Tooling Around

I guess you could say it all started here:

cuneiform writing and hieroglyphics

Both images from art in the collection of Emory University 

I've spent the morning playing with the Squarespace tools creating a special members-only area on this site for the ArtCloth Network (you'll see it at the bottom of the right sidebar). As with any endeavor, learning to make use of the powerful tools on this host site is both frustrating and invigorating. Now that I have made one area for a special audience, I think it might be fun to make another -- perhaps for participants in El Cielo Studio workshop retreats and/or those in my other classes, both in SA and around the country. Several students have commented that they wished they had an easy and fun way to stay in touch with each other -- including visuals --they just don't work easily as email-- and with interactivity that has a degree of intuitive communication.

We are entering yet-another next-generation era of electronic conversation --  Yahoo group memberships seem clunky and not very visually satisfying to someone like me, who listens with her eyes first. I have such a problem with the visual clutter of Yahoo Groups that I get frustrated before I begin. Blogging is wildly colonizing the ether between us, and blogging tools and software are getting better and more flexible. (I highly recommend Squarespace if you are willing to pay a bit more to get a whole lot more -- and, no, they are not paying me to say this!)

Of course, the downside is that most of us are probably spending too much time on-line and not enough time on-life these days! At any rate, I think I have had my fun for now, but if any of my former class participants are reading this, let me know if you would like a "members-only" area where you could post work in progress, brag on your accomplishments and get feedback on the art in your life and the life in your art. Leave your comments by clicking on the subtext below this post.