Notes to Self

I’ve been looking for a way to get more activity happening in The ArtStudio, the online learning center on artist-at-large.com. Here is what I wrote in the forums under the topic What’s This All About?:

I don’t know what art school is teaching these days. I haven’t been in quite awhile. But when I went to art school, and I went twice, once to a two year art school and once to university, we never had discussions going on about two things:

Supporting yourself as an artist and the business of art.

And giving back to your art community.

As a matter of fact, it seemed that the underlying theme of my art schools was all about feeding a student’s ego, being above supporting myself, and taking everything I could from the community. It stood without saying that just being an artist was giving back enough.

So I stood and basked in my glow of recognition of what I was and wondered why no one hopped on board. I spent many years self-analyzing and came to the conclusion that it’s all about karma. And not really in the spiritual sense of the word, but rather in the scientific sense of the Law of Cause and Effect. Karma works in the world of art just like it does in all other worlds of various subjects that we divide our lives into. To get anything in the world of art, I had to be willing to give a little.

So, this is what this little online learning center is about. Sharing what knowledge I have and finding others to share their knowledge as well. I hope the discussion boards fill up with useful information, that users feel free to post about artist-in-residence and grant programs in the Calendar, and that the critiques will be filled with not necessarily positive comments, but true and useful comments.

The ArtStudio is all about continuing our education as artists, sharing the information and knowledge we have, and making ourselves better people and artists in the process.

To participate in The ArtStudio, you have to register and create a small profile. There are free art forums there for the serious artist at any level.

Why do you have to register? Because it creates an enclosed environment much like an art studio. There you can post and discuss work in various phases with other artists, without showing your unfinished work to the world.

Get a Critique: One forum for studio work, one forum for writing. You can post your work and get a critique from fellow artists. This is an ongoing feature which you can use at any time!

Other free forums are SASE for studio work, Photography Studio for all things photo discussion, Book Club for book discussion , and Cafe Generale for art related off-topic discussion. There is also a Gallery where you can post digital photos of your work to share with other members of the board.

You will also find a growing list of Artist-in-Residence programs in the Calendar, as well as Writer and Artist Workshops around the world, all sorted by deadline date!