A Contest

A lot has been going on with me this week.To begin with, I have created another web gallery for my art work. I am thrilled about it and I would like to get some feedback from you about which web gallery you prefer. The first one I created has some benefits I appreciate, particularly the really excellent personalized service I received from the people there. That site is : www.tonysturtevant.com. My newest site, well I am really over the moon about the design and all the bells and whistles it has. That site is: www.tonysturtevantfineart.com. Both of them have pretty modest fees, so I probably could keep both of them, but though I will keep both of them running for awhile, I am more inclined to pick the one I like the best. So, toward this end, I would really, really, really appreciate if you all would take a look at both of them and give me some feedback, either as comments on this blog or as an email about which one you think is best from your standpoint.
As I have been creating all these outlets for sharing my art with others,I have had to starting thinking more about how to communicate about what my art is about, or at the very least to describe more about the pieces I have done. This has not been an area that I had put much into in the past and now I am feeling it is an area that I want to develop with regards to my art. Thankfully, I am finding that the last ten years I have spent as an English teacher (I can hardly believe that its been a decade) has had a beneficial effect on my writing skills. So far, I think that I want to go in the direction I go when I show someone interested in my art in person, which is talking about the stories that seem to underlie the pictures for me, such as what was going on in my life, or the world as I saw it, or other narratives that seem relevant to the genesis of my work.
My whole way of approaching all of the various enterprises that are involved with recreating myself once again flow from the notion of continuing to show up for all the commitments that I am finding it takes. In other words, I am breaking all the work I want to accomplish into small tasks that don't overwhelm me and vitiate my other commitments (my day job, my family, my health and so forth). So far so good, as I am finding this strategy has been quite effective towards meeting the goals I have set. Bringing this back to writing about my art, it means that little by little the online gallery experience for those interested will include more of my thinking about my work. I hope that you find what I come up with to be interesting and insightful.
The piece accompanying this post is a quite recent creation. A pen and ink drawing from a photo reference, I am pleased with this composition as it's my first one to include more than one person. As a first go at that sort of thing, I am satisfied. I definitely want to add more complex compositions to my portfolio after this experience. As an aside, on my print-on-demand site, I receive some gratifying feedback from some fellow artists about this piece. Beyond liking the image and the new challenge it represented, there is not much in the way of personal stories behind it.
To close this post, I want to ask another question of you, what is giving meaning to you these days?