Great New Artists

When I first got on YouTube I wasn’t a very big fan of vlogs in general (very strange thing for someone on YouTube) but then I discovered that some people were actually making quite good ones. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. missxrojas–Not as avant garde “art form-y” as some but she says a lot of good stuff and proves that other people can speak eloquently about their life and make total strangers care about them.

2. vlogbrothers–a YouTube project started by writers.

3. communitychannel–a vlog which I discovered more recently than the others and one which most uses the indie-film influences which are increasingly popular these days.

4. hotforwords–watch it, you might learn something.

The point is that I think people are really harnessing and have harnessed the concept that YouTube has opened the door to more creative freedom which we didn’t have before it came along. That’s why they’re here.

January has been a successful month so far here so I thought I would do a little time-out housekeeping-type post for all my lovely readers.

So far 2009 has seen a lot of new artists from YouTube and other sites on the internet but I thought it would be in keeping with my more academic nature if February took a slightly different track. I feel it is neccessary to understand old art in order to truly appreciate new art so the month of Feb will be dedicated to some of those old favorites with short descriptions of why they were so great.

Hopefully the rest of 2009 will get back to my roots here at Great New Artists and find some more great painters &ct. making great new art for everyone. Since the summer is usually pretty heavy with this kind of thing floating around we’ll keep our eyes peeled for that around that time.

Not since Free Hugs have I seen a YouTube video that made me cry quite as much as The Beckoning of Lovely. It all started when Amy Krouse Rosenthal made a video called 17 Things I Made in which Amy chronicled some of the things she has made including the ordinary and not so ordinary.

Through this video audiences learned that she is a writer, a mother and a maker of things including an 18th thing which she promised to make on 08/08/08 at the Millenium Park Bean–That’s where The Beckoning of Lovely began.

The Beckoning is not over yet as you will see at her blog and on the videos so this is only the first in a series I will do on her work in the coming days. I may even do a Suite 101 article about her later.

So if you haven’t noticed by now, I like time lapse stuff but even more than that I like fun stuff on YouTube and at first I have to admit I had to decide pretty heavily whether or not I liked iJustine first based on her tweets and then based on her YouTube channel. Although the stuff I watch the most by her is on her YouTube channel she also has a blog in which she writes about tech stuff and life stuff and stuff stuff like getting her hair done. I honestly can’t figure out why it’s called Tasty Blog Snack but I still love her. IMO I still think you need to read her blog and watch her videos to get the full extent of her knowledge and experiences.

So hopefully this post will explain a little about why I’ve been so sporadic in the past with my posts. I am a freelance writer for a magazine called Suite 101. Some of the articles I have written there which are relevant to this blog have been Planet Shanghai Book Review, Song of Lawino (which won an award), Harajuku Fashion, and Esquire’s 75th Anniversary Issue but check out my page for all my articles because there actually are a lot more that are relevant in topic and scope.

But that is of a digressary nature (ok not a word and certainly not a habit writer’s should be in), the real reason I mention Suite 101 here is that it is a great place to hone your skills as a writer not only to explore topics you may not have thought of but also to explore the possibility of article writing if all you’ve ever thought of was writing a novel. In my case I evaluated which topics were getting the most views and what kind of articles were doing the best and I saw that my fashion articles were the ones that were doing that for me. Winning the award from the editor for my review of Song of Lawino wasn’t too bad either.

It also pays and there are many other benefits like business cards, opportunities for advancement and press credentials all after a certain number of published articles. Anyone with a mind to writing should definitely check it out. 

In keeping with the tradition of counting down and looking back which seems to transcend generations and religions every year round about this time I decided to write about some of the best new artists I found this past year.

Valsartdiary I actually found out about her a while ago before 2008 started but her style is classic.

Katarina Sokolova one of the best digital painters I have ever seen.

Kawaii Goods.com great little shop full of pink stuff.

Graffiti Paris is a book not a person or organization but it still counts as one of the best art related things I found this year.

Of course there have been a lot more great things this year than just these but it’ll be more fun if I don’t tell you what else to like

I’m so sorry to everyone about my long absence. I will be writing at least 30 new articles about great new artists in the coming month starting December 1st for those of you who have been following me. I’m doing NaNoWriMo, finishing my B.S. degree, preparing to go to China (including learning Chinese), reading a ton of books, looking for work, working with children, writing articles for Suite 101 and shifting a few interests from the trendy type of art that I usually review here so I hope I have explained my absence adequately but in my defense I haven’t been updating my other blog lately either.

Basically I have had to make a decision between frequency of money or amount of money and frequency is a tough act to beat frankly so it depends on how well the next month goes with my today.com blog. But I will finish my run here with this blog strong I really don’t want to stop writing here at today and this blog won’t go anywhere anytime soon but my interests are a little more varied than I give them credit for and I can’t change anything about this blog because the address won’t match the subject and that’s not good.

We’ll have to see…

Great New Artists is looking for new artists from all genres to participate in this blog. You can be an artist from any discipline including film (even actors), music, visual arts, writing or anything else you can think of to be profile subjects. Whether you have had your big break or no one has seen your art outside of your hamster’s cage we want to see your work.

Great New Artists is a blog which desires to showcase the new and exciting works of the contemporary art scene all over the world. I know you guys are doing some amazing work out there that no one has thought of before so show it off!

Just contact me, Whitney at missfishdesigns@yahoo.com or on MySpace or on The Outer Post just make sure you send a small sample of your work (this can be an attachment or a website address in the message) and include Great New Artists in the subject line.

I can’t wait to hear from you all!

XOXOXO