Myspace Censorship of Artists

They have deleted gay bands and activists who speak out, musicians and visual artists, political activists and pretty much anyone who says or does anything that they didn’t like…. while nudity is something they have issues with I am surprised that there are pages out there for sex offenders and porn while a small site featuring purely art nudity is deleted…. I’ve outlaid time and money on Myspace that I wont see again if I give up but I don’t want to look unprofessional by re-inviting all my old friends.

laws of Physics Cap’n

This falling figure was working so well up till now, great motion, a horrible chaotic feeling and gravity, but I can’t get this damn blindfold to work properly! does anyone want to volunteer to be pushed off a building so I can photograph them and get the physics right? no, I think I am just going to have to tie my poor husband up, blindfold him and blow a hairdryer at the fabric until I can get it to work.

Boundless Changes

Boundless Gallery have undergone some more changes to their site including a family filter and the opportunity for the artists to choose their own urls…. I now have registered http://nude.boundlessgallery.com/ to go directly to my profile page. I love being able to register such cool urls with these sites, it’s good for SEO and so easy to remember.

artwork pricing changes

the glazed ochre works are going to be priced slightly higher than the regular ochre pieces because about a week’s more work goes into them. all pieces will now be on the same scale as well, before I had works on a sliding scale per inch depending on size, now all works of a certain medium are going to be the same price per inch all the way through. I am very nervous about this because you don’t want to change your pricing too often, but I think it is time to raise them slightly and to even out the pricing structure.

Controversial Nudes did sell… and well

Maya with Pink Elephant by Maqbool Fida Husain The row escalated earlier in the week when activists petitioned Christie’s, the world’s best known and largest arts business and auction house, not to oversee transactions of any of Husain’s work.Christie’s rejected the demand, with spokesperson Sara Fox saying, “Art and culture embraces multiple interpretations and re-interpretations of religious and ethnic symbols that are often highly individual expressions.”Narain Kataria, president of the IAIF, told rediff.com, “Husain is a Muslim who was born in India, and he knows the significance of what he’s done. His hatred for Hindus is obvious in his actions and vulgar art, if you can call it art. It’s borderline pornography, not anything a normal person would consider art. By painting vulgar, sexual images of our great goddesses like Durgadevi, Lakshmi, and Saraswati, he deliberately insults Hindus’ sentiments…. MF Husain’s works frequently depict Hindu deities nude, I can see where that can be a source of contention if he displayed them in particularly sexual or pornographic poses, but most of his images are very peaceful, nudity is almost pure in them.

Feckles Down

Storm – 12×12 Oils on Canvas by Jennie Rosenbaum Luke from Boundless has Sent a message assuring me that “all nudes have not been blocked now, and never will be.

…The easy thing to do would be to give in. I am glad to say they are not doing that and I sincerely hope that it will not be the case in the future…. I was preparing to create noise of my own, I am perfectly capably of raising a real, and very public, stink- but I never wanted to aim something at the team at Boundless, I genuinely believe they do their best, they are not the people I was angry at.

Declaration of war against art?

He has also been accused of committing offenses under section 2 of the prevention of Insults to National Honour Act on account of certain paintings of Hindu Deities and naked Bharatmata.

…We have full faith in American Democracy but at the same time your democratic system will not glorify such a accused person who has no courage and respect to comeback to his motherland and justify his act of creating indecent Art, which can be equated only with that of infamous Denmark cartoonist who is also hiding himself.

…I am delighted that the site that has published this letter and the protest details has also included a list of all of MF Husain’s more ‘offensive’ paintings .

tarring all nudes with the same brush

due to one explicit example that made it’s way onto the new ‘discover an artist’ feature that randomly includes artist’s images from all over the site, there is now a demand for site-wide censorship of nudes. Some have said that they should be kicked from the site entirely, others have said that they should just only appear in searches, not on the front page, Some are saying that there should be an adults only section, and others say that they should be blocked to non members…. I believe my works are family friendly and if Boundless gives into this they will be pandering to the notion that all nudes are wrong, evil and always sexual in nature .

controversial nudes sell

In a letter to Christie’s, the Indian American Intellectual Forum, which has joined hands with Hindu Janjagruti Samiti on the campaign against Husain, said the artist has gained ignominy and notoriety in India by painting several Hindu gods and goddesses in derogatory forms…. Let us suppose for a moment that I understand the position on the Hindu extremists in India who are responsible for the exile of an artist…. Not content with already exiling the artist they now feel a need to try to make him a pariah in other countries – especially one that is well known for it’s laws on freedom of expression, speech and religious freedom.