Hi everyone...I lately received an email from artslant to do with the becoming of an emerging artist. I am a tad disappointed that this campaign serves to make the advertiser believe that if they get their work to be exposed through using the scroll on artslant, that this could take them from being an emerging artist to a famous one. Firstly...the artists who are mentioned to have once been emerging such as the famous names given, got their fame because their work was good...it spoke for itself and not necessarily because of all the sales they made. Selling your art doesnt make it 'good'. If this angle is pushed then this is the way mainstream art will go and is going...that a successful artist is one who has many sales. If the old lie that having lots of sales is what success is all about is pushed, then you end up with 'commercial art'...which is maybe what artslant is about anyway?

Artslant provides a highly functional site for artists and of all the sites I am associated with it looks and feels like the most professional.

Unfortunately in the times we are living in everyone thinks they are an artist and there is no way to reduce the amount of "art" that thesepeople create.  Most  of it is totally lacking in technique, objective and everything else that makes a good work of art including taste.

As an artist I find it best to remain true to my personal creativity and paint what I love without thought of selling. It is a lonely often frustrating pursuit but the moments of pure joy through a stroke or line are what painting is about to me and when a work is sold I miss it.  There are still people who know when a work speaks to them.

I have no expectation of ever selling any of my work or becoming well known.  I wanted to experiance the life of an artist so here I am.  I have no money to print my art, frame it, or display it other than sites like this that are free, and no money to enter juried contest.  Prices for my digital files run about $1-$2 per square inch to buy the original digital file (I only do digital because it cost me nothing).  It's about $2500 for something that's intangable.

I know over time it will sell!  It's just that it may not be in my lifetiime.

I wonder how many artist want to be an artist now after reading this?

Best Wishes

Jin Hwang

Alan,

I knew you would answer this call for artist.

Anybody els?

We may be the only foolish ones to answer this call.

Joyfully,

Jin Hwang

To be an artist is not about money selling etc. it is about expressing yourself and surpassing your self creatively. Richard Pousette-Dart whom I once studied with said "if you think you know all there is to know about your art you are dead as an artist" it is a day to day inner journey and like Ithaci, it is the long journey with it's twists, turns, backsteps and sidesteps, the adventure of the journey that  make you want to never reach Ithaci, because it's the getting there not the place that makes it what it is. Once you reach Ithaci it's just like any other place, so may the road be long and winding and full of learning and experience and enjoy the journey as it is the heart & soul of your art.

Janet,

Your words hold great meaning to me and it's good you feel that way.  I agree with you.  Thay's why I price my work so high, someone has to be really foolish or really brilliant to buy my artwork, and on top of all that it's digital.  Digital still seems to have low acceptance.  Yet here I am, my choice of medium.  I will continue to create until I die, for now I share with everyone to view for free.

Sincerly,

Jin Hwang

Hi Jin, took a look at your digital work it puts me into a silk screen frame of mind especially the bridge and landscape ones.

Silk screen printing is fun and of course requires a different way of composing than painting.  I see you live in Texas maybe there is a place there where you can check out silk screen printing you could print your digitals using photosilkscreen.  The buying public has not accepted digital prints as a medium YET, but silkscreen prints do well I know because I got my diploma in Fine Art Graphics including etching, lithography and silkscreen.  Now I live on an island in Greece since 1988 and have devoted myself to painting in oils and watercolors since then wow, 24 years, I was also painting back then but printmaking was my passion.

Considering all this, why not offer your digitals in an Artslant limited edition? Or just put them for sale on Artslant, you never know until you try. I would set the size and not allow a change price them reasonably and you should get some response. 

Janet,

Thanks for the advise.  I don't rent, I own, but you are right I have to pay  to live.  That's where most if not all my money goes to, living.  Therefore, producing tangable items usually cost money.  I have yet to print anything or have considered to do so.  My work so far only exist over the internet only and when I reach 50 uploaded digital artworks they will be removed and replaced with newer artwork one by one.  If I never sell any of my work, I am OK with that.  I do use another site where you can order reproductions, but again once I replace and remove a digital copy, that's it.  It's gone, just like my life, and just about everyone here, we are all limited editions.

Thanks for viewing my gallery, I hope you enjoyed it, over time the old will be replaced with new.

Sincerly,

Jin Hwang

Allan,

Good story and enjoyed your artwork that was hard to miss in your blog.  After reading I looked up some of the refferances and found this artical that was enlighting.  See below.

West, Patrick (2004-12-13). "He was just taking the piss: Observations on Duchamp and his urinal". New Statesman.

Anyways, I guess this is all just a joke taken seriouly as art?  So, what does this mean for all of us?  Good to know you are here posting and blogging, keeping us thinking about "what the hell are we doing?"

Sincerly,

Jin Hwang

ALAN, I have read a lot of your posts here and had a look at your work. It seems to me that you lack creative introspect or else you mind is taken up with sex, what others think about you, how to beg, your personal dilemma, and other nonsense.  What we put in our minds grows, if you want to advance your creativity try putting something meaningful in there if you can find the space.  An emerging artist is someone who has spent nearly a lifetime trying to express in some media that which is in their soul, and some or rather most artists are never considered emerging because they remain true to their vision. And all of us struggle with the means to eat and pay our bills but we don't whine about it. Your mind needs a RE-SET.