About This Site
A litle history:
artist-at-large is a tagline that was bestowed upon me by my graphic artist friend Michael Dauss after I had completed a double cross country roadtrip, with my cameras and journal, in my VW bus in 1980. I've used the tagline ever since to describe myself as an artist who travels.
I began to think of it in terms of publishing after working for a few travel guide publishers. I wanted a name for my publishing house that would include both of the categories of art and travel equally. I loved the idea of publishing. What I didn't love was all of the paperwork. When I began working in the industry of the Internet in 1996, I began to think of ways to write and publish without paper.
artist-at-large.com launched on September 4.2000 with a few stories about one of my past trips to Paris. The site design was hideous. The writing was ok and some of it is even still available in the Paris section for reading. The original intent for the site was to exist as a place of inspiration - about the history of place and the storytelling of experiences and the excitement of walking through other cultures through the eyes of an artist. I think more than any group, when an artist travels they know their life and work will be influenced by the people they meet and the cultures they walk through. I'm hoping that through this site, other people will be too.
At first I allowed, and wanted, two things: the definition of an artist to be fairly broad and include just about anybody that was extrememly passionate about their work, although these days I've narrowed it down to visual artists and writers, and, that the site not be American-centric or only about my own experience. Unfortunately I haven't been able to attract the writing from artists who travel from other countries. I thought it would be interesting to hear about how someone from India experiences Paris or someone from Buenos Aries experiences San Francisco. But that's not the way the site has grown, so far anyway ... .
Since the beginning I have wanted to encompass stories of place from the perspective of archaeology, writing, photography, art and food - the things that make life interesting. I am interested in everything cultural, from ancient cave paintings to modern graffiti art to what's for dinner - which will be evident as you explore the site. I think it is important for people to explore cultures other than their own, even if it's through a web site such as this, even if it's only at the ethnic restaurant down the street.
Throughout the last eight years online, I've also wanted to foster online art education and promote artists from around the world. Hence The ArtStudio and The Artist Directory were born.
And now:
artist-at-large.com is a little village in the metaverse and each portion of the site is a stand alone web site in and of itself. It's about travel, art, culture, and learning. Think of artist-at-large.com as the Main Street, and each link on the home page is a separate address on that street. The Artist Directory is a gallery, the ArtStudio is a school, and the different regions are those shops you see in many towns that sepcialize in a location, only instead of selling you an Irish wool sweater handknit by someone's grandmother from Galway, we're giving our stories away.
The stories and information presented on the site are written in a way that are meant to be valuable over a long period of time, like an art or travel magazine or guidebook that you keep by your desk and flip through when you need information, or just want to daydream. The new design will allow for posting of exhibition announcements and cultural events for each region as they come up, rather than bi-monthly as in the old events calendar, as well as the addition of comments on the stories and work presented on the pages.
Many people arrive at this site by entering through a back door, landing on a page or a story that answers a question they were searching for and they don't go on to explore the other sections of the site. Others land on the front page, which is only a portal to the various different sections of the site, and get confused, not quite sure what the whole thing is about. My hope is, if you are one of those people, that you just pick a link and click it, and explore a culture with eyes open.
Kimberly Kradel
Publisher. Artist. Writer. Photographer.
artist-at-large.com
June 15.2008
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Why should we own a warehouse stocked full of our favorite art and travel related book and gear recommendations when amazon.com already provides that service quite well?
No one can price and distribute art supplies better or faster than DickBlick.
There is no reason to invest in expensive photo printing equipment when Shutterfly produces professional quality prints out of the site's photographs.
Travel Services? Kayak,
Travelocity,
Hotwire, and
CheapTickets do it much better than we ever could.
T-Shirts and coffee mug swag? CafePress.com
Phone service? Skype.com VoIP
And in 2009 we're looking forward to producing our first coffee table books by using the environmentally correct method of print-on-demand services of Blurb.com.
The web is a large and intricately linked tangle of businesses and services that, when we put them to good use, enhance the artist-at-large.com experience.
That gives us time and energy to focus on the writing, the inspiration, and helping in the planning of your next project or journey.
And that is how we do business!
Enjoy!
artist-at-large.com is about art, culture and travel. Good for both the trip researcher and armchair traveler, you will find travel stories, travel information, quirky survey questions, photos of the day, and listings for exhibitions and open studios and events in each region on the site. The stories and information presented on the site are written in a way that are meant to be valuable over a long period of time, like an art or travel magazine or guidebook that you keep by your desk and flip through when you need information, or just want to daydream. The site also fosters online art education in its ArtStudio and promotes artists from around the world in The Artist Directory.
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Post: artist-at-large.com P.O. Box 191473 San Francisco California USA 94119 VoIP: skype : kradel email: kimba AT artist-at-large DOT com Best Contact Method: email | Please direct all travel questions to the appropriate post comments area in each region. This is an environmentally green site hosted by DreamHost. Click Here to get one of your own! Use promo code KIMBA to get $50 off on a one-year sign up.