As I see it the Internet has the possibility to radically remake who we discover artists, consume art and support art. By this I mean most forms of art. Books, painting, music, theatre and on and on. Perhaps I’m stating the obvious but maybe not. I’d like to use this opportunity to state some of my observations and get feedback though.

First off it seems easy for established, main stream media people to make it big on the Internet. Oprah creates a Twitter account and it rapidly jumps to over 2 million followers. Ashton Kutcher has over 3 million followers. Wil Wheaton has over a million followers on Twitter but really started making a name for himself on the Internet with his blog - WWdN: In Exile. In his case I think that his Internet fame grew more because he is a very good writer and an interesting guy than that he was on TV for a while. But clearly his TV fame helped kick start things off. These people all see some value in interacting with their fans but is it key (or even really important to their careers? I think the jury is still out on that.

Where I see things getting interesting is with the so-called long tail of artistic endeavors. What does the Internet mean to people who are not big name mass media famous? For many I suspect it will mean the difference between subsistence level living and enough success that they can continue as artists as their main work.

MySpace was the first big platform for artists that I’m aware of. Musicians especially seem to have been early adopters there. By using it as a space to share their music, connect with fans, and promote themselves I think many of them helped themselves along.

I know more than a few visual artists – painters, sculptures, photographers, etc – use their own web pages to promote their art. Hugh MacLeod started building his fame online as a marketing guy before he made art creation his main gig though. These days he sells all his work online. (I own this piece and love it BTW) Hugh continues to promote himself (all selling is basically selling ones self) online through Twitter, his blog, his books and interactions with other online personalities. And make no mistake about it Hugh is himself a personality. The Internet gives him the opportunity to get his personality across. People like his art work in part because they like Hugh. This (people getting to know his personality) would not be possible on any reasonable scale without the Internet. I’ve recently come to the conclusion that for most people the value of art is much more about the artist than the intrinsic nature of the product. Rational or not it seems to be the case.

Which brings me to another point. Selling art is not a matter of simply putting up a web site and having people find it. For the Internet to be really helpful for an artist it has to be a tool for the artist to communicate with people. IT has to be an extension of how they communicate who they are, why they do what they do, and what sort of personal connection they make with people through their art. Then you can get people to support you directly by buying art and indirectly by providing feedback, emotional support and in the cases of performing arts – attending performances. The Internet is, as it has been since the world wide web and even before, about making connections and weaving things together.

I’ll give one more example of this. John Herman is a New Hampshire artist. I’m not sure how to characterize him because he is in to so many things. His home page banner says “Artist, writer, teacher, web adventurer” while his Twitter page (@JohnHerman) says “Artist, Writer, Teacher, Media Strategist, Creative Content Producer, Founder of NH Media Makers” From his home page or from his Twitter feed interested people can branch off to a surprising number of artistic endeavors. I have no idea if he makes money from any of this artistic work BTW. He makes a living as a high school teacher which is how I first heard about him. But clearly the Internet and modern technology gives him creative outlets and connections to people that would be all but impossible otherwise. I suspect that there is more of this going on than I am aware of but I also believe there is a lot more of it to come.

Is it sustainable? I hope so. We need art and other creative outlets for people.