December 17, 2004
The Site
Way back in 1998, I started a little project called The Site at MANOVERBOARD. It was a combination of desires to show new artists' work, to run a publication that was relevant to the new medium called the Internet, and to publish artwork that would not necessarily get seen unless a dollar was being made.
I truly enjoyed the six years of designing and developing the website and, today, I've called it quits. At least, temporarily.
The final artist, for now, on The Site is my old time favorite artist, Ruth Root. I've only had her slides on my desktop for the past 10 months. And it was upon posting her work that I realized a few things:
- Even six years later, there are very, very few good artist-driven websites out there. Galleries themselves have poorly designed and updated sites; and artists, for whatever reason, have trouble showcasing their work online. This is a lacunae that will eventually need to be filled but it also helps validate my original aspirations for The Site.
- I've not participated much lately in the world of contemporary art in New York or elsewhere but I also don't believe I'm missing much. The same names are recycled for the most part and young artists seem to all be using pencil and ballpoint pen. This is not such a bad thing, mind you.
- Allowing a site to go dormant, willfully or not, is sad -- kind of like asking your dog to not eat for a while so that you can work longer hours for less pay.