Enough with the FANfare!
I am getting a little irked by people I am linked into on networking sites, specifically Facebook, sending me the "suggestion" of becoming a "fan" of themselves.
"LD suggests you become a fan of LD..."
One of the biggest offenders of this is Julie Lynn Rasmussen. Let me preface this by saying I have never met her personally, so I can only describe the experience of being trapped on one of her mailing lists or being in one of her "friend" lists.
The experience of being the recipient of Ms. Rasmussen's marketing is to be carpet-bombed with every, E V E R Y announcement for one-night events that are very loosely under the umbrella of art shows (those one-night boozefests with DJs or live performances that so often have poor lighting to even see the art... you know, the ones I am always complaining about).
What is especially aggravating is that there seems to be no tailoring of what gets announced or to whom. It's all about as welcome as the tree-cutting service, mobile car wash, and maid service business cards that get shoved under your door, on your car's windshield, or passed out on an ongoing basis. The kicker: Along with these announcements are requests to be a fan of hers.
I stopped to check out her profile a few days ago. Narcissus would feel like she is trying to steal his thunder. Phrases such as, "I don't know why I am so popular" are thrown about with the clumsy lack of self-awareness of a three-year-old girl who insists that she is real princess and wears a tutu. When you are a kid, such unabashed self-assurance is okay. And as an adult, it's fine to have confidence, but to wear it on your t-shirt as if you are a natural resource like gold or water--not so much.
In lieu of calling her out and bearing the wrath of a village full of torch- and pitchfork-wielding zealots, I just blocked her from all of my lists.
Kind of related: I will spare you the specific aggravation of an artist I know who has four or five profiles (a couple personal and a couple "fan" pages) on one network site, aka Facebook.
Being an artist, I understand the separation of the art from the artist. But the premise of most of the social-networking sites is to be aware of what a person is up to. It is kinda beating, meating, and eating a dead horse to say that the real deal with being an artist is to create art. So a "real" artist should always be working on something in some capacity--thinking of concepts while prepping some boards and waiting for something to dry, like the 72 loooong hours for some topcoats to hard-cure. (Although, to be honest, for the last couple months my productivity has been down. I have at least 20-something pieces planned, but haven't been producing as much as I should and could be. I'm acting more like a hack than a working artist.)
See!? I am talking about myself and how it is relating to the craft of doing art. I don't need to create another profile to tell you that I "personally" created art for you to check out on another profile that is for the art itself.
It's stupid.
So, while I understand that there should be some differentiation between the personality of an artist and the art they produce (I personally find it difficult to be a patron of someone who is an a-hole or has some weird diatribes), they are very closely aligned.
The gesture of the request to be a "fan" seems strangely needy. Not many people have (or keep) friends who constantly ask if you are their friend.
You like me, right?
I am getting a little irked by people I am linked into on networking sites, specifically Facebook, sending me the "suggestion" of becoming a "fan" of themselves.
"LD suggests you become a fan of LD..."
One of the biggest offenders of this is Julie Lynn Rasmussen. Let me preface this by saying I have never met her personally, so I can only describe the experience of being trapped on one of her mailing lists or being in one of her "friend" lists.
The experience of being the recipient of Ms. Rasmussen's marketing is to be carpet-bombed with every, E V E R Y announcement for one-night events that are very loosely under the umbrella of art shows (those one-night boozefests with DJs or live performances that so often have poor lighting to even see the art... you know, the ones I am always complaining about).
What is especially aggravating is that there seems to be no tailoring of what gets announced or to whom. It's all about as welcome as the tree-cutting service, mobile car wash, and maid service business cards that get shoved under your door, on your car's windshield, or passed out on an ongoing basis. The kicker: Along with these announcements are requests to be a fan of hers.
I stopped to check out her profile a few days ago. Narcissus would feel like she is trying to steal his thunder. Phrases such as, "I don't know why I am so popular" are thrown about with the clumsy lack of self-awareness of a three-year-old girl who insists that she is real princess and wears a tutu. When you are a kid, such unabashed self-assurance is okay. And as an adult, it's fine to have confidence, but to wear it on your t-shirt as if you are a natural resource like gold or water--not so much.
In lieu of calling her out and bearing the wrath of a village full of torch- and pitchfork-wielding zealots, I just blocked her from all of my lists.
Kind of related: I will spare you the specific aggravation of an artist I know who has four or five profiles (a couple personal and a couple "fan" pages) on one network site, aka Facebook.
Being an artist, I understand the separation of the art from the artist. But the premise of most of the social-networking sites is to be aware of what a person is up to. It is kinda beating, meating, and eating a dead horse to say that the real deal with being an artist is to create art. So a "real" artist should always be working on something in some capacity--thinking of concepts while prepping some boards and waiting for something to dry, like the 72 loooong hours for some topcoats to hard-cure. (Although, to be honest, for the last couple months my productivity has been down. I have at least 20-something pieces planned, but haven't been producing as much as I should and could be. I'm acting more like a hack than a working artist.)
See!? I am talking about myself and how it is relating to the craft of doing art. I don't need to create another profile to tell you that I "personally" created art for you to check out on another profile that is for the art itself.
It's stupid.
So, while I understand that there should be some differentiation between the personality of an artist and the art they produce (I personally find it difficult to be a patron of someone who is an a-hole or has some weird diatribes), they are very closely aligned.
The gesture of the request to be a "fan" seems strangely needy. Not many people have (or keep) friends who constantly ask if you are their friend.
You like me, right?