Another follow up on my previous magazine posts
I posted here about my current favorite magazines:
http://kellykilmer.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-current-favorite-magazines.html
My question now is, out of all of the magazines out there, what do you like? What don't you like? What would you like to see more, or less of? What artists do you want to see? What kinds of articles?
Inquiring minds want to know. You can post anonymously, if you'd like. The most important things I'm looking for are honest, specific answers. I want feedback that helps, but is not mean spirited.
Thanks in advance for your time!
http://kellykilmer.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-current-favorite-magazines.html
My question now is, out of all of the magazines out there, what do you like? What don't you like? What would you like to see more, or less of? What artists do you want to see? What kinds of articles?
Inquiring minds want to know. You can post anonymously, if you'd like. The most important things I'm looking for are honest, specific answers. I want feedback that helps, but is not mean spirited.
Thanks in advance for your time!
Comments
Great question, Emie
The how is ok, and it's sometimes interesting to see how something that catches your eye is done, but honestly, I usually skip that in magazines, the whole "layer x colour with y colour and paste on such a picture yada yada yada" just doesn't really itnerest me.
I can't help thinking if there were more "nobodies" featured, there would be less pretty ladies with their heads to the side replacing the wings and dunce hats...
- Jazz
My other favorite magazines are anything Teesha produces. I have learned that if she is moved to produce a magazine, buy every one while she is in the mood. (I'm just like that, flittering from one thing to another sometimes, so that is not meant to be critical)
:-)
I was disappointed with CPS this time. There was a lot of focus on fiber arts and assemblage. I want more art journals or at the very least paper crafts. I don't mind seeing the same people over and over again as long as they talk about art journaling.
I know you aren't so much a fan of technique articles, but those are always my favorites. I try new things and sometimes they end up sticking around in my art for a long time.
I do love to see the process, but I would also love to know the backgrounds of the artists and their thought process on their choices of both their artwork and their path as an artist.
I don't want to see anymore women looking straight out with their heads tilted at awkward angles. I want to see a lot less trend and lot more individuality. I want to be inspired instead of put off.
we are very visual after all but also I think listening or seeing the raw or real thing that comes from a “live” thing is very attractive too
to tell you the truth I think that’s why we get hooked with reality tv (I hope we all know that it is being staged and edited in the majority of the cases)
sometimes I think that’s why people give a try or two to “vlogging” podcasting and or youtube
they want the audience and in a magazine it may happen and also it may very well stop right there. I admire that people who starts in their own thing kudos! it takes a lot!
not so sure if this comment helps you, everything has its sides or reasons for sure
and before I go I need to answer the rest of your questions about magazines and artists, i certainly enjoy when artists talk about their creative process and passions
and definitively about their ways of organizing life and/or make money
also I kind of like when they share what else they enjoy besides their craft, or learning of their quirkiness, even about their stubborness you know. It is fun for me and enjoyable to sense them.
I want to hear their stories and to be honest, I want to relate and feel connected ;-)
and i do like pictures a lot! pictures are cool! cleanliness or messyness, that's fine, just give the visuals to enjoy (because we are all different some may prefer all tidy and some just care about following their art or craft)
by the way I have been enjoying your formspring answers
thanks!
Don't underestimate readers, we are intelligent, women who want content, not just "pretty pages." More substance, less "how-to". Really hate the instructions that accompany articles. Who wants to "copy cat?" You can say how to get an effect w/o saying how to make one just like it! Come on!
without posting a post on your blog, I think, judging by the comments, we are all on the same page, forgive the pun.
I agree with you, I would like to see art journaling make its way into art books. I want to see more variety, more writing in the images themselves.
I may be biased, because I write quite a bit in my journals and sometimes just have time for a quick wash, adhering some scraps of life.
I plan to do a post on that, part of the reason I let myself be talked into starting a blog.
If you haven't come across them already, "featured" on my most recent post are some amazingly creative science cards I have been sent.
I wanted to thank you for posting out loud what so many of us have found so irritating.
I remember once reading a comment on a popular design blog where a commenter said something to the effect that they were sick of seeing "that Keep Calm and Carry On poster everywhere". It was design for the masses, that people who liked this had no taste--something to that effect. I chuckled and thought, well, sometimes I'm sick of seeing an Eames chair in every living room photo (gasp). Indeed it is a beautiful chair, but I see it everywhere. Art and opinions are subjective.
So, too does this trickle down effect happen in what we see in magazines. These publications are often for the "masses" as opposed to the 'exceptions'.
I have mentioned in my previous comments that I want fresh and new content. I also don't mind seeing a tidy work space--because I tend to be inspired by this as well. My work space is not tidy. And yes, I would clean it up if it was being photographed. Do I like seeing spaces that are different than mine? Absolutely. Variety is fine, tidy AND messy, haphazard AND methodical. When I read a magazine I want FRESH content. I do not want to "recognize" the photos or texts from something I have already been exposed to on the web. Might I know the artist? Yes. But give me something different--new photos, a fresh interview.
It's the inspiration I am looking for--it could be a single photo--yes, I have purchased magazines because of a single photograph and where it takes my imagination. That is the mark of a good magazine--to draw us in.
Not to single out but as an example I think some magazines do tell you what they are offering "Where Women Create" is just that "where"--the title does not say "What Women Create" or "How Women Create". I am not associated with WWC, just trying to be objective.
Sometimes we outgrow magazines and a new crop of readers shows up to take our place and that magazine does not grow with us, a new "same" audience comes along--and the "formula"stays the same. And there IS a formula.
What do I like? I like great photos----interesting articles---interviews with artists, hearing about how artists got their "start", what inspires them, what has been hard, what has been easy----to be honest I prefer to take classes on technique as opposed to learning this from a magazine.
And I like seeing a studio with a lot of interesting storage.
Clean or messy it doesn't matter.
And for the record I used to own an Eames chair.
I still own a Keep Calm and Carry On poster.
Some of the magazines I like are "Raw Vision," "Esopus," "Elephant" (published in the Netherlands), "Uppercase," and "Selvege Edge."
I wish that they would all stop with the "how to," unless they have something really revolutionary to show.
I believe there is thinking amongst the craft-publishing community that the "how to" must ALWAYS be included. Look at any book on knitting. The bare basic beginnings are always included. What a waste of space! Whole chapters of every book repeating the same info found in every other book!
No.
Cut to the chase. Where is what is interesting about THIS artist and what she is doing? What choices did she face along the way? Why did she choose as she did? What would she do the next time -- what would be similar and what would be left behind for which other choices?
That is what is interesting.............
I dropped my subscription to Art Doll because there was too much cutesie stuff -- with how-to!
No. Show the art. Have a separate publication for the cutsie and the how-to......
I wrote a mash note to A Famous Author, one time, telling her I liked her book because I wanted to see the art, not endless repetitive how-to. She wrote back and said she wished the publisher understood that; that there had been huge pressure from the publisher to include "projects" with complete how-to.............