I write things and draw things and look at the stars.

Being an artist on the Internet affords an amazing opportunity to showcase one's talents to the entire world.

It also can consume an artist's precious time as they run around uploading the same pictures to gallery after gallery in the quest for maximum exposure.

I've longed for some kind of common API that will link several galleries to one another, offering an “upload once, showcase everywhere” feature that would completely eliminate the need for this jogging around. But the odds of such a thing happening are pretty much nil, since it would involve a standardization of features and metadata across all galleries.

Some days I wish we could go back to when a personal web site was enough, a single storefront where word of mouth lead the curious to observe and follow an artist's works (and lets not forget the webring function).

Such personal web sites still exist, but they've mostly turned into portfolio sites. Most of the action is confined to art communities like DeviantART and Fur Affinity, which have their plusses and minuses. I'd say it's a definite plus for the fan, but artists face that challenge of categorization, description, perfecting that right time to upload so that maximum exposure can be had across as many time zones as possible, juggling notes, managing comments and shouts, and possibly quelling drama that might erupt around them.

With the addition of Nabyn, I'm now in five art communities. Yikes!

It's sorely tempting to restrict myself to one community (and if I had to choose, Nabyn would be it; I'm really liking what's being offered on Nabyn, though I'd probably stick with DeviantART too, because I've got free printing for life there). I guess it comes down to priorities. I'll typically upload to Fur Affinity first, then DeviantART. When I get around to it I'll shovel stuff over to InkBunny and SoFurry.

I dunno. I guess this is just a little rant on how how I'm feeling at the moment. The reality is I put myself into this situation, and perhaps over time I will have to whittle down my presence to just a couple of galleries as I become more confident in my artistic abilities. There's also medical issues to deal with that reduce my total functioning hours in a day.

That's it for now, I guess.

Vote Quimby.