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Closer Then Ever

Something VERY interesting happened in my community today.  One of the artists was inspired by another.  

An Albanian artist who lives in Greece was inspired by a female artist from the UK.  He uploaded a photo with her portrait amongst abstract colors and lines.  The title was her name and underneath it said "inspired by her work."

The female UK artist was inspired and wrote a lengthy comment on the painting saying how overwhelmed and happy she was.  The other users commented on the page recognized her name and asked if she knew about it and if she had seen it yet.  The artist revealed it was a surprise for her.

This shows how tight knit of a community PIL is amongst the frequent users.  Artists recognize each other's artistic style, name, and identity.  They also are inspired by one another.

After the picture was posted, the female UK artist commented on other users pictures.  With her comment she said something like- have you seen the new picture by Argon (the Albanian artist) yet? Check it out!  It was self promotion and promotion for the other artist as well.

Example:

This picture, Gutterfly by Louise Esterhuyse, has recent comments. The latest was byalison rowen (right) who said:

Louise, I am so excited I just have to tell all my friends. Check out Agron & Raymonds' new portraits...can't quite believe it!!!

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.

Email from Creator

Peter is the sole administrator for PIL who users can contact if they have questions about the site.

He said the site is new, it has been going since last September (2008) and there are currently just over 6,000 people signed up.  The "Artists Online Now" are displayed in the left sidebar of the site.  I have gone on everyday for about the last month and their are always users online.  I would estimate that there are about 5-20 users on at any given time.

No issues have arose regarding users, international issues, or copyright.  However, users are able to block other users from commenting on their works.  Peter said that if a user is upset about being blocked and emails him, (which is extremely rare) they send out this email:

"The reason that you can't leave comments is that this artist has blocked you from commenting on his/her work, for reasons known only to them.  In order for the site to work, the blocking process needs to be available for members and be confidential.  For the sake of this privacy, we can't intervene in this.  However it appears that most blockings come about through language or meaning misunderstandings of comments that are often quite acceptable.  Be assured this  blocking has no negative impact on your membership."

Modes of Control- Pictures

PIL (Paintings I Love) is a website only for original works of art created with artistic mediums.  I wanted to see what kind of filtering the website uses to filter images that do not adhere to PIL's norms.

I uploaded the famous painting "Scream," a photograph I took of a rose, and a digitally altered picture.  All three were taken down without notice, with in 24 hours. 

On the Help portion of the website under images, it states:

"We also reserve the right to remove any images or comments not deemed suitable for the site without prior notice."

Alerting my Community

Since I created a blog, I thought this would be an appropriate time to alert the community that I am conducting my research project on them.  I put in my artist statement (the about me section) the following:

I have a research project due in a week on an online community that I am a part of. The class is based on ethical and legal implications in the digital world. I am doing my research on Paintings I Love. If you wish to see my findings please visit my blog at: 

http://paintingsilove.blogspot.com/ 

Please email me if you have anything you would like to tell me about your experience with PIL! Thanks.

My Community

The community I am studying is Paintings I Love.  Paintingsilove.com is an online community for artists to showcase their hand-created paintings, drawings and prints.

The community is composed of many artists, both amateur and professional, who upload photos of their art work online and others in the community can comment on them and contact the artists.  

The website is based out of Australia and the artists are from around the world.