Abstract painting of Boston, the city where I live .

Oil on Canvas, 24 in x 30 in, 2006

This is how i felt being in the city….a little human in the big city built by people like me

Sometime the evening sky here in Ohio just seems to catch fire. While walking past a few Pine trees in back of my home I noticed what seem to be a forest fire; it was the Sunset, and what a sunset.

Not to disappoint me, and possible to remind me of his wonderful creation, God occasionally sets out to “Wow” me like nothing else could ever do. Hence, the fantastic Sunsets in my back yard.

Original oil on canvas

Someone besides Tony, who is very near and dear to my heart, wrote a piece on Linear Thinking versus Networked Thinking. It got me thinking and talking with Tony. This image by Tony Karp is anything but linear thinking. It is result of Tony just letting his art go wherever his mind may take him at a given moment. Maybe it’s also networked thought.

You’re looking at a break in the woods on the road where we live. We glance at it in hopes of catching a glimpse of a deer or some other creature. Something made Tony take picture, I think it was the sun setting. An open mind, the technology that allows Tony to play with noise in the image and voile, a print that is hanging in our upstairs hall gallery. It’s the essence of what drives Tony Karp as an artist. He likes to make interesting art.

Techno-Impressionism is networked thought. In the world of art there is the artist, the critic, the artist’s agent, the gallery, the museum, the collector etc. Each of these is a very separate thing with a set of rules and in the end it boils down to knowing the right people who are connected to the right people. A network organized around linear thing. By golly, if you can connect into that network you become rich and famous. But it is not easy for an artist to make that connection and so many, many brilliant artists never get discovered, never get rich and worst of all people do not get a chance to enjoy their art.So here in the 21st century we have all this technology and a chance to redefine the network, the thinking and most important the connections. This artist’s muse started a blog with idea of being a muse and the artist’s agent. I’ve sold Tony’s art by standing with the perspective buyer and telling them about the picture. And so that is what drives what you read in the About this image section on Art Muse 2.0. I put my artist’s agent hat on and got Tony a show in Richmond through a connection. So far so good. But when I went to other galleries in the area I got the “we are booked two years out and not accepting submissions.” Translation, we won’t even look at your art. It’s the old network and the old way of doing things. That was a turning point and I decided to stop playing with the ol’ boy networks and to make my own game.It seems to me the Impressionists did battle over this same linear thinking and closed network a while ago. Tony Karp and Techno-Impressionism has been on the web for more than 10 years. and I guess we are doing battle just like the first impressionists. As with publishing, and TV there is a new way to look at art, how it’s created, displayed, marketed, sold etc. And just as with other mediums we’re looking to technology to change the dynamics. Here is what we have done so far:

• Built the Techno-Impressionist Museum
• Created a virtual gallery called the Techno-Impressionist Museum Store
• Created a real world gallery located in our home
• Sometimes the Art Muse functions as an art critic of what people consider art today
• Function as an artist’s agent
• The artist talks about what ever interests him at Art and the Zen of Design

We’ve made our own network and between us we play all the roles on-line. We’ve connected the museum, blogs and journals into a network or ring. Our thinking is confused some times, rarely linear but always connected through the use of technology.When you go to our blogs or the museum you will find a link to all the other sites. Our network has a name Techno-impressionism - an art movement for the 21st century. This has all evolved over time and continues to grow and change almost daily. We never worry about what we were doing. I follow my instinct, Tony keeps an open mind. We do what makes sense to us . Some people may think it’s all nonsense.In the end, these are ideas and you have to keep refining and selling them in the hopes you will persuade people to accept your ideas.We’ve been asked to be part of a beta that is all about art and technology. It is a connection to a new and hopefully influential network.

As some of you already know I was asked to give my opinion on the Eli Broad decision to lend his art collection to museums and cultural institutions as opposed to donating the collection. I have included below a link to the story and the interview.

Los Angeles’ new Broad Contemporary Art Museum, funded by real-estate baron Eli Broad, will house his immense collection. But he’s only lending his art. Andrea Gardner reports on how this unusual arrangement might set a trend.

Click here to listen to the interview or read the story on marketplace.publicradio.org.
**You will need RealPlayer to hear the story which can be downloaded here

About the Author
Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.

Image: New Broad Art Museum in L.A

Walking in the back yard 19 Feb 2008 I saw the Moon through the twisted branches of a Cork Screw Willow tree. The moon was very bright, with clouds all around, and the tree dark, the contrast shook me.