my favorite art-related tumblrs
So I
normally frequent the various blogs of tumblr.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, since I’ve been
cross-referencing tumblr for various things.
My Africa Express superpost was built of primarily tumblr sources;
Project Unbreakable started on tumblr & is updated quite frequently on
there; all my stuff from The Fall was from tumblr; I referenced like nearly all
Fringe tumblr blogs; hella videos I post I watched first on tumblr. No but seriously tumblr is really important
for me like in all aspects. That one
colorblind / coloraware post was originally going on my main tumblr blog, but then
I posted it here.
But yeah I
look thru tumblr for nearly everything: Giants baseball [ESPECIALLY AFTER TONIGHT OMG WORLD SERIES]; Fringe & other tv
shows I watch; pretty graphics on those tv shows; political discussions &
all things politics; jokes & funnies; photography; & also art. However, like I’ve said in class, I’m drawn
mostly to modern independent artists.
Not usually artists that are “established” in A & B galleries,
artists that I find myself enjoying just because they or someone else shared
some works that they’ve done. &
tumblr is a great resource because it houses so many independent bloggers who
share countless other independent artists.
It’s a whole database-network; everything is
relatively free & you can reach millions of people on the internet –
especially a core base of 18-30 year-olds coming up in the workplace who might
want to buy your things or just support you via other social networking
means. It’s a great phenomenon.
In all I
follow 284 blogs on tumblr, but of course not all of them are art-related. I will only highlight a good 10 or so.
So first
are the more “art-oriented” blogs. They
feature mostly electronic print mediums like art you’d create in photoshop or
other web programs, but there’s also more “traditional” paintings, wood
carvings, sculptures out of various materials, collages, & the like. Graffiti artwork is also a very common
promoted medium [even if it’s frowned upon in the more ritzy / "refined" sectors of the art
world.]
·
Feralkid [http://feralkid.tumblr.com]
This is
the tumblr of the artist I spotlighted during our pitches: João Ruas. This blog [like
any blog] is a look into his mind. It
functions primarily as a sounding-board of images & ideas he might want to
paint / a source to post & share his inspirations. & that happens to be some more “grotesque”
images & a lot of animals in various poses.
He also promotes his own artwork. Some of the nature photography that he
highlights are just… fascinating. &
I find myself reblogging some of it, too.
Supersonic Electronic is an
Art Tumblr that seeks to chronicle the rise of the Electronic School of contemporary
art. A movement defined by a generation of artists merging Illustration and
Fine Art. By use of the Internet and other electronic means these artists have
been exposed to endless amounts of aesthetic inspiration and saturated with pop
culture their entire lives.
With over 180,000+ Tumblr
followers Supersonic Electronic is one of the most popular and most viewed Art
blogs on the Internet.
This is
probably one of the first BIG art tumblrs I followed. I think this blog was highlighting a show @ some hipster gallery in SF & I was amazed @ ALL of the artists
they were showing [I think Ruas was among them.] So I researched all of the artists being
shown & then I dived into the blog itself.
I probably went thru 500+ pages of art & I reblogged quite a bit of
it. It’s just a huge resource of so many
independent artists. Like it’s
astounding how many artists are being showcased. & there’s such a plethora of styles on
the site; there’s no one “canon” that’s being promoted heavily; it’s a real
feast of the talent that’s out there all over the globe, not just in the US. So browse & find your favorites.
Also on
the site are various other resources: favorite blogs; interviews with various
artists; a store to support the site & featured artists; & a very
detailed About the Curator page.
 |
| my friend actually did this :] http://kittyovereasy.tumblr.com/ |
[The name
is inspired by the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope; if you don't know what that is, check out anything with Zooey Dewhatever in it.] Okay this one is run by one of my
friends. It hasn’t been updated in a
while, but hopefully it will because she features some very good & diverse
things [so in the meantime just browse thru the archives.] A lot of these blogs champion
what Supersonic Electronic champions: a lot of independent art that blends traditional
mediums & non-traditional mediums. On
this blog there are a lot more cis female & LGBT* artists, since they
usually don’t get the recognition other more male-hetero-cis artists get. Oh & it's not just little hipster white kids from various schools; it's a lot of POC from all walks of life.
 |
|
Acrylic on canvas.
|
This blog
reaches the Francis Bacon borders of the independent art scene quite
frequently. This blog is run to be more
of a database, as opposed to a more online gallery [which Supersonic Electronic
hits quite successfully.] The person who
runs the blog spotlights artists more in the way of passing them along thru the
tumblr universe. Aka he reblogs a lot of
work. You might want to just click on
the Archive page because the background is quite distracting. Their layout has changed, but the quality of work posted & reblogged never seems to disappoint.
