ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [29 March 2008]

Hello! I've just set up my own, (mostly) hand-coded blog - artyblogger.com. I've reproduced the first post here and I hope to reflect on the blog-making process in this project (a mirror-blog, perhaps?)...

 At the moment it's pretty messy and flung together, but I'll sort out the design and start really thinking about what this baby could do...

First Post: 29/03/08

So... I learned some HTML & CSS, in order to set up an electronic portfolio of art-writing, kind of an online CV. Then I started wondering about using the web to connect with other artists and writers. White Hot Contemporary is already creating a global network of writers making intelligent critical contributions and [a-n]'s new-ish Artists Talking section is full of artist's blogs and commissioned artist's stories, providing an ace free interface.

And if you do a Google search for 'artblog' you get a score of sites from quirky blogspot blogger Bill Gusky (today's post features cardboard stop-motion animation!) to Philadelphia artist-run gallery Fallon&Rosof, promoting their pick of the East Coast shows. Even the Guardian newspaper has its own slick art and architecture blog, complete with slightly misthemed Dulux (paint) ads.

Blogging is almost compulsary these days for mainstream magazines and newspapers... Artforum's diary is set up like a super glam blog haunting the coolest international events, with 'talkback' as a snappier title for comments. The Guardian's blog covers exhibitions, interviews, lectures and issues in contemporary to ancient art - currently reporter Charlotte Higgins is questioning the art world's political neutrality and there is lively debate over the Elgin Marbles.

The scope of a blog is perhaps only limited by resources - number of writers, time, travel opportunities, information, technology - but with so many blogs running on minimum resources, then the motivating factor has got to be ideas. The desire to share and connect, to invite interaction and support, to be different, to keep creating, to acknowledge critical issues and the practical problems of artistic life and keep on it, to look at things from odd angles, to write more concisely and more beautifully... an art blog might be a fun (and serious) way to do some of these things.

Becky Hunter, Artyblogger.