April 15, 2009

Crazygoodartists.com is a site I dreamed up yesterday while hunting around for my last 1099 (yup, I’m one of those filthy procrastinating last-minute taxpayers, the kind that used to drive to the Post Office in her pajamas on April 15…before learning to e-file at 11:59 PM). My webhosting service was having a sale on domain names, I picked that one out of the blue, and tried out a new WordPress theme I was particularly interested in. Voila.

This site is meant to be a convenience, nothing more than a way for me to bookmark artists’ websites as I find them. Beats the heck out of writing them down and I can get to them anywhere there’s an Internet connection. And as an added bonus, I get to share with you.

Funny thing is, within six hours of posting my first artists, I was getting requests. “Hey, have you seen MY art? I’ve got a website…can you list me, too?” I think I have 80 new artist site requests to check out now, so I’m in hog (or collector) heaven.

What does it take to be listed on crazygoodartists?
Heck, I dunno. I gotta see your art, I gotta like it (i.e., think it’s crazygood), I gotta have five minutes of free time to add a listing or three.

What’s the charge?
Guess it depends on what you did. Bank robbers get 20 to life these days. People who make it onto crazygoodartists get a tremendous feeling of satisfaction. Of validation. Of having arrived. Step back and pat yourself on the back ’cause your wishes have all come true.

(You get that this is a joke, right?)

How come my work isn’t posted here (or you didn’t say such glowing things as you did for —-)? I thought we were FRIENDS.
Uhm, well, er, hmmmm, uhm…friendship and artship aren’t always the same thing? Seriously, I probably just haven’t gotten around to posting your stuff yet, and even if I don’t ever get around to it, I still love you.

Where did you get a picture of my work?
I copied an image link from your website. I also linked it back to your site (or your gallery’s site) so that anybody clicking on it gets back to you. In some cases you’re displaying your work with Flash or some other animation tool and I can’t get the image, so I took a screenshot or asked you for it directly. If you don’t want me doing that, lemme know and I’ll take it down. If you’d like to send me an image that’s more representative of your work, lemme know. Be happy to replace it. As an aside, the format I’m currently using works best with a multiple of 100×250 pixels, so if you size your work like that it’ll show up bigger on the home page.

How do I edit the text for my entry?
You don’t. These are my opinions, not yours. If I spell your name wrong, though, or mess up on the factual stuff (like saying you work in bronze when you don’t), please let me know.

How come you’ve got so many bloody glass artists on this blog? That’s not fair to people who work in —-.
Life is hard. Truthfully, I’m an artist who works in glass, a medium where it’s still possible to buy top of the talent at a reasonable price (try doing that with an oil painting or a bronze). I know lots of glass artists and admire their work, and that’s who I tend to look at first. Help me slowly broaden my horizons by suggesting other artists in other media that I might like…

Can I sell my art on crazygoodartists.com?
Not at the moment, no.

What are you going to do with this site?
Well, every so often I pop in here and add a bunch of artists. That’s for starters. In the future, I’ll probably randomize the listings so that you don’t always see the just last 16 or so artists that I’ve posted. And I’ll look at other ways to browse artist lists, possibly also add an events thing. I don’t like the individual artists’ pages–they’re kinda scruffy–so I’ll probably redesign those at some point.

Do you have a real website or is this it?
Do I have a website? Honey, I got websites flowing out my ears. You can see my sculpture at my portfolio site, cynthiamorgan.com. Or pop in to my blog. I’ve also got a bunch of dayjob websites I do for profit (and fun).

Hey, did you get your taxes done…or did you waste all your time playing with this stuff?
Yeah. Actually, I got my taxes in early this year, around 10:30 PM April 15. Loads of time left.

–Cynthia Morgan