I know I usually only post once on Fridays, but I had to share this with you before the weekend! Uncommon Goods is sponsoring their second Art Contest and they want YOU!
Here’s your chance for your work to be seen by an Uncommon Goods Art Buyer and The Jealous Curator herself, Danielle Krysa! AND you could win 500 smackeroos plus a deal on limited editions of your work through Uncommon Goods. You can see all the details and how to enter on the Uncommon Goods Art Contest page. But you’d better scoot– deadline for entries is Monday, March 31st!
Artwork above, Jump Off by 2012 contest winner, Matthew Amey.
This post was sponsored by Uncommon Goods. All opinions are my own. Want to sponsor a post on Artsy Forager? Use this contact form, let’s chat!
Aren’t Saturdays just the best days of the week? Sleeping in, breakfasting out, just doing whatever you like, no worries kind of day! I’m feeling especially grateful this Saturday and wanted to publicly thank a few artsy folks who were kind enough to give the City Mouse | Country Mouse online show a little web love this week!
In no particular order, a big merci beaucoup to…
Inward Facing Girl | The IFG herself shared some CM|CM love on Twitter.. thanks Melanie!
Beautiful Hello | Emily published a beautiful post about CM|CM on her blog!
Curate 1k | Norah knows an art bargain when she sees it! Thanks for the post & including a CM|CM piece in this week’s collection!
The Artful Desperado | Gab included a CM|CM piece in an awesome little spring hued round-up!
Help spread the word by Facebooking, Tweeting, and/or blog posting about CM|CM and get a little shout-out with a link to your site next week! Just shoot me an email to let me know you’ve done it at artsyforager(at)att.net.
CMCM will be up in found through March 28th. If you haven’t seen it yet, please click over to foundand check it out! Beautiful little small originals, perfect for gift giving!
Happy weekend, Artsies! I don’t normally post on Saturdays, but I just had to extend a big thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of the debut show and sale at found, City Mouse | Country Mouse. Christina, Deann, & I are so truly grateful for all the encouragement and artsy love that has been thrown our way!
We would especially like to publicly thank those that have blogged, Tweeted, and/or Facebooked about our little show this week!
CMCM will be up in found through March 28th. If you haven’t seen it yet, please click over to found and check it out! Beautiful little small originals, perfect for giving yourself a little artsy treat! Want to hear more about the CMCM “story” take a peek here.
Welcome to the new Artsy Forager site! All of the blog’s content was successfully moved yesterday and I’m still working on getting everything set up, so please bear with me as the new site continues to evolve. Big things are planned for the future of Artsy Forager and I’m so glad you’re along for the ride!
Help me spread the word about the new site by using the Share feature below!
11|8|12 note– I’ve amended the title of this post, as moving the site is proving more complicated than originally thought.. still working on it and hope to have it moved over in the next few days!
Last week, I mentioned that Artsy Forager would be moving to its own domain soon.. well, my friends, the day has come! This afternoon I’ll begin the process of transferring over all the posts, images, files, etc to the NEW ArtsyForager.com! I am excited about what this move will mean for the future of Artsy Forager and am thrilled you’ll be along for the ride!
FOR MY WORDPRESS.COM FOLLOWERS— please note that although the current site will redirect you to the new site, once I begin posting on the new site, you will no longer receive notifications of new content unless you are signed up as an email subscriber on ArtsyForager.com. The WordPress.com interface doesn’t transfer followers into WordPress.org, so you’ll no longer see new content from AF in your WP reader, dashboard, etc. I’ll be sending each of my wordpress.com followers an email reminder, I’d hate to lose you just when Artsy Forager is expanding! 🙂
The new site will look a little wonky today, but I hope to get most everything looking pretty by tomorrow and will begin posting over there pronto!
A few weeks ago, I let ya’ll know about plans to move Artsy Forager away from WordPress.com & over to its own domain, asking you to help me decide on a newly tweaked site design.** I’ve been working on getting all the backend functionality up & running and hope to move this little blog over into its new home soon– soft target move date, Wednesday November 7th. Yikes!! I’m excited and extremely nervous about this move.
