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John Dempcy - Field Day
John Dempcy - Field Day

John Dempcy's luscious acrylic works really speak to me. I love the use of patterning and circles to create endless variations on a theme but most of all, I love his masterful use of colour - the way the colours bleed into each other, the subtle pale colours he uses as backgrounds, the way he uses colour to change the tempo of a piece. I'm not particularly great with colour*, it's not one of my art skills but I can appreciate it in other people's work. Not being a painter, I look at these works and just have no idea how they're done technically but I love them.

Found on Dear Ada, a blog that I like a lot for its great mix of links.

* I say this but I've discovered over the years that I'm only 'not great with colour' compared to other artists, particularly painters. When I talk to non-artists about how they perceive colour, I usually discover that my colour sense is better than average. It's all relative!

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We Make Money Not Art is a blog that's always worth a look, they have a lot of stuff about the intersection between art, design and new technology. As a keen knitter, I loved this story about a couple of students, Magdalena Kohler and Hanna Wiesener, who hacked a 70's knitting machine so that it turns your voice into a secret binary design on a sweater.

Just say a message into a microphone and the frequency of your voice is analyzed by a computer and turned into binary code that the machine will interpret to control 24 servo-motors which will turn your words into knitted pattern. And hop! You can wear an individual voice message on a sweater. No one will understand the message, it will stay in your head. The pattern doesn't just depend on the words but it varies also according to your modulation, whether you are excited or totally introverted.

Isn't that neat!

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My email is currently very unhappy. If you've tried getting hold of me that way this week, I'm not ignoring you, I just almost certainly haven't received it. I can post out OK but I'm getting very little inbound mail despite knowing that there's plenty mail out there (LJ, WordPress and Flickr comments + tons of stuff from my Yahoo groups). Of course, the damn spam can still get through!

Goodness knows what our stupid email provider is playing at - my resident geekboy is trying to sort it out with them but in the meantime, if you need to get hold of me urgently you can try leaving comments on this post. I'll be checking back here occasionally.

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OK, if you're not already blogging then hopefully I've convinced you with the previous article in the Artists Online Series that it's something you can do. In the next couple of days, I'm also going to be doing a round-up of some of the comments about blogging that other artists have left me. If you're an existing blogger who'd like to be included in that, then leave a comment telling me what you get out of blogging or how it's helped your career.

If you're new to the idea of blogging but roaring to get going already, then you might be wondering where to start. Well, basically you've got two main options - a blog that's part of your website or a stand-alone blog.

Website Blogs

A dedicated blog with an attached website, ideally hosted at a snappy domain name (i.e your name.com or some variation on that theme) is a great option and obviously, the one I'm currently using.

The advantages are that your portfolio, CV and statement are all right there for people to see. Plus you've hopefully got that snappy, easily remembered site name. This can be quite an important issue - after less than three months, I can always remember the name of this site but not the Diary Project blog address, even though the later has been up since the start of the year. I can never remember the full address of my Livejournal blog either and I've had that for nearly four years! Admittedly I have a stinkingly bad memory but it's certainly easier and quicker to say or write yourname.com than yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.wordpress.com.

Being on your own domain also means that you have ultimate control over your content - this may be a big issue if your art is controversial since the free blogging services tend to put limits on what you can publish on them, especially if there's adult content.

The disadvantage is it's not very instant. Unless you already have a website you'll have to do a fair bit of work - even if you pay someone else to design the site you'll still have to sort out all your photos, update your CV and your statement. If you go with designing it yourself you'll have to do all that and the design and coding. Even with the best will in the world, in my experience, it takes months. Even if you do already have a website, designing and inserting a blog into it might involve some reshuffling.

It's not free either, at the very least you'll have to pay for a domain name and hosting and if you're design-impaired like me, you'll need to pay a designer too.

I do think a dedicated website with an inclusive blog is well worth doing. However, if it's going to take you a little while then you might be better to start a free blog now rather than waiting for all your ducks to be in a row (because we all know how that duck thing goes!) Remember, you can always move your blog over to your dedicated website once you've finally got it up and running - people do it all the time.

