WRITINGS
Gabe Sheen "Artistic Choices in Photography" 14th Feb´11
Lori McNee "Top 3 Ways Social Media Will Help Your Art Career" 27th Oct´10
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Online Gallery Amalia´s
Columns and chatty articles concerning art
and from the side of it.
Artistic Choices in Photography
by Gabe Sheen
As a fine art photographer, I have pursued establishing my own art style by experimenting with many artistic choices in photography. My work, Last Summer of Wrath (2009), which was exhibited in a group show at the Gallery Amalia last year, is a good example of these experiments. I made a lens assembly myself by cutting plastic lenses and putting them together with a flexible tube. This homemade lens provided exaggerated blurriness around sweet spots (clearly focused areas) and made the images distorted and painterly. Until I obtained some satisfactory images, however, I had to struggle with the handcrafting over and over again. By taking pictures through the homemade lens, I could successfully transform the objects into the exact representations of my burning emotions in the hot summer days.
Gabe Sheen - Last Summer of Wrath (2009)
In his book, “The Origin of the Work of Art (1960),“ Martin Heidegger (1889~1976) stated that art has two realms, “world” and “earth,” which inherently conflict with one another. Unlike many other manmade things, art holds its own small “world” of human history and culture that artists intend to create. He argued, however, that the “earth,” which roughly refers to objects and materials used in art, tends to resist changing into a new “world” in an artwork. Therefore, to express their intentions satisfactorily, artists should consider how to balance the “world” and “earth” in their own arts. In this regard, I think that an established style of an individual artist can be redefined as a crossroad of the two conflicting essences of art. For example, Jackson Pollock (1912~1956) could find the crossroad where his “world” and “earth” meet by dripping paints on unstretched canvas. This practice, so-called Action Painting, became his established style of abstract art. In the history of art, some crossroads formed influential art movements in which many artists got involved. Minimalism, represented by the well-known phrase, “Less is more,” seeks for ways to minimize the strife between the “world” and “earth” in order to maximize messages. The conflict is essential in art; agreeing with this idea of Heidegger, I think that the levels of the conflicts must be artists’ own crossroads as their artistic choices.
In the beginning of the history of photography, people believed that unlike other genres of art, photographic images were determined more by the equipment and chemical process, and less by human touch. For a long time, this belief prevented photography from being regarded as one possible art form. People thought that photography had fundamental limitations of artistic expression due to its machine nature. It seemed that the notable thingness of photographic equipment and process triumphed over the possibility of a new kind of visual art. To overcome this common prejudice, many master photographers, including Alfred Stieglitz (1864~1946) and the photo-secessionists, dedicated their lifelong efforts to make photography recognized as a fine art. Instead of ignoring its earthy aspect, they attempted to broaden the artistic choices of photography by manipulating and developing the photosensitive imaging processes.
In fact, one major stream throughout the 150 years of photographic history has been to provide more creative and flexible tools for photographers, so that they are able to have a variety of artistic choices. Photographic equipment has been developed from the fixed pinhole obscura with primitive film to multifunctional cameras with digital image sensors. The materials and processes also have been diversified into numerously different mediums from traditional darkrooms to digital printing labs. Particularly in fine art photography, both traditional and modern processes still coexist. Moreover, like my experience, sometimes artists experiment with making equipment and process themselves to find their own unique styles of art. Although my homemade lens worked well for the particular work, it does not mean that I have found an ultimate style of my visual art. For artists including me, I think that establishing their own styles of artwork is a long-term journey, maybe lifetime effort, as is the journey of defining identity throughout one’s life.
-Gabe Sheen-
All rights reserved © 2011, Gabe Sheen
San Francisco, California, The United States of America
Homepages of Gabe Sheen: www.gabrielstudio.com
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Top 3 Ways Social Media Will Help Your Art Career
Social media is not just for big business. In fact, social media is the perfect marketing tool for small businesses especially artists. Thousands of artists are competing for the same successes that you are. ‘Artists’ dominate a large niche on Twitter and Facebook.
Many artists are learning the benefits of social media. Now you can use social media to market yourself and stand out from the crowd.
My favorite social media sites for artists are Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
Below are the top 3 ways social media will help your art career.
Brand Recognition:
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Social media is the quickest way to build brand recognition for you and your art career.
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Having a strong brand identity sets you apart from the others.
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A strong brand creates trust with your clients.
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You might want to Learn how to build your brand on Twitter.
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YouTube is a great way to create brand identity.
Networking:
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An art career is a solitary occupation. But, with social media, you are not alone!
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Social media will instantly connect you with other artists.
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Connect with galleries and potential customers.
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Ask a question and quickly get feedback within your own art genre.
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Connect with other art bloggers.
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Get instant feedback on your latest painting or blog post.
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Gain inspiration and learn from others.
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Keeps your finger on the pulse.
Free Marketing:
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Most social media sites including Twitter, Facebook and Youtube are free.
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Use social media to drive traffic to your website or blog.
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Use video marketing to target your niche, for product reviews, demonstrations and interviews.
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Upload images, video, links to your galleries and press releases via social media.
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Most consumers feel a stronger connection with a company or product when they can interact via social media.
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Social media is the place to build relationships and relationships lead to sales.
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Consumers are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media.
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Social media reaches beyond our boarders.
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Learn and follow the trends of your country and the rest of the world!
I have personally proven the benefits of social media within my own art career and over the last 1 ˝ years, I have even become one of the most influential artists on Twitter! I have made great connections, including Galleria Amalia from Finland.
Remember art is not just about creating; art is also about sharing. That is, sharing your art with a larger audience – and social media is all about the sharing.
-Lori McNee-
Lori McNee is a professional, internationally recognized working artist and blogger at her blog, finearttips.com. You can view her paintings at lorimcnee.com and follow her on Twitter @lorimcneeartist and on Facebook.
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Welcome!
This is Online Gallery Amalia´s brand new Column. We are going to draw interesting
persons to write about topical questions and things with a matter of weight for them.
Passionate feelings or freezing realities. Atmospheres from near and far.
Themes are free and can be words from art or art of words.
We are very glad if you offer columns, chatty articles, poems... for publishing in this page.
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Long and hot summer start to give up for colors of autumn. Glowing bronze in darkening evenings with high humidity.
Stars on the sky and screaming of lonely bird above the lake. Autumn have its own gloomy attraction.
-Amalia-
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