In case you’ve been wondering what I look like when I’m at the “office”, the above image should satisfy that burning question. Do note however that I am only committing the narcissistic act of publishing a photograph of myself for the purposes of the following interview. Artist Nathaniel Stern offered to close off the icommons interview series you’ve been reading on this site, with a discussion about my own work as a blogger. Naturally I find the conversation utterly fascinating.
Known for her uncanny ability to be concise and catty while still maintaining a level of depth (if not, at least, substantiated criticism), Art Fag City’s Paddy Johnson has become an oft-looked to voice in the blogosphere, for news, gossip and criticism of contemporary art, digital and net.art, pop culture, and the general gallery scene in Chelsea, NY. If you don’t know it or her, check out her blog and/or this great interview with her on artlist.biz.
As the resident blogger/arts critic at the upcoming iCommons Summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Paddy’s been interviewing the six invited artists and posting on the iCommons site regularly. I thought it might be a good idea to reciprocate and see what she’s thinking, simultaneously giving insight to Commoners as to why we thought she’d be the ideal candidate to invite along. — nathaniel stern
NS: First off, I’d like to know more about the power you attribute to blogging and writing online; and I guess more importantly, can you contextualize that importance to the Commons?
PJ: Well certainly, blogging gives you an amount of visibility that I think is pretty important. But I would say that first and foremost, one of the reasons I blog is that I’m not necessarily that great on my feet [Nathaniel laughs]; so you know, one of the great things about blogging is that I’ve got, like, 5 hours where I can sit and think about a good one-liner [laughs].
NS: I’m so with you.
PJ: It’s so much easier than getting on the phone with somebody and talking to them about your work… With blogging you can just create this distance, and give yourself enough time to formulate exactly… what I think and the way I want it to read.
NS: And yet it seems off the cuff.
PJ: Yeah, exactly. It’s a particular skill, for sure and I’m lucky enough to have it… But one of the things I’ve been thinking a lot about recently in regards to the power that actively participating in a community gives you,comes from this lecture I went to, I guess about two weeks ago, at the Cue Foundation, a non profit arts organization for emerging artists in Chelsea. They hosted a Q&A with Monya Rowe and Michael Gillespie of Foxy Gallery on the topic of what you, as an artist, can do to get into a gallery…
To read the full interview click here.
{ 2 comments }
great stuff! thanks for the interview otally action packed! your’s was the first one i read i definitely have to go back and read the rest of them so cool how they’re all linked up to infos, great resource. thanx 4eal
great stuff! thanks for the interview otally action packed! your’s was the first one i read i definitely have to go back and read the rest of them so cool how they’re all linked up to infos, great resource. thanx 4eal
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