Stand-alone Blogs

To set up a stand-alone blog, you'll need to sign up with a blog hosting site. Some of these cost but these days there are lots of places where you can blog for free. I'd say the main ones are probably Blogger, WordPress and Livejournal and I have experience with all three of them.

The Diary Project is hosted over at Blogger and I don't have many complaints. It's pretty stable with only the occasional glitch - I know it had big problems with crashing in the past but I've not seen many in my 8 months over there. The software's not too bad, although I have had problems with certain parts like inserting code into the sidebar. The clickthrough rate from people finding me by hitting the 'next blog' button in Blogger also seems to be quite high - I get a surprising number of visitors to the Diary Project that way. If you go with Blogger, make sure you read this article about improving your visitor numbers.

WordPress can be used to run a dedicated domain, including a blog, or you can set up a free blog over on WordPress itself. This whole site is run on WordPress and while I'm not a software expert by any stretch of the imagination, I like their software a lot. It's free, open source, upgraded fairly often, mostly intuitive and easy to use and the help forums seem quite decent although I haven't needed to use them much. Personally I also prefer the WordPress interface to the Blogger one, it seems slicker and plugins definitely work better.

I've had a blog on Livejournal for nearly four years and I love it over there. That said, I wouldn't recommend Livejournal as a place to host your primary blog if your aim is to promote your art career. It's a very enclosed community so it can be hard to reach a wider audience from there, plus Livejournal is not taken seriously by the rest of the blogging community - something to do with 'drama' and 'weirdos' apparently! While I've loved being a member of Livejournal, I've definitely reached far more people here in three months than I did in three years on Livejournal (although to be fair, I wasn't really trying to get a big audience over on LJ). However, Livejournal and similar sites who use the Livejournal code, like InsaneJournal and GreatestJournal, can be fantastic for building communities and I'll be addressing this in later articles on social networking.

You could also check out Tumblr to make a tumblelog, which is a bit like blogging for people who're too lazy to blog! Tumblr describe them thus, "If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks." I've given it a short go and found it a bit like eating junk food - kind of addictive but ultimately unsatisfying. I don't like the aesthetics, which are deliberately basic - to the extent that posts blur into each other far too much for my taste. But that's just my personal opinion, tumblelogs do work for some people and it really depends on your style of blogging and what you're trying to get out of it.

Read the various FAQ over at the blogging sites, do some research and decide which place suits you best.

Decide On Your Focus

Next, take some time to decide why you want to blog and what you want to get out of it. There are lots of different kinds of blogs and reasons for blogging and you may well find it easier to find your writing voice if you're clear in your intent from the beginning. Read my article on the different forms of art blogging if you're still unsure what your approach should be. You can also just dive right in and at some point, you're going to have to do exactly that, but taking some time to set out some goals first can be helpful as long as it doesn't become an excuse not to start (watch out for those damn ducks again!)

Get Educated

OK, so you've chosen your platform and decided on your focus. What next? Well, you should probably read the Wikipedia article on blogs to get an idea of some of the background issues in blogging, particularly defamation and copyright issues. There's a ton of stuff that you can read on blogging - after nearly four years as a blogger, I'm still learning new stuff every day - but that's a good place to start if you're pretty new to the concept.

Choose a Blog Address

Now you need to chose a name and get your blog set up. I'd advise using your professional name in your blog address, where possible. If you've got a common name, someone else might already have nabbed it but it's a good idea to use it if you can, for the following reasons:

  • Even the most addled of us can usually remember and spell our own names, which is useful when you're telling people where you blog!
  • Blogging under your professional name will increase your Google ranking and make it easier for people to find you.

Choose a Blog Title

Now choose a snappy title for your blog. You might want something that relates to your art practice or, if you're like me, something that makes you laugh. Incidentally, my original title for this blog - "Look At Me, I'm Fabulous" - is still up for grabs, feel free to use it if you want!

Your blog name can include your own professional name but it doesn't need to unless your blog address doesn't. This site rates highly in Google searches for my name because although the blog is called Up All Night Again, the actual blog address contains my full professional name. However, over at The Diary Project, my name isn't in the blog address and I had to change the blog title to Kirsty Hall - The Diary Project because it wasn't registering well in Google. When I added my name to the title, the site's Google ranking improved drastically.

