I teach both history and humanities at a local college {in case you've missed that lol}. As the semester winds down, my humanities classes are getting to the modern era, which means more discussion {now the students are on familiar territory-- they may not be able to tell classical from baroque, but they get the difference between hip hop & gangsta rap, if you follow my meaning}. In two of my classes, HUM2350: Technology in Society and HUM2020: Humanities from the Renaissance through Today, we started discussing how the internet has affected art in America {in 2350 we were talking about the internet, in 2020 we were talking about modern art-- and students in both classes brought it up independently}.
One of the great fears propagated by the media, both in the visual and audio arts, was that the internet was somehow going to damage the quality of art and/or music produced. It should be fairly evident that this concern was primarily verbalized by the "taste-makers" aka the music and art industry who had, until recently, chosen what music and/or art was promoted.
As it is turning out, the direct opposite is true. We are starting to enter an artistic renaissance of sorts. While it is quite possibly true that the internet will end the commercialism of art {and therefore end the mind boggling pay outs to "artists" like Britney Spears or Thomas Kinkade-- may he rest in peace}, it is actually bringing art to a whole new level. Now a talented musician can find an audience essentially for free through youtube & sell cds on demand, an aspiring novelist can publish his or her opus independently & sell it online-- and visual artists can paint and/or print out their masterpiece for those who truly appreciate it and sell it for what said audience is willing to pay. Heck, even paint-by-number maestros have
fans!
And really, isn't that the upside of living in a capitalist system? The ability to purchase what we like without having someone else tell us what is good or bad, or determining what is valuable and what is not?
All of this is leading up to today's treasures, I promise.
So as I was pondering all of the debating that had gone on today, I decided to do a different sort of treasure list for this thunderstorm-y Tuesday {which, incidentally, is why there are no pics today}. Instead of my usual collections of whatever I think is cool, I'm going to spotlight 5 original artists on ETSY that I think you should check out. Now I know what you are thinking-- 5 is half of ten, so how is this the normal ten treasures post? Ah-ha, I reply, really its infinitely
more than ten because each artist has several original pieces available for sale.
And each artist's work is affordable, original & very worth it.
In the spirit of ushering in a new artistic revolution, I think you should give 'em a look, favorite them on etsy {if you don't already have a free account take a second to fill it out-- it doesn't cost anything...which is why its free...duh} & encourage artists worldwide in the process.
#1
Eszter Schall of
I Love Lawrence.
{In the interest of full disclosure, I am a major fan...I already own three of her pieces}
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| And here they are above our mantle: The Trumpeter, Pampillo & Morning |
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| Playground |
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| Squirrel Picnic |
and I desperately want to make the above number 4 in my collection...its called
Squirrel Picnic...come on, you know its awesome~* Each piece comes printed on high quality paper, signed and dated by the artist.
The following artists I have on my shortlist of people I have every intention of picking stuff up from, but have not as of yet...
#2
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| Our Happy Place |
#3
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Petals and Pods
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| Movement |
#4
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| Sprinkling Sound |
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Warm Hearted
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#5
I think I'm going to make this a regular feature in my little corner of the interwebs-- a way to promote artists & craftsmen that might otherwise go unnoticed. Obviously with my small readership it won't accomplish much...or will it? After all, if y'all blog about one of these artists {or other artists that you appreciate} & your readers blog about 'em maybe we could help this little artistic renaissance along by encouraging artists to keep doing what they are doing. Wouldn't it be grand to live in a world where a child could tell a parent they wanted to be an artist & the parent's first thought wouldn't be "oh no, how will you feed yourself?"
It would certainly be more whimsical, fanciful & colorful at any rate-- and I can't think of a single human that wouldn't benefit from some rainbow-colored whimsy~*
PS
Ironically, right after I published this post I went to Bloglovin' to check what you beautiful people had to say, & saw the post by Elycia offering a giveaway of a friend's cd {Chantilly}. Since it was in the spirit of my own post, I figured I'd do an embed of her music {which is stellar} and a link to the
giveaway. Good Luck & Enjoy!
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