I couldn't agree more. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg shouldn't get to dictate what pieces of art get to exist online. Algorithms push only what's popular. Controversial artwork and art about heavy subjects all sink to the bottom, while artists with a small following disappear into their own little bubble.
If you desperately need to take advantage of the Internet's wide audience and rich multimedia features: just get a website. You have full control. Nobody can "block" or "report" your art. They either visit your digital space, or they don't. Simple as that. There are no algorithms to push your work. People have no choice but to grapple with the full weight of your art. Nothing will ever beat a gallery, but a digital archive of your artwork, unabridged and uncensored, held in perpetuity until January 19th, 2028 (the day that all Unix-based systems will fail to count time correctly,) is a rather satisfactory second option.
The best part? Websites are unique in that they lack any sort of "like" button. Or really any popularity metrics, for that matter. If someone likes your work, they have to use their words! I'd much rather spend the day reading kind emails about my life's work than check to see in the morning that only 12 people thought my art was barely interesting enough to hit a button. Again, nothing will beat that face-to-face communication, but a backup option is never all that bad.
As always, your work is so full of life and color. Your usage of texture and the brush stroke give each piece an almost fluid quality. They're full of motion and movement. They're kinetic. Your process takes in unique subject matter and transforms them into beautiful abstractions. You have plenty of very strong pieces this week! I take a particular liking to "¿Qué?", as you have some very interesting forms and color relationships at play there. Keep up the great work!
Your positive feedback is up there with the best I have received from anyone in 25 years of wearing my art heart on a sleeve. There is hope that the humans aren’t done in for yet. Take this quote from John Steinbeck:
“I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security—out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction.”
I think you are traveling in higher places of its opposite meaning.
Your insight and rare enthusiasm will knock many off the treadmill. I think you are a leader-in-training.
Do something nice with that future power:)
Thank you so much.
P.S.
I know very little about social media algorithms and will take your word for it.
Great work as always Ron. Setting the pace for the rest of us and the constant highlight of my Instagram feed. I would be at all your shows were it not for the Atlantic getting in the way.
I’ll never leave the apps. Just wish they didn’t have such a hold on me.
I don’t know how long I can hold out with these Friday exhibitions. Some points in the evening it feels like a brain hook is fiddling around in my solar plexus.
I couldn't agree more. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg shouldn't get to dictate what pieces of art get to exist online. Algorithms push only what's popular. Controversial artwork and art about heavy subjects all sink to the bottom, while artists with a small following disappear into their own little bubble.
If you desperately need to take advantage of the Internet's wide audience and rich multimedia features: just get a website. You have full control. Nobody can "block" or "report" your art. They either visit your digital space, or they don't. Simple as that. There are no algorithms to push your work. People have no choice but to grapple with the full weight of your art. Nothing will ever beat a gallery, but a digital archive of your artwork, unabridged and uncensored, held in perpetuity until January 19th, 2028 (the day that all Unix-based systems will fail to count time correctly,) is a rather satisfactory second option.
The best part? Websites are unique in that they lack any sort of "like" button. Or really any popularity metrics, for that matter. If someone likes your work, they have to use their words! I'd much rather spend the day reading kind emails about my life's work than check to see in the morning that only 12 people thought my art was barely interesting enough to hit a button. Again, nothing will beat that face-to-face communication, but a backup option is never all that bad.
As always, your work is so full of life and color. Your usage of texture and the brush stroke give each piece an almost fluid quality. They're full of motion and movement. They're kinetic. Your process takes in unique subject matter and transforms them into beautiful abstractions. You have plenty of very strong pieces this week! I take a particular liking to "¿Qué?", as you have some very interesting forms and color relationships at play there. Keep up the great work!
Your positive feedback is up there with the best I have received from anyone in 25 years of wearing my art heart on a sleeve. There is hope that the humans aren’t done in for yet. Take this quote from John Steinbeck:
“I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security—out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction.”
I think you are traveling in higher places of its opposite meaning.
Your insight and rare enthusiasm will knock many off the treadmill. I think you are a leader-in-training.
Do something nice with that future power:)
Thank you so much.
P.S.
I know very little about social media algorithms and will take your word for it.
And I do have a website: www.ronthroopartist.com
Great work as always Ron. Setting the pace for the rest of us and the constant highlight of my Instagram feed. I would be at all your shows were it not for the Atlantic getting in the way.
Yes, I know. Dang Atlantic!
I’ll never leave the apps. Just wish they didn’t have such a hold on me.
I don’t know how long I can hold out with these Friday exhibitions. Some points in the evening it feels like a brain hook is fiddling around in my solar plexus.
Thanks Edgeworth!