Mind you, this advice is only relevant if your blog is intended to be a professional one: if you're setting up a blog about your interest in clown porn, then you'll probably want to go for a completely anonymous title and blog address! Well, unless clown porn is a relevant part of your art practice, of course...

Setting Up Your Blog

If you're blogging from your own website you may want your blog design to match or echo the rest of your site design, although you can go for a different look if you want. if you're setting up a stand-alone blog, most blogging sites have a range of predesigned templates that you can use. In my experience, you can fiddle around happily for hours until you find one that you like and I'd advise you to do so. If you're a computer expert with good graphics skills, you can also design your own completely from scratch.

You should try to find a template that you like but which will be accessible to other readers i.e easy to read, especially for visitors who might have visual impairments. Don't go for anything too cluttered and if you're planning on posting regular photos of your own work or that of other artists, then I'd strongly advise against background wallpaper. Take a look at other blogs and see what elements you like or dislike in their designs and use that to inform your own choices. If in doubt, err on the side of minimalism and readability.

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Great, your blog should now be up and operational. Now you just need to close your eyes, take a deep breath and start posting... Good luck and remember to have fun with it.

Get more help
If you'd like more information about building your online presence, check out the free resources section.

I am also available for online consulting if you need one-on-one help.


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I've been involved with The Here Shop and Gallery in Bristol for several years now. Until the spring of this year, I was on the gallery committee and did a fair bit of curating over there but I'm taking a break from it at the moment to concentrate on my own work. It's a fantastic place - the shop part is full of funky crafts, art, magazines, independent music and small press books, while the gallery shows monthly exhibitions of cutting-edge, emerging artists. And despite being entirely run by volunteers, it's survived for nearly 4 years without any significant public funding (we've had the odd little drop but mostly the shop funds the gallery). It's unique in Bristol and deserves a much higher profile than it currently has.

This month the gallery is showing Mark Pawson. I went to the private view last night and had a fun time hanging out with folk I hadn't seen much lately, including Alys, Camilla and Peskimo.

The show is good with lots of different stuff to see but all of it with a clear and identifiable 'Mark Pawson' look. I like his 'low tech' ethos, particularly in relation to printing and the emphasis on the handmade.



Mark Pawson - Sugar Packets, originally uploaded by here shop and gallery.

I loved these little sugar packets all sewn together like a patchwork pattern.

If you're in or near Bristol, you should definitely try to get along to see this one but if you're a bit further afield, you can experience the exhibition virtually on the gallery Flickr page.

If you're interested in showing at the Here Gallery, take a look at the previous exhibitions page and the submission guidelines.

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Well, it's time to get back to the Artists Online Series - today I'm going to be exploring the different types of art blogging.

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One of the golden rules of blogging is that 'content is king'. All the articles about improving your readership numbers will tell you to 'write great content' and 'post regularly'. But how do you do that? Where to start? It can all seem a little daunting at first.

Fortunately, there are lots of different techniques for art blogging and it's probable that you can find at least one that suits you. Here are a few different kinds to think about:

The Blog As Art Project

This form can be a great way to stand out from the crowd. My own Diary Project is an example of this but there are plenty of other artists using blogging to create art projects. Some notable examples are The Textile Files, PostSecret and Skull-A-Day.

I've noticed that art project blogs usually have a set of defined rules, however, this isn't set in stone and blogging is a form that lends itself to plenty of creative interpretation. Blogged art projects can be a one person affair or a collaborative or communal project. If you've got a great idea for an art project, why not take a moment to consider whether blogging could enhance it. Remember that blogging can often bring you a larger and more diverse audience than a gallery show.

The No-Writing Blog

This is an excellent way to blog if you're not confident with writing or don't have a lot of time to write in-depth stuff. Because art is a visual medium, you can put together a great blog simply by linking to other people's work. Do make sure that you have images of their work though, rather than just a text link - you'll have a far more interesting blog that way.

