Brian Giniewski, Tau Tau Pesceokete, Adam Stoves, and Johan Theeuwes to name a few.
Dave Foldvari
In the alternate reality of Myspace all of these artists are on an even playing field and friendships come easily. Because everything is peer based, the site has an underground feel to it, far away from the stifling nature of gallery hierarchies and egos. The quality of the work is what garners cool points here, not one’s resume. Like other recent web phenomenon, Napster, Wikipedia, and Youtube, people are proving that they long to participate in and have a hand in creating and shaping a dynamic community that fosters their own particular interests, not those pre-determined by the media or art world authorities.
It is this taking control of one’s pleasure per se that is the real crux of Myspace. The power is in your hands to build your own artist dynasty and no gallery dealer can stop you!
There is bit of protocol however that facilitates the process. Adding comments and images to other artists’ pages opens the friendship and creates a bridge to further communication and artistic dialogue. Posting an image on someone else’s page also serves the dual purpose of getting your own work out there for others to see. The more pages you’re on, the more extensive your exposure, and so the game is played. Some of these connections even venture into real world experience. I have traded small drawings in the mail with Brian Giniewski who I mentioned earlier. He approached me with the idea after having made several successful overseas trades. Genius I thought! What a great way to build a collection of works on paper! Another artist living in England has put out a call for a show he’s curating centered on text based work. I have a feeling that with Myspace, possibilities like this are endless and I’m happily along for the ride.
In a time when the art world is on a high and galleries are bursting with fame and big names, it’s somehow even harder as an artist to feel connected, appreciated, and seen when you’re outside the inner circle. Sometimes you have to take steps to make your own inner circle, and in the most unexpected way, Myspace has helped me do just that.
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2 Responses to “Finding the Artist Place in Myspace”
1. Constance Pappalardo Says:
January 7th, 2007 at 8:35 pm e
Hi Ashlynn,
I am so happy and amazed that you have written this article. I came so close to starting my own MySpace, at the urging of my teens at home but later…. felt too old…. too….something! I don’t know. I cancelled the account and forgot about it.
Thanks to your brilliant article I am ready to go for it again. How can I find you at MySpace?
2. Ashlynn Browning Says:
January 16th, 2007 at 9:13 am e
Hi Constance.
Thanks for your comment. I don’t know about the brilliant part, but I did want to spread the word that myspace is a great tool for networking and for feeling part of a much larger art community than the confines of Raleigh (or any place really.) Once you log-in got to the search option at the top. You can find me under Ashlynn Browning
or just type http://www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomashlynn
directly.