I’m excited to see the blog continue to grow and evolve and with a self-hosted domain, the opportunities for where Artsy Forager can go and how it can serve the art loving online community are endless!
But here’s why I’m nervous– 1 out of every 10 Artsy Forager blog followers are following via the WordPress.com platform and when the blog moves, your follows do not move with it. So while there will be a redirect if you visit the old artsyforager.com site, if you are a WordPress.com follower, unless you resubscribe with an email subscription, you will no longer receive notifications of new content on www.artsyforager.com. I don’t want to lose you & I don’t want you to miss out on all the wonderful new artsiness I have planned for you! 🙂
So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you “follow” Artsy Forager via your WordPress.com dashboard, please take a moment to become an email subscriber. I’ve even moved up the Subscription Box in the sidebar to make it easy to see! This way, you’ll be guaranteed to continue seeing all the artist features, Friday Design Finds, studio tours, and some exciting NEW features comin’ to ArtsyForager.com!
You guys make writing, maintaining and now growing this blog such a pleasure for me. Artsy Forager would not be what it is without you!
Love & Artsiness,
Lesley
**The overwhelming majority of you loved site design Option A and it was also my first choice. But many of you also loved the square logo represented in the other designs ( me too! ). I think everyone will be happy with the new design. 😉
I have a huge soft spot in my heart for Seattle. While Mr. Forager has lived in Seattle, I haven’t yet. But when I do ( and when I visit! ), you can bet I’ll be utilizing the recently launched site, Artsyo to find local artists and their work. The brainchild of Sarah Brooks and Stella Laurenzo, Artsyo is a searchable site providing users with ways to find the kinds of local artists and artwork they love, connect with those artists and ( hopefully! ) buy a work of art they adore.
Co-founder Sarah Brooks gave me a little time yesterday to chat about the how, what, why of Artsyo–
Artsy Forager | How did Artsyo get started?
Sarah Brooks | When I moved to Seattle in 2007, I had my first apartment and my first real job, and I was really excited to buy a piece of original art for the first time. I was going to art walks and loving the art scene here, but it was harder than I’d expected to find a piece that I both loved AND could afford. I knew that somewhere out there in Seattle, maybe at a coffee shop in Ballard or a studio in Georgetown, there was a perfect piece for me that was also in my price range…but how would I ever find it? I was working a lot, and I didn’t have enough time to visit every gallery and every art walk, and I was wishing for some way to see a bigger visual of what was out there to guide my search. I finally decided last year to leave my job and start working on building this big visual map of the Seattle art scene for real.
AF | What do you see as the biggest challenge to connecting would-be art collectors with artists and galleries?
SB | One big challenge I see is that there are a lot of people who don’t think of themselves as collectors. Because it’s historically been this thing only for the really wealthy and the people-in-the-know, the prospect of buying art is intimidating. And the way most of the avenues are set up now — you have the gallery that’s only open by appointment, for example — reinforces that very formal, art world exclusivity feeling. Which is great for some, but I think there are a lot of people who would rather be able to get familiar with pieces in a stress-free setting, like in their own home. I think more and more people are starting to realize that anyone can be an art collector, and that not every piece costs $20,000. There are a bunch of great people working on the same problem in Seattle right now: Sharon Arnold with LxWxH, Wynne Greenwood with SeaCat. It’s an exciting time, and the more people who realize that they can be appreciators and owners of art, the better for everyone!
War Horse by Rachel Denny, available through Artsyo
AF | What is it about Seattle that attracts so many artists?
SB | Good question! I think it has something to do with the freedom to be different over here, and that’s got to be linked with creativity. I’m from the northeast, and one thing I love about Seattle is that out here, you can be weird. And that’s cool. I think it’s also the reason that we have such a great tech community here…there’s room to be creative and weird and try new things, and the whole culture out here embraces it. Look at the Solstice Festival! I can’t imagine that happening where I grew up…
Connotation No. 29 by Shaun Kardinal, available through Artsyo
AF | Have you purchased any Artsyo featured work for yourself yet? Any particular piece you’re coveting?
