Welcome to the Featured Artists page. Here creative professionals share their experiences and give some advice on how they navigate the web!
What is your name?
My name is Mimi Chrzanowski! My website is http://www.welcum.net and my blog is http://www.gingerpocket.tumblr.com
Describe your creative practice. Are you a visual artist, musician, craftsperson, apparel designer, blogger, etc?
I am an illustrator, comic drawer, self-publisher, printmaker, sometimes animator, and whatever else I want to be from the Midwest. I now live in Providence, RI at the feminist art collective space, The Dirt Palace.
How does social media affect your practice?
I find social media and continually posting your work is really beneficial. I’ve followed some of the same artists on the Internet since I was in high school, and have seen the opportunities they have had from putting in the time and hard work of making good stuff for a long time and continuously getting it out there on the Internet to be noticed. Social media and the Internet can be a step in getting you somewhere you wish to be going, whether that place is to be able to collaborate wth other artists you admire by meeting them on the Internet, or getting work at Cartoon Network, or feeling like you are a part of a community even when your work is done alone in a room in a small town.
Do you promote your work via the Internet? Why do you use the internet?
Yes, I do try to keep up with Internet promotion, but I can sometimes be bad at it, eeeeek! In part I use the Internet because I have been a part of one Internet art community or another since I was a preteen so it just feels natural. I do it to keep others and myself updated on art/life stuff (like, what the goo have I even done in the last 3 months?!). At least that’s what I want it to be, but the truth is I have always been horrible at updating. It’s been like a poorly kept, mariner’s log. Out at sea on the Internet ship.
What are some websites, social networks or other digital media that you find yourself using, loving and/or lurking on a somewhat regular basis?
I use my personal website, which links to 3 separate other free hosting sites: a cargo collective for my portfolio, a tumblr for my blog, and an etsy for my shop. I also very occasionally post things onto Facebook, which gets attention but also feels weird to me because my Facebook is mostly just a place where friends upload photos of me from sweaty fun times so it’s kind of more for general communication with people I know rather than promotion. I lurk on tumblr and play on blingee. Really though, I’m trying to lurk less and work more. I get caught up in comparing my self to others toooooooo much and that’s so bad bad bad!
Are there any creative people [visual artist, musician, craftsperson, apparel designer, blogger, etc] who are using web platforms in a particularly interesting way?
Thunderpaw is a cool new online comic that is all animated so each page you click through is moving in some way. I’m all over illustrations turned into animated GIFs. Instant gratification animation.
Are there any websites/ web platforms that you have found to be less helpful, not as interesting or even taboo for creative people to use?
I feel like DeviantArt is kind of taboo. Myself and many people whose work I follow used to have an account on it, but most people I know don’t use it any more. It definitely felt more important in my life in middle/high school. Then again, I just think of other art communities I first joined when I was even younger, 11/12 years old, like Elfwood (yes! my roots are in fantasy and sci-fi art! oh-kay!). That’s not really a website I view seriously in terms of promotion, but just like some people who still use DeviantArt, I know of some artists that have used/still use Elfwood that now have book deals (how to draw anime style fantasy type stuff, of course!). Just do what you want, whatever suits you, whatever feels right, babies!
What advice would you give to artists, musicians, bloggers, and online retailers?
What is internet? 