Maditi Links is a good example of this form, she doesn't write about the work at all, just posts an image and a link. Her blog is a feast for the eyes and I visit regularly for inspiration and to find interesting artists for my own blog.

If you want to use this technique, make sure you host images on your own site rather than stealing bandwidth and don't lift any images if the artist has stated that people shouldn't do so. If in doubt, simply ask the artist. Always give full credit to the artist and link back to their site. If you want to include a little bit of text, you can usually pick up a description from the artists' site (be clear that you're quoting them) or write a brief piece about why you like the work.

There are plenty of places to find artists to blog about - Flickr, other art blogs, other artists you already know, general search sites like StumbleUpon! or dedicated art sites like Saatchi Online or AXIS.

Linking to lots of other artists in this way will often improve your traffic since the artists in question usually come over to your blog to check you out. Don't be cynical though, only link to people whose work you genuinely like, rather than people you think might be useful to you.

The Process Blog

Blogging as a way of recording artistic process is a popular choice amongst artist bloggers. It can be helpful for artists because it creates a journal-type record of their practice but readers like it too because it gives them an insight into how an artist creates and the way a piece develops - warts and all! It's a way of unlocking the studio door and that's always appealed to people. If you can talk about your work until the cows come home (erhm, guilty as charged, officer!) and are comfortable showing unfinished work, then you'll probably feel quite at home with this technique.

I don't have any numbers to back this up but I suspect that this could also be a good way to drum up sales because allowing people to see the process might get them emotionally attached to a piece.

Blogging images of your own work also exposes more people to your work - I've found that a large proportion of people who read my blog don't visit my galleries. Posting images of my work on a fairly regular basis means that those people see at least some of my work. Blogging about your own work also allows you to go into greater depth about subject matter or technique than might be appropriate in the portfolio part of your site. If you're not comfortable showing unfinished work, then just show finished pieces and talk about them instead.

The Tutorial Blog

If you're a frustrated teacher then this could be the blogging technique for you!

A step-by-step guide to a technique, especially when accompanied by clear informative pictures, is a great way to draw people to your site. Plus, there are plenty of places where you can promote tutorials - sites like Whip Up and Craftster are always on the look-out for them and I'm sure there are plenty of other sites that would happily link to them. If you can't find an existing place to promote them, then why not set up your own Squidoo? Squidoo isn't something I've got into yet but I know a lot of people find it a useful concept: Katherine from Making A Mark uses it to provide a handy round up of art resources and a search for 'art' on Squidoo gives nearly a thousand results, so there are clearly plenty of people interested in art who are using it.

If you want to try this form, you'll need to have reasonable photography skills and be good at writing out projects or techniques in easy to understand steps.

The Article Based Blog

A similar approach to the tutorial blog but with more words and less pictures. Good if you're confident with writing and have plenty to say on a subject. This really works for visitor numbers - the articles I've written for my Artists Online Series have brought a large number of people to this site. Watch out though, this kind of writing is time-consuming and you may want to balance it out with some of the other forms, both for your own convenience and so your readers aren't drowning in words.

The Subject Blog

If you want a very defined blog, then blogging about a single subject can be the way to go. The Carrotbox is a blog about rings and nothing but rings. You might think it would get boring but it's actually a constant source of delight and a brilliantly condensed way to learn more about contemporary jewellery because there's lots of images and the work chosen is so diverse. The downside to this type of blog is that you may only attract the people who're already interested in your niche subject.

The News Blog

A round up of news stories in the art world is a fairly easy way to provide regular, topical content. You can provide stories without comment as The Arts Journal site does or add your own opinions, like The Arts News Blog does. If you're going to focus on this form you'll need to have the time to keep up with current art stories and you should also have a few research and journalistic skills.

The Opinion Blog

Aren't artists always a bit opinionated? The ones I know certainly are, myself included! If you're a critic at heart, love to analyse things and don't mind sticking your neck out, then you'll probably enjoy this form of blogging. Just remember that being overly critical might not win you too many friends and being overtly nasty can look very unprofessional.

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Of course, your blogging might cover many or all of these forms, there's no rule that says you can only do one and I use a combination on this blog. However, if you mostly blog in one way, why not try shaking things up a little by trying a different form? You might gain a new readership and surprise yourself by being good at something you didn't know you could do.

