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...feed your soul with art & creativity!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Favorite Assemblage...and of course, glass

I haven't had time or the luxury lately of getting to any art galleries or museums.  Today I got a great bonus of time after a meeting and went to the Orlando Museum of Art.  Even having just a few minutes to spend admiring other's artworks refreshes and inspires me.

I have some favorites in their existing installation.  Tops on the list is Nick Cave's  "Soundsuit" assemblage vying with Dale Chihuly's glass tower.


Dale Chihuly's "Cobalt and Citrine Tower" at the Orlando Museum of Art
Maya Lin's exhibit, "A History of Water" was a fascinating reminder that we live on one planet.  To be able to walk beneath the visual representation of ocean waves and see the undulation of water depicted through wood blocks was breathtaking.

Friday, March 6, 2015

ETSY going public, will artisans stick?

It's beginning to become painfully clear why last week ETSY.com, the "artists market," suddenly and without any warning to its 30+ Million members made broad stroke changes to the Categories used by sellers.  Many sellers items now have a highly generic category locale and other have none at all.  This unforeseen sweeping change had the effect of taking a baseball bat to a wasps nest.

Though we Etsians (as we often call ourselves) use ETSY.com as our venue to sell artworks, crafts, supplies and vintage items, we consider ourselves the "owners" of our stores.  To know that changes like this are done in what appears a clandestine manner after having put so much work into taking time to list each item may see a mass exodus of members.

A sign at Etsy's Brooklyn office in 2007 encapsulated the company's ambitious goal: Take down big-box retailers by selling handmade goods. Now Etsy, which in 2012 began allowing some mass-produced goods on its e-commerce site, is filing for an IPO, and trying to maintain its values as it expands.Now today, the news reports that ETSY has filed IPO paperwork and is going public.  Ughn.  As an artist, I just have a gut instinct (and I tend to trust my gut instincts when it comes to my artwork) that this will not benefit me as an artist and in fact will probably, if I stay a member, cost me.  I would LIKE to look at it as a good thing that will bring more buyers to the venue, but my gut tells me that large manufacturers and people mass producing, not hand crafting, will be getting the lions share of the business on my and other artists' backs as we continue to "finance" them by giving them a market place filled with amazing items.

Over the years, it has gotten more and more difficult and required more and more time and effort to get items seen without having to actually spend advertising dollars on "featured ads."  Time will tell, but it will be something I personally as an Etsian will watch very closely.  In the meantime, I will not be surprised by the many artists who jump ship in coming months.

Is ETSY going Artsy unfriendly??  *sigh*  Time to find other venues.