You are so kind to say so. I was really just curious. I would like to mix more with other artists, as I find myself often in my own little bubble. I find it easy enough to just go along in my little hide aways but being on Steemit lately has made me realize art cannot live in a vacuum.
In many ways I have been considering taking my pieces, which usually only border on the absurd and decorative with a bit of humour, into full scale surrealism. This, of course, has come about from being on here and seeing such work as yours and others. This is the momentum art often needs.
We shall see what becomes of it all, but it is a joyous ride none the less and it has always been about the journey and the process for me, the finished bits are just the happy accidents of deciding to move onto another piece :)
It is odd how digital is often looked upon the way photography was once seen. I'm not sure why, as artists are meant to be the forerunners to change, being the mirror of society they often can see beyond the present day into the future and should embrace it. But people are funny and it's a funny old world as well. :)
I am leaning toward digital for a viable artform that is easily transported - i.e. if you paint large works, how do you move them across borders, with customs (there is no duty on artwork, but some countries charge enormous VAT) - and I had already mused about this when I crossed borders into Switzerland for a show: would it not be ultimately easier to just go there with your digital art on a memory stick, print, sign and frame it right there - no hassles at borders, no expensive transports! I recently "donated" a large digital print to a show in Columbia. It was printed on site, I just sent the file info for downloading.
As for your work, I need some breathing space once I get through fixing the web pages of the existing artists and then I will decide what to do with the network on Ning. The main reason for maintaining the network was that slide shows from it could be embedded on the public site, but now with Flash being history, there is not much incentive to paying the exorbitant rates Ning charges for the network, so it is likely I just drop it once the contract runs out, and continue with my artist communications on various social networks where I found them in the first place.
So we definitely stay in touch here - once I maintain the VAG public site (which I do largely by myself anyway) without any "administrators" I be more free to make unilateral decisions, but this still means that I will use a high criteria selection process. Having been on government juries in Canada, I do have a background to do so. The work needs to fit into the genre of surreal, visionary, fantastic realism to qualify. There is a wealth of this art around, and spreading into wider genres would not serve anyone, since people come to look at this specific type of work and expect it on my website(s). I certainly don't want a so called "Kraut und Rüben Acker" (weeds and beets lot) as such a catch-all is called in German. For that reason I had the private network closed - if opened to public, then anyone could have registered, and if you look at what is out there on the internet that is wide open, you get frustrated finding anything good in a whole pile of stuff that should sooner belong pinned to grandmothers fridge door rather than published on the internet. Some call me elitist for my views, but not everyone that can handle a can opener can claim a job as a brain surgeon at the Mayo Clinic.
So true. I don't want you to think I was trying to 'push my way in' in fact, I was merely curious. I just didn't understand it was an established group of artists who had worked together.
For myself I do art for my own pleasure and enjoyment. I don't consider myself anything really, "surrealist, cubist, impressionist, pop artist" I care little for titles and am so quick to fly from this or that, that I'd not want a label for myself, but I do understand how it is needed in the arts community and certainly where 'high brow' and 'sales' are intermingled and important. So well done you.
As for me, I am happy as a spectator and certainly don't want you to think I wanted anything different. I have just been so happy to 'mix' with other artists on here, that I thought it was another such place for artists to intermingle, but I see that is not the case and that is ceratinly fine with me.
I know how important it is to label and sequester groups, surely. And indeed brain surgeons are not a dime a dozen nor are masterful artists :)
I shall continue to enjoy from afar and marvel in the works of the experts with their masterful skill. I am a happy fan, if nothing else :)