Get more help
If you'd like more information about building your online presence, check out the free resources section.

I am also available for online consulting if you need one-on-one help.


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Ooh, ooh a present!

Inspirational blogger award

Huge thanks to Mandy from Feltbug for very kindly nominating me for an Inspirational Blogger Award. I am hugely touched and very flattered to have won something like this, particularly since this is such a new blog.

I now have to nominate five other people and it was a tough choice, I can tell you.

Cally Creates gets a Courageous Blogger Award. Her blog is consistently inspiring and interesting - she blogs better than a great many bloggers who aren't struggling with a chronic illness.

Yarnstorm gets an Inspirational Blogger Award. I've been reading her blog for years and she always makes me drool with her 'slice of life' writing and luscious photos.

Solveigh Goett from The Textile Files gets a Creative Blogger Award for her innovative use of blogging to create an online art project.

Susie Bright gets a Courageous Blogger Award for being a wondrous funky chick who tells it like it is - I love her bravery in tackling taboo sexual subjects that lots of other bloggers wouldn't touch with a bargepole!

Kim Carney over at Something to Say gets an Inspirational Blogger Award for her inspiring combination of gorgeous photos and masses of delicious links.

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The Awards come originally from Writers Review, an interesting site that I'm pleased to have discovered.

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Katherine, over at Making A Mark (an art blog you should all be reading - she has masses of great information), has a very informative article about using labels in Blogger. Despite hosting The Diary Project for 8 months over on Blogger, I'd honestly never noticed the little labels box before Katherine pointed it out. I'm a bit rubbish at using tags - I always forget them over in Livejournal and I only use them in Flickr because they make them so very obvious - but I can certainly see how useful they are: not only can they improve your visibility but they can also make it a lot easier for you to search for older posts that you might want to link back to.

So I've just mass edited the Diary Project posts to include the labels 'Diary Project', envelope, drawing and art. Not very helpful in terms of separating them out but it might improve the project's visibility in Google and on Technorati. I'll go and look at the posts individually when I have the time to see if there are more individual categories that I could add. If you subscribe to the Diary Project and it republishes all the posts because of this, then I apologise.

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Well, the wedding was delightful and we had a lovely weekend but I'm very glad to be home and picking up the reins of my life again: the wedding has dominated the last couple of weeks and I'm keen to get back to my own work. I did hand out lots of little Moo cards though, so many in fact, that I'll need to do another order soon. I'd been planning on buying a box this month anyway because I wanted some to promote this site. Just another small reminder that promotion needs constant effort.

I was looking for images of insect wings in Google Images earlier, when I spotted this article about Tasmanian artist, Catherine Woo.

Catherine Woo
Catherine Woo with Unknown Work. Photo: Simon Schluter

I enjoyed her very organic work, which uses materials such as mica, mica dust, powdered marble, lead and burnt paper to create images that reference scientific imagery and the natural world. There are some images at her gallery, but I wish she had her own website so that I could see more of her work.

Catherine Woo
Catherine Woo - Tela fortis 2002

I prefer her older, more microscopic and patterned work to the more recent cloud imagery in the gallery website, which seems a bit too literal to me.

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Hi folks, you may notice a few changes in the look of the blog over the next few days as we do some tweaking. We're not doing much, just widening the screen size so we can add the links and the archives to a sidebar. I thought it was a bit daunting to have to go all the way to the bottom of the page before you found the archives, plus it just makes more sense to have the links with the rest of the blog. Apologies to anyone still using a small monitor, I know it's annoying to have to scroll sideways but Steve, my designer, is keeping the actual blog text to a size that ought to still fit on your monitors without any scrolling.

Things may occasionally look a bit weird as we shift stuff around, so please bear with us. I'll let you know when we're done and then if it still looks strange to anyone, you can let us know.

Also, I'm going off to Leeds tomorrow and probably won't get a chance to post until Monday. It's my youngest brother's wedding on Saturday, so it's fancy new shoes and smart hat time! I'm doing a reading in the church - wish me luck!