Thursday, November 12, 2009

Goodbye Geocities

Just received notice that a while back Yahoo had decided to stop hosting the free Geocities webpages.

Back in the early days of the Internets, Geocities was the starting point for many websites, including mine, which I built there sometime in the very early 1990s. It was through Geocities that I taught myself HTML and it was through Geocities that I made my very first Internet art sale sometime in 1993 or 1994.

And when we first opened the original Fraser Gallery in Georgetown in 1996, it was Geocities that hosted the gallery website for a couple of years until the real name domain was available sometime in the 1998 and we snatched it up.

There were millions of websites and pages on Geocities, and now, just like that they are all gone, including (I suspect) loads of art websites (like my original one) and perhaps loads of business online histories, such as those early years of the gallery.

When Yahoo acquired Geocities a few years ago, the last thing that I thought was that they'd be shutting the servers down and immediately destroying some of the web's very first websites. This is a shame, considering how relatively inexpensive servers have become and what a moneymaker powerhouse Yahoo continues to be.

Goodbye Geocities...

Reaching Out with Tim B. Wride

A couple of interesting Weekend Seminars at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC:

Artist Seminar
Introduction to Critical Looking: A Seminar for Thinking Photographers
Friday, November 13, from 7:00 –9:30 pm

After all the practical workshops, after all the tech consultations, after all the seminars, after all the portfolio reviews ….now what?

How does all of the information apply to YOUR process and YOUR work? How do the trends and climate of the art world affect you and your work? Do you know how to look at photographs — including your own — and CRITICALLY ascertain the direction and relevance of them? What is the difference between the work you want to do and the work you SHOULD do? How do you know which way to turn in order to grow as an artist?

Curator/writer/educator Tim B. Wride will guide you toward a fuller understanding of the art climate in which you are working and the social, economic, and creative pressures that are affecting your photography. Through a dynamic program of lectures, Q&A’s, and group interaction, we will explore the state of the market, the directions of creative interplay, and, most important, the necessity of critically and intensely LOOKING at the work you see as well as the work you make. For too many artists this is the most overlooked aspect of their tools and talents; for all artists, however, CRITICAL LOOKING is the most basic skill that must be developed in order to challenge and advance their artmaking ability.
Cost: $95 (Students: $47)
No reservations necessary
Payments can be made by check or cash at the door


Workshop
Critical Looking: The Art of Conscious Creativity
Saturday, November 14, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Do you know how to look at photographs—including your own—and CRITICALLY ascertain the direction and relevance of them? What is the difference between the work you want to do and the work you SHOULD do? How do you know which way to turn in order to grow as an artist? CRITICAL LOOKING is the key to expanding your awareness and applying a conscious understanding of your artistic process.

Tim B. Wride guides you through a dynamic series of historical perspectives, contemporary observations, interactive exercises, group critiques, and one-on-one portfolio reviews with the goal of awakening a fuller understanding of YOUR unique creative process and the directions that may be open to you with this new understanding. Open up your creativity and apply it to the way in which you approach images and imagemaking. Make the move to growth through self-awareness.
Cost: $375
Class size limited to 15; to make a reservation call 310/200-9477

BIOGRAPHY
Tim B. Wride is a voracious consumer of photographic images. He likes nothing better than to look at photographs and talk to photographers about their work.

As Curator of the Department of Photographs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for 14 years, Tim curated over 50 exhibitions, authored and contributed to a dozen books, and has lectured, participated in panels, juried exhibitions, and provided portfolio reviews internationally. In 2004, Tim became the founding Executive Director of the No Strings Foundation, a Los Angeles-based non-profit that provides individual artist grants to U.S. photographers.

Tim is currently developing and offering seminars, workshops, and individual consultations with photographers whose goal is to grow as an artist. Updates to his schedule and programs available in your area can be found at www.CuratorialEye.com

Warholian bucks

An Andy Warhol painting of 200 dollar bills was sold for $43.8 million at a New York art auction by London-based art collector Pauline Karpidas, more than 100 times what she paid in 1986.
Read about it here.