Sharon Greenaway

Blogging for Artists.Tonight I went along to an informal meeting held at the RL Campbell Theatrette (next to the Bendigo library) on the topic of blogging for artists.Organised by Rohan Phillips Arts Officer at the City of Greater Bendigo, the night featured guest speakers ABC Open Producer Jane Curtis with visual artist Gail Tavener sharing her experience of Blogging.Gail’s explanation of how she uses blogging was clear and easy to understand.Gail explained that while she also has a web site which is more static (and costs her a lot to change) and only updated a few times throughout the year, her blog allows her to keep her followers up to date with her latest work and sales and exhibitions. Sometimes her posts produces unexpected responses, Gail explained, using her recent post of a photograph of sunflowers from her garden as an example, as people contacted her about the propagation of these sunny flowers. ‘It means people are reading my blog,’ she added.One tip that Gail stressed was to only upload small resolution images onto your blog so that while people can see the work clearly, but can’t download the image into any large format.Jane discussed briefly what a blog is,comparing it to a diary that everyone can read, unlike posts to social networking sites such as Facebook where only friends have access. Jane also handed out to the 15 or so people in attendance an informative fact sheet on blogging that covered what a blog is, why have a blog,how do you create a blog and some tips on blogging.I found the evening to be well worth attending as it provided an opportunity to learn new tips and tricks as well as a chance to meet other artists from our local region.Thanks to Rohan, Jane and Gail for their time and expertise.