SB | Not yet! I knew I was putting myself in a dangerous spot with all of this amazing art right in front of me all day every day, so I made a solemn promise that I wouldn’t buy a piece until I found a way to make Artsyo financially sustainable. Right now all of my expendable cash is tied up in getting Artsyo off the ground. But there are so many pieces on the site that I would love to take home with me. Ryan Molenkamp’s Cut Bank in particular (but you might have guessed that from the Artsyo home page design).
AF | What are the hopes and dreams you & Stella have for the future of Artsyo? Any plans to expand to other cities?
SB | Our hope is to make Artsyo the site that we were dreaming about before it existed: a new way to discover art in Seattle that makes it easier and more fun to find art and buy art and live with art. With that in mind, we’re working on an art map (so that if you’re going for a walk in your neighborhood, you can see what’s up at every place nearby and drop in if something catches your eye). We’re about to add “last mile” services, too — the whole process of framing and installation is daunting for a lot of busy people, and so we want to take care of that and make it as easy as possible. In terms of new cities, we’d love to try Artsyo in Portland and San Francisco in the future…actually, I think there are a lot of cities that need an Artsyo. But first, we want to make sure we’re doing it right in Seattle.
Thanks, Sarah, for taking the time to chat– now here’s a fun little announcement for you! To commemorate its launch, Artsyo is running a Pimp My Wall contest for Seattle art lovers! Basically show Artsyo that your wall is in major need of some art lovin’ and you could win an Artsyo work of art of your own choosing ( worth up to $500 ). See the Artsyo blog for more details! Sorry, the contest is only open to those lucky enough to live in Seattle. 😉
Happy Friday, Artsies! Allow me to distract you for a bit this afternoon.. Artsy Forager will soon be moving from WordPress.com to its very own domain at ArtsyForager.com. I’ve been working on design options and think I have it narrowed down to three favorites. Since you, my readers, are the primary users of the site, I would love to find out which design you like best! ( Note: This isn’t a drastic redesign. That will happen when I can pay someone else to do it. 😉 ).
Option A:
Artsy Forager site design Option A
Option B:
Artsy Forager site design Option B
Option C:
Artsy Forager site design Option C
Each option has its own set of positives and negatives, but I’d like your gut reactions to the visuals of each option. Your input is important to me & greatly appreciated!
PS– If there are any web designers out there who’d love to help with the design in exchange for major props/free advertising on the blog, give me a shout! 😉
I am super excited to announce that Artsy Forager is now a regular feature in print! Arbus, an arts and business magazine in my old ‘hood of Northeast Florida will regularly be running select Artsy Forager features beginning with their October/November 2012 issue ( see it here!! ).
October/ November 2012 issue of Arbus Magazine
Arbus features the best of what’s happening in art, culture and design in the Northeast Florida area. But publisher Cinda Sherman knows that there is a great big world of art out there, so each month’s Artsy Forager feature will showcase artists from around the world, introducing Arbus readers to a whole new set of artists to love.
As a blogger, it’s a special kind of thrill to see my words in print, but for me, it’s especially wonderful to see them in a publication I’ve read since my college days. I hope you’ll check out the issue online ( or pick it up in person, NEFL Arsties! ), lots of great features in this issue, including a spread on one of my Florida faves, sculptor Joe Segal!
Today, Mr. Forager & I are packing up and early Monday morning, we’ll be leaving Coeur d’Alene, ID, our home for the last ten months, for a new adventure in Joshua Tree, CA. We’ll be hanging in SoCal until mid- January and I’m looking forward to bringing you lots of new adventures in artsiness! We’re taking our time on the way down to do a little camping and visiting with friends in San Diego.
While I’m away, I thought you might enjoy some reruns of what have ( so far! ) been the most popular Artsy Forager posts. There’ll be some peppering of new stuff, too– we’ll change over to a new Facebook Featured Artist and a couple of new Artist Watches for Escape Into Life!
I’ll check in occasionally, especially once we hit San Diego. Love and Artsiness!