If you
couldn’t guess, this is the tumblr site for the Hi-Fructose magazine. Just like the magazine [which I haven’t
personally checked out so I feel like a failure], it highlights contemporary
artists on the up & up with all sorts of mediums. There are a lot of artists already on tumblr
& Hi-Fructose the tumblr site can do things that the magazine can’t really
do: directly reblog them & showcase their work & their tumblr blog @
the same time. If you like the artist’s
work that Hi-Fructose featured, you can instantly go that artist’s blog &
view more. & not just in the
allotted pages & a finite amount of work – you can view ALL of the artist’s
work like instantaneously on your pc, laptop, iPad, smartphone, or whatever
other device. The tumblr site also links
up to the internet magazine which features a lot more formal articles reviewing
& highlighting other works. This is another rich resource & a very popular one.
Next we
have more photography based blogs – because I want to be a photographer, not a
painter. & I draw inspiration from a
lot of the photographers showcased on these blogs & just from the existence
of these blogs in general.
This blog
actually changed my life. Like viewing
this blog made me realize how much I really want to be a photojournalist. The first time I discovered it… I probably
just spent like hours browsing thru all these different spreads of anything you
can ever imagine – especially the more political photoshoots. Because I want to shoot those kinds of
shoots. I’m the kind of person that
really HATES “phony” photography – setting up artificial lights & all the
fixtures in an artificial environment merely to get a photoshoot out of it; I
like being in the moment & capturing real emotions – emotions that should
matter. I want to expose things & I
love work that exposes things, especially inequality & injustice. & a
lot of the work showcased there can be disturbing – even triggering – but it
needs to be seen. Because our media
doesn’t showcase this. Our media doesn’t
want you to know what’s actually happening.
Each month or so there's also a featured photographer, & it's a whole lot of quality work so yeah view that: http://fotojournalismus.tumblr.com/photographerofthemonth.
http://fotojournalismus.tumblr.com/tagged/quote this section can be incredibly
inspiring. 2 that especially resonated
with me [the 2nd one I had a holy moment reading]:
“The
worst thing is to feel that as a photographer I am benefiting from someone
else’s tragedy. This idea haunts me. It’s something I have to reckon with every
day because I know that if I ever allowed genuine compassion to be overtaken by
personal ambition, I will have sold my soul. The only way I can justify my role
is to have respect for the other person’s predicament. The extent to which I do
that is the extent to which I become accepted by the other; and to that extent,
I can accept myself.”
James
Nachtwey
“What
I want is the world to remember the problems and the people I photograph. What
I want is to create a discussion about what is happening around the world and
to provoke some debate with these pictures. Nothing more than this. I don’t
want people to look at them and appreciate the light and the palate of tones. I
want them to look inside and see what the pictures represent, and the kind of
people I photograph.”
Sebastião
Salgado
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A general view during the Closing Ceremony on day 11 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games at Olympic Stadium
Photo by Dennis Grombkowski
|
Unfortunately
this blog has gone dormant since the Olympics have been over for roughly 2
months, & the Paraolympics like a month & a half or so. But all of the photos are still there. I found myself reblogging constantly during
Olympics time because photos of the highest quality in terms of everything were
just always on this blog. The person who
runs the blog makes minor color corrections & posts them [while still
giving credit to the original source / photographer] & posts any other
blurbs related to said special moment.
It’s a glorious blog. Purely
glorious.
This is an
unpopular educated in the ways of the classics opinion, BUT I LOVE ANIME. I always have & I always will. Anime is art, too, privileged & ignorant
twats. Anime can be JUST as intricate
& skilled as any traditional whatever painting; sometimes even more
so. I’ll probably have to do a post in
the future about great anime / manga, but I’ll wrap up this superpost with 2
quality fanart / original art collection blogs.
 |
| This character is Kuchiki Rukia from the show BLEACH |
The
problem with a blog like this [which reblogs & finds FANART], is that it’s
better if you KNOW the subject matter.
Like if you’re looking @ a Classic Roman piece & you have no idea
what any of the Gods stand for; things might get lost in translation & you
may not truly appreciate the piece for what it is because you’re so confused
about the iconography – which is also key to understanding the piece as a
whole. Also this site isn’t about just
ONE anime – it’s nearly like ALL of them.
[an
example of a single-anime blog would be this one on Samurai 7, based on the
Seven Samurai film by Akira Kurosawa: http://samurai-7.tumblr.com;
this features fanart based on that one show]
But the
artwork featured is usually very high quality.
& there are frequently gifs from the original shows that the fanart
might be based off of. It’s fun to
browse, especially if you’re well versed in a variety of anime shows, not just
one genre.
This site
features a lot more original art & more anime geared toward “girls.” & even if I don’t recognize the
characters, the quality of the art is just outstanding & I find myself
reblogging it anyway. Again this is
another tumblr blog that I found myself just going thru hundreds upon hundreds
of pages. I think I reached the end of
the blog in a matter of 2 weeks or even earlier than that. I don’t exactly encourage you to do the same
[because I did that like a year ago & now there’s even more posts to go
thru], but I do encourage you to @ least browse the first few pages.
So
yeah. This is a glimpse of some of the
things that I like to look @. Because
even tho I’m in a gallery / museum class, I rarely go to those. Like I’m the online gallery type. ;]
& it’s not just because of laziness, there are QUALITY blogs out there,
not just the few that I mentioned. Share
some of your favorites please~ !
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