Connection

Visual art, in addition to music and writing, is a third creative means of expression that is finding new outlets on the web. Just as writers have to find agents or publishers, artists traditionally seek galleries to represent their work.

Tarot artists have created decks that are only available from them on their own websites, and so have other artists. The obvious challenge with the Internet is that it is so massive that you can post marvelous things out there, but people still have to find their way to your site.

So although the web offers creative people an opportunity to express themselves with complete freedom and make a profit from their work, getting traffic to a site is a major marketing challenge.

And even though I appreciate these freedoms, I think that most of us who work creatively still dream of seeing hard copies of our work in people's hands, or on display in stores. I don't think that is just a vanity. I think that there is something that makes it real when you experience a tangible object. like sitting in your easy chair reading a book, seeing a painting hanging on the wall, looking at the cover of the CD as you put the disc on to play. These experiences take on a different level of reality when you come into contact with the physical object.

For these reasons, I feel that there will always be a demand for some hard copies, at least for hard copies of our favorites, and one of the ways that becomes possible is when creators develop a large enough following on the web, and then others will give them more consideration and perhaps create and market hard copies of their work.

Satisfaction for a creative person comes from the act of expressing themselves, and that is enhanced when they get feedback from others who enjoy their creations.

With the advent of these new technologies and all the changes in the way we work and play, challenges are different, but the essence remains the same, and that essence we all seek is connection.