The Art I Choke, on blogging

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a blog is “a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.”

By definition blogs are “online personal journal[s]” with no said requirements or regulations but with the specific distinction of being “online” and therefore public which I believe requires a few basic observances. I believe a successful blog should be written grammatically correct, call me an idealist but I think it is important. I also believe that of all the Top Blog lists I looked at, all of the noted blogs had focused initiatives. The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ centers itself on politics in current events according to editor-in-chief, Arianna Huffington. The Pioneer Woman http://thepioneerwoman.com/ is the personal journal of Ree Drummond’s journey from life in the fast lane of corporate America to life on a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere. The aims of the two blogs aforementioned are diametrically opposed in content but I think they are both successful and popular because of their professional approach to communicating their personal journals to the world; they are both listed in TIME’s 25 Best Blogs 2009 http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1879276,00.html.

I had the week off from class so I decided to start an oil painting and do it right. Usually I do not have enough time to do a technically correct and formally sound piece in oil paint. Oil paint takes a considerable amount of time to dry, especially in Florida, so lately I have been painting in acrylic because it dries quickly and only requires water for a medium. How does this relate to blogging? Well, I think that while blogging is a public forum as is art, there are certain skills and processes that produce better art whether it be writing or painting.

I build my canvas from the bare bones up. I start with stretcher bar frames and a hammer. I push the four bars together and then have to hammer them out until they pass the 90 degree angle test in all four corners. I leave this process with blood on my hands every time, who says art isn’t a full body sport?  This is hard. It is strictly a technical process. I liken this to the forum that a person chooses to post their personal journal, i.e. Blogger, WordPress. And within forum the blogger chooses a layout for their blog and then you have your blank canvas. I could go on and on here about the type of fabric I stretch for my canvas and priming but it all amounts to the same thing which is that it matters what is underneath the art that you are featuring. I have looked at hundreds of blogs as I have been conducting research and I cannot tell you how quickly I am turned off when the layout of a blog is outdated and ugly. The parallel to canvas may not seem to work here but if you know canvas, you know that the longevity of your work rests solely in the technical hands of that piece of fabric.

The next step is to choose content. What do I want to paint? I was at the GreenWise Publix in Tampa and I walked into the produce section and there before me was a mountain of artichokes, in all their layered splendor. Something about them mesmerized me, so after examining several, I fell ardently in love with a fat and stumpy artichoke and chose to give him a partner.

I put my hands on them, I pricked my finger on the sharp points of the leaves, I lifted the leaves and looked inside, I looked at their colors in different lighting, and I smelled them. I believe that there is a certain amount of study that should go into blogging. It is a good practice to know what you’re talking about, get involved with it. Engage all of your senses so that you can accurately portray whatever experience you are relating to your readers. I believe that lack of research, whatever the content, produces mediocre and forgettable art. If you don’t care about your art, why should anyone else care?

I love these little guys.

When I paint in oil I always do an acrylic under-layer which soaks the thirsty canvas so that the oil paint colors are true and vibrant. I mix a medium called impasto with acrylic paint to form a thick textured surface. I create loose figures with my textured medium and start to create a representation of my content. I like to think of this under-layer of texture  as the thesis. What is it? What is the artist representing? What is the artist saying about what they are representing? A good blog post should most definitely have a thesis, an under-layer that pervades the entire post and points the reader to the importance of the content.

enter smell of rubbing alcohol, canola oil, and paint = Winsor & Newton liquin and oil colour

Finally, I reach the color stage. I crack open my tubes of paint and my windows so I don’t pass out. Oil painting is just about the most visceral experience I can think of. Somehow I always manage to get it on my skin. This is home for me; it is warm and free, and time-dissolvingly fun! Most of the time I feel like a crazy person because I don’t know what to do with myself but here I know what to do, I know color, I feel it. Here is where every class I’ve taken and every sketch I ripped out of my book and crumpled up, every painting I’ve ever completed, everything I’ve done to develop artistic skill, comes together to contribute to the work at hand. Skill really does matter! I didn’t always know that you add red to green in order to create an intensity of green. Good writing requires skill. A blog shows the skill of the writer. One time I read an article about jeans that was so well written I found myself carrying it around and reading it to innocent bystanders. The way in which a blogger articulates his or her ideas colors their blog and on the other end I think it is obvious to the reader who has skill and who doesn’t.

Lastly, I believe in editing. After I cover my entire surface with oil paint I literally leave the studio for a few hours and then I return and I sit across the room from the painting. I look at it in the dim light and then in bright light. I take a photograph of it. I draw out revisions.  It is almost immediately obvious to me when a blogger has refused to edit his or her post. Honestly, I just stop reading when there are enough errors that I am distracted and frustrated from what the post is about.

At the end of the day I think a blog is a wonderful forum to release art into the world but it is a public forum and therefore does require some semblance of professionalism. Blogs absolutely have the personal stamp of their writers and are most successful when they reveal that person through a creative visual framework, focused content, research, theses in posts, literacy, and close editing.