Community Emails

I sent out emails to some of the artists who are active in the community.  I asked them the following questions:

1. How long have you been on Paintingsilove.com?
2. What do you get out of the community?
3. Have you run into any problems on PIL?
4. Have you met anyone from the community in the real world?
5. Do the copyright laws in your country have any effect on your participation in the community?

I sent out emails to 10 artists in different countries and so far I have received three replies from Austria, Germany, and Australia.

The Austrian artist has been a member for 2 weeks and receives great comments with other artists.  He said on day 3 he received an offer from an American gallery.  So business opportunities are available for artists.  They can use the site to gain exposure and promote their work.  He said he is not worried about copyright, "The copyright laws don't have any effect, I am the artist and whenever I want to show my work to the world, it is just my choice!"

The German artist has been on PIL for two months.  He has emailed other artists to engage in artistic discourse.  So people find a community online where they can discuss art with other artists.  He also made contact with a gallery in the US.  He believes that people will be offended if he said his opinion fair and frank.  The terms of service stress that this is a supportive community, so I agree with his statement.  He has not had any problems on the site. 

The Australian artist has been online for a few months.  She thinks it is a great outlet to display her work in a global community.  She recently went to an arts workshop on copyright laws (how convenient!) and she had some good insight:

"I am of the understanding that copy right laws are somewhat global and aus[tralian] laws cans be enforced globally. I also understand the risks involved in displaying artworks online and the possible infringements that could occur, but as an emerging artist see it as a risk I need to take in order to gain the exposure I need to develop my career. I do limit the size and resolution that I upload on the net in an attempt to make uploading my work more difficult, as for someone painting or creating a work that is based on my work... I see this as something that could occur regardless of participating on sites like PIL, and artists who resort to that can be pursued via copyright laws if the infringement is blatant enough I also believe that artist who need to resort to that will have a very limited career."

All of the emails were very positive and they were well wishers in terms of my studies.  I believe this community is a positive environment for artists to meet each other from across the globe.  I want to look into the 'disembodiment' idea in terms of this Web site.