Essay

Our world is an ever changing, and developing place, each day new things are discovered and become part of our daily lives. Technology is something that we have come to rely on in all its forms, from electricity in its most basic form, to all modern forms of transport. Technology has served well to make our lives that much more simple. Web 2.0 is probably one of the most innovative inventions of our time, it is dynamic, relevant, highly useful and something that today, most people have come to rely on for various reasons, from research to communication. The internet, or Web 2.0 has opened up hundreds upon thousands of doors that previously were difficult if not impossible to access. In the larger sense it is what connects the world today, and allows it to be referred to as a global village, where everyone and everything is connected. The internet first came about as a means of communication, and is still such, in many forms, from e-mail to facebook to blogging. The last of which shall be discussed and examples of an African, a South African and an international blog will be compared and analysed. Looking at the style of the writing, the aesthetics of the actual blog and the general similarities and differences between these three very different blogs. Blogging involves a process of posting up writings, from stories, to experiences, to memories to essays on the internet, the public is then open to comment on all the writings, giving their opinion as well as encouragement and criticism. A blog can be seen as an online discussion that absolutely anyone can take part in, a truly free-for-all, where freedom of speech is the main component. The three blogs that I have chosen to look at are all art blogs, generally discussing, introducing, and giving recognition to artists from Africa, South Africa and Internationally respectively. Blogs are a way of communications, a way to broadcast or share oneself, or as they are commonly referred to as online diaries. Just as I am now blogging about other available blogs!

The first blog that I will be looking at is entitled African Painters, which gives write ups about several artists from all over Africa, including South Africa, conversationally it discusses their lives and works giving informative blurbs about them in a way that is approachable. It includes artists worth their salts, artists of interest. Its own abstract of the blog is as follows:
Here is a blog about contemporary art on and off the continent of Africa. To push forward the concept of African cultural development I have created this blog but more importantly than that it's a place where we can blow-off steam and discuss the impossible task of defining a continent.

This blog archives back to May 2007, beginning with seven entries, in other words seven artists were first looked at. The blog is in no way narrow minded; it covers artists from all over Africa, in all the art genres, from drawing to sculpture, as well as including a look at fashion on the African continent. Designers as well as artists are given a chance to showcase their work on this blog. The works chosen to put on this blog are both unique and distinctly African, showcasing our distinctive African Heritage. “African Painters” the pseudonym that the writer of this blog has adopted , discusses, in a very approachable style the chosen artists work, talking about style, history, inspiration, medium, as well as making use of appropriate and interesting quotes to give each discussion that much more substance. The blog even looks at our own Jane Alexander, one of South Africa’s most prominent artists, a forerunner really. Artists from as far up as Egypt are given recognition as well, making this blog very cosmopolitan in terms of the African continent.

The next blog that I will be looking at is entitled Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings, originally a look at the work of Rudi Carstens, it has now branched out to look at the work of artists from all around South Africa. It describes itself as: Information on South African art and artist as well as the original oil paintings of South African artist Rudi Carstens. A very simple straight forward blog, that showcases the original artworks of South Africans, and gives large recognition to Carstens. The blog was last updated in 2008, which is a whole year more up-to-date than the African Painters Blog. However this in no way discredits either of these blogs. The blog began in January 2007, and has been frequently updated until September 2008. The blog provides background information, as well as discussing the artists works, their commissions, who they have painted for, as well as the conventional; style, medium and so on. The blog covers art genres from religious painting to wildlife painting, giving the reader a complete coverage, making one feel as though one has gained something of great significance, culturally, from reading the blog. Although all the posts are rather brief, they are thorough in their coverage of the essentials. There are also fewer posts on this particular blog as compared with the African Painters Blog. Again as in the African blog, the writer goes by the pseudonym, of the title of the blog, in this case Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings is the author. By keeping this blog brief and to the point, and by discussing artists that readers would find interesting this author has created a small jem.

The last blog that I chose to look at, an international blog, entitled Contemporary International Artists and Art Works, takes a broad look at artists from all over the globe, giving blurbs, like all of the above about these artists, basically discussing contemporary art in our world today. This blog’s archives date back as far as late 2006, and it is the only one of the three that I have chosen that is up to date, as in September 2009, meaning that all the work shown and discussed is relevant in todays day and age, and is still widely accessible. The blog showcases art work from as far abroad as India, as well as the traditional west and also Eastern Europe. The work shown and written about is of a completely unique nature, aptly falling into and characterizing the contemporary genre. Some of the work is the type where one has to look that much deeper in order to find the desired meaning, or not even the desired meaning, just a meaning that would satisfy the reader, however this is this blogs most wonderful point, and it is in this that I have found it to be the favorite of my chosen three blogs. The works are so different that one cannot help but appreciate them, the more one reads and sees the work featured on this blog, the more one wishes to see, and to carry on. The fact that it is so long and extensive is in no way daunting, as it might be for the African blog I discussed. If one appreciates art in its truest form, one cannot help but read on. I would say that the best part of this blog is the amount of Eastern work it shows. In South Africa, we rarely see such art, being that we are mostly exposed to Western art, along with our own South African art as well as African art. Learning about art, or anything really from the East is a refreshing new outlook on the way we see the world, as generally the West has given us certain preconceived ideas about the East, by mystecising it and attaching certain prejudices to it that we have come to accept as the truth, even though these ideas are so far removed from what the East actually is. (Edward Said’s theory on Orientalism).

All of the above three blogs showcase their wares in the best possible way they, as the authors know how. Each of them show contemporary art of all styles, and all genres within contemporary art. Blogging in itself, as can be gathered from the above is a wonderful way of getting ones work, as the artist, out into the open, letting the world see ones work, and along with the writing shows the public how exactly to appreciate the work for what it is. Blogging is an amazing way to shares oneself as well as ones passion for the world, as well as other things and people, i.e. artists and art. It has in essence opened up a whole new world for the modern artist, shedding new light on art that was never there before. Artists and art appreciators alike can now share their work and passion for one of the greatest achievements of mankind, from the beginning of time, to this very day. With blogging, the art world now seems infinite.