This site is the result of an experiment that I ran in 2013-2014.
That experiment is done, and this site ( artpicks.catandbearstudios.com ) will not be updated anymore.
The goal was to see how much work was involved in promoting visual art on the internet in an ethical manner.
Short answer - it takes a lot of work :)
- There's technical work for designing the website, maintaining the database, creating selection pages, generating RSS feeds, posting notifications about artwork selection on Facebook, Google+, email.
- There's work for finding interesting pieces of art while sifting through hundreds of FAA submissions per day.
- There's work for contacting authors and getting the consent to include their art in the blog.
- There's work for commenting and voting on the featured artwork on the FAA site.
In the end, I cannot say if this activity had a meaningful monetary impact for the authors whose works were featured.
It might have resulted in some extra traffic and exposure for their works, but there's no way for me to verify.
I did not see any meaningful difference in traffic to my own portfolio, and there was no difference in terms of sales.
Amount of ad views on this website was very low - lower than the minimum amount that google would pay off :).
I enjoyed the experience of finding interesting pieces of art and communicating with authors.
But with all the other work, as time went by, it all started to feel more like a chore with not a lot to show for the work done.
And so the experiment was concluded.
To the Visitors
Hello and Welcome! I'm an artist who creates fractal and digital art and paints with acrylic and pastels. I sell most of my art online on FineArtAmerica.com
Every day thousands of new artworks are uploaded on FAA. The purpose of my blog is to showcase some of those wonderful art creations that have caught my eye. I pick artworks that I really liked and post them here. I'd like to show my art as well, so a small number of the artworks shown will be mine.
Please, sit comfortably and look at the lovely art. You are welcome to click on any picture to see it up close, or to buy a print. And, of course, your likes and comments are greatly appreciated. Feel free to come visit as often as you like. Thank you for your interest!
Disclaimer: Other than having an account on FAA, I'm not affiliated with them. I am also not affiliated with any other artists.
To the Artists
FAQ
All images are posted on this blog with explicit permission of their creators.
I can be contacted via my profile on fineartamerica.com.
Why are you doing this?
I wanted to start my own blog for a while, but could not stand the idea of having to write something every day.
This way my love to see new artworks and possibility to promote myself and other artists are nicely combined together.
Of course, I'd like to promote my own art, so I post a small percentage of my images as well.
I am not affiliated with FAA or any other artists. I just select the art I liked.
Hopefully, it will increase traffic to artist's portfolios and results in more sales for them.
Why are there only pictures here? Where are the artists' biographies and other information?
As a visual person, I don't like lengthy descriptions. The idea was that looking through the artworks of many different artists would be more fun. If the visitor likes someone's artwork, it is very easy for him or her to click on the image and see the entire portfolio. Author's name and image name are provided on the image itself by FAA, and I also include them as tool-tips for every image, so they are visible when visitors hover the mouse over the image.
Can you promote more of my works? Can you make me "an artist of the day"?
I can look at your portfolio and select a couple of images to be featured. I cannot limit my selection to one artist's work. Please, send me an email if you want to be featured this way.
I did not upload any new images on FAA recently. Can my artworks be featured too?
You can send me an email, and I will take a look at your portfolio. Please, keep in mind that I select artworks for this blog only based on my personal taste.
Will I be notified if my work has been featured on this blog?
When I see the artwork I like, I will comment and vote/like it on FAA first.
I will then ask for your permission to feature your art on my blog.
Once I get your permission, any of your artworks that I have commented and voted on will be featured here.
Notifications with a list of featured authors are posted on
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CatandBearStudios
- Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/117711115785783863971/+Catandbearstudios_Art/posts
I cannot use FAA mail system for the notifications.
When I click on my image on this blog it brings me to FineArtAmerica page that says "The page you have requested can not be found." Why is this happening?
This can happen if you have changed the name of your artwork on FAA or if you changed your artist name on FAA
or if you removed your artwork from FAA some time after I left my comment on your artwork.
When your image is posted on this blog its location is automatically verified, and images that cannot be found are not posted.
So, at the time of creating my blog post I can guarantee that all the images are correctly leading to FAA pages.
However, if you have changed the name of your artwork or your artist name on FAA some time after it was featured on this blog,
then clicking on your image on this blog would bring you to FineArtAmerica page that says "The page you have requested can not be found."
If you notice any such issues for your images on this blog - please let me know, and I will correct them.
Why do you show prices on all of the images?
Images that you see on this blog are controlled by FAA and generated by them with the artist's name, artwork name and the price. I have no control over how the images are formatted. I include images according to FAA's instructions which you can see in the "link" section beside each artwork on FAA, right where it says "copy and paste to your website/blog".
Why is there advertisement on this site?
Hosting the blog and keeping the domain name for the web site requires money. Advertisement is meant to recover some of the costs associated with that.
Why I cannot find my work on this blog using your search?
The search feature is powered by Google. There may be a couple of days delay before published works appear in the search results.
I want to thank you for the feature. How can I do that?
I do not expect anything in return, so, please, do not feel obligated.
I featured your work because I liked it.
If you feel like looking at my art and leaving a comment or a vote/like, that would be greatly appreciated.
Disclaimer: Other than having an account on FAA, I'm not affiliated with them. I am also not affiliated with any other artists.
- If you are the creator of an artwork that was posted on this blog and you do not want it to be posted here for whatever reason - please let me know, and I will remove it.
- If you do not want for any of your work to be mentioned on this blog - please let me know, and I would respect your decision.
You can contact me by sending me a message via my profile on fineartamerica.com.
