#finding art

I’m so glad you’re enjoying this blog! A lot of times I can’t justify how a piece I’m posting is in any way relevant to the show, so it’s always wonderful to hear that what’s on here is resonating with other fans. 

I think I get what you mean! What you said reminds me of that quote, “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." (Cesar A. Cruz, a Mexican poet and human rights activist.)  I wish I had a few good art blogs I could recommend you that post this kind of work, but unfortunately the ones I used to be familiar with are now defunct. What I can tell you is how I find and track down the works I post here. 

And mainly, that’s by browsing. At the risk of sounding old, search engines and search functions on most sites don’t work the way I expect them to any more. Searching for things like “macabre art” or “grotesque art” and so on has been mostly useless for me.  I mostly use Pinterest. (I have a Hannibal board there that has a show aesthetic section, which was kind of the starting point for this blog.) Pages for individual pins are full of suggested images Pinterest thinks are related, and once a board is populated with pins, the  “more ideas” section can become more relevant. 

The thing is I can’t whole-heartedly endorse Pinterest as a tool. It is notoriously bad in terms of reposting artists’ work, and with good reason. A lot of what’s on there has no source or attribution of any kind, and sometimes attributions that are misleading or just entirely incorrect. Many creators actively try to keep their work off of Pinterest, and I don’t blame them.  

With that caveat, keeping a board of the kind of art you like can lead you to similar art. (I have a lot more to say about using Pinterest as a tool and about its politics, but I’m trying to keep this short.) 

Another thing I can recommend is looking up some of the artists you like from this blog and tracking down what group exhibitions they’ve been in, what galleries have, exhibited them, and what galleries represent them. Many galleries represent artists that work with similar imagery and themes. Even those that don’t will still have themed exhibitions. One that I’ve pulled a lot of artists from recently is Beinart Gallery. 

Similarly, blogs that post all kinds of art -- Colossal is a current favorite of mine --  will sometimes post art like this, and browsing the tags that they use when they do can lead to some exciting finds. 

Another good resource is artsy.net. They mostly sell art and are set up for people who want to buy, so galleries are mostly / only populated by art that’s available to sell, but their “related artists” function is better than most sites with that kind of feature and it can be a great starting place. 

Whelp, I’ve utterly failed at keeping this short. I hope some of this was helpful! Browsing is time-consuming and doesn’t always yield relevant results, but it’s how I do things. 

Thanks for writing, I’m so glad you like the work I post! I’ve just posted a similar ask about how I find art for this blog, and the answer was “browsing, mostly Pinterest and then some gallery sites” (except I’m utterly incapable of being concise so it took me over 500 words). 

In brickspace I’m a professional illustrator. I majored in studio art as an undergrad and took a lot of art history classes for fun. Browsing images in general is a big part of my creative process. Seeking out this kind of art in particular is more of a hobby, though --  my professional work is utterly unlike what I post here. 

Thinking about relics and items we collect through our lives. A new piece of art, a poem and a blog

My life is a string of boxesFilled with collections I holdPieces of experiences, emotionsAnd relics of moments in time. I am an amalgamation of my past,A book of chapters that are often seemingly unrelated.Yet when read together they express a life well lived. Names, places, and things travel throughSome stay for years, and other are only there for a moment.Many come and go,Making a guest…