How did OUR ART SITE DOT COM begin?
I failed to find a website that had today’s artists and their arts. I also failed to find a website that was not geocentric and had a policy where anyone could be reviewed. I found this hole and I filled it with OUR ART SITE DOT COM. Bored at work, had plenty of time to get paid while starting the rough six months of this project. Luckily I’ve moved on from that job, and the website has grown exponentially since that time. I told myself that the day I received 1,000 views a day I would be happy, and now that we’re reaching 3,000 I don’t know where to stop. OUR ART SITE DOT COM is here to fill the void of other websites, and to report the current viewpoint on today’s current international art scene.

Who is involved? Who’s on the team?
It started out with me talking to Eric Butler about making a website for the location we lived in and documenting their art scene. A few weeks later, we didn’t receive any love from the artists or galleries - mostly hate mail, so we decided that focusing our attention outside of one location, and instead globally that that would be the most ideal. Eric is now working at Esquire Magazine in New York City. I haven’t spoken with him since a meal at Safir’s this past summer - will be nice to see him again. I’ve interviewed Dasco a few weeks after the site started, and now he is doing some amazing things in South Florida and is our Media Liaison. Actor Gregory Siff was interviewed, and between the constant flights from New York to Hollywood and a lot of emails back and forth he’s now working in our Creative Marketing Department with Heidi - a wonderful girl living in Canada who started to get my attention with her photos she’d leave on our myspace page, and now she’s doing some major work up in British Columbia in our Creative Marketing Department. Rob has been taking our fliers and posting them up everywhere in California, and now he’s our new Social Networking Manager Intern. As you can see it’s people that do art and are passionate about their art and the arts scene who is behind this; and they were the ones that started their jobs with the site, not I. This is not my site, it’s theirs, and we are seeing this with all the work they are putting in on it. Anyone can be apart of the site, you just have to show me that you want to see the website grow and you’re on!

What are your plans for the future?
My personal plans for the future is to graduate college this May. I will have a BA in English, and after that I will attend business school for my MBA. Before graduate school I plan on visiting Miami this December and kick it like Tae bo with Dasco on the Southbeach side; visit Amsterdam and live in Europe for a while after May of 08; put together a gallery showing in SoHo of NYC late 2008 (Shhh, it’s a secret); work on another web based project for the medical community with my girl she thought up; and my girl and I are thinking of working at Club Med in Europe and save some cheese before school. I also have some real estate ventures I want to hash out in Southern Florida in 08 as well, so if anyone wants a nice place to live near the beach this time next year holler at me.

OUR ART SITE DOT COM will be in the picture, and I hope even a year from now today’s version will fail in comparison. I am lucky to say a lot of people are helping me take up the slack, and if this continues I have no idea where it will go but I believe upwards. I want to travel, I miss the open road. I want to experience what it feels like to be out of school. I deal with property management all day at my job, and I think I need more than that! I’m only twenty-two, we’ll see where life takes me.

How many hits a day do you get? Unique visitors?
Right now we are experiencing up to 3,000 unique views a day, from allover North and South America; as well as within Europe. I am glad we are getting a balanced audience from such locations.

What type of input have you gotten from users, artists, collectors?
Luckily people that work with the website are artists themselves, so they will know firsthand what works and doesn’t in the art community. I believe our users respect us for what we’re doing for the art community, as most art sites will not give an art blog to any person and the next day have their show review on the site. We’re here for the art community, and I think/hope our viewers see that and take us up on it.

When looking for artists to cover what are you looking for?
I am trying to find something that sets the artists apart from every other email I receive. In a given week I get about 30 emails from artists wanting on the site, and out of that I might be able to pick one or two. But then I have to actually find the time to send them the questions which is now taking me a lot longer than I used to due to time constraints outside of the project. I am just looking for art that will blow me away, because I know if it does that to me then it will surely have the same effect with our audience.

If there is any advice you’d like to say to emerging art sites? What is it?
Don’t be afraid of the websites that have been there for many years. Don’t be afraid to do it. I’ve met a lot of great people through this - so I think at least I’ve gained some friends online, as well as finding out firsthand what the art scene is really about, as well as th artists.Also remember that this is a lot of work, and once it gets off the ground it is hard to walk away from it and your audience. One more thing: beware of the haters. People dislike those that get off the couch when they are still on it. In some cases, the art world is like high school - and let me tell you how I hated high school.

Any advice you’d like to say to emerging artists?
I am not a published artist myself, but I guess I could answer this from a curator’s point of view: Be professional. I know you’re an artist, and a part of you dislikes certain social norms, but if you want to be successful you have to adhere to certain principles and present yourself in a professional light. The internet is making it to where my grandma can be a professional artist with a website about her personalized doilies, so be prepared to present yourself against that amount of people - and make your work stand out against that.

Also: CONNECTIONS.

Are you guys artists yourselves?
If so, where can we see your work? My artwork is not published online. Gregory Siff, when not acting, has some amazing work: http://www.myspace.com/gregorycollection

Heidi is one of my top five photographers of 2007, and until I get her site made you should check her out here: http://www.myspace.com/heidiandthecity

Also, when Dasco isn’t breaking his back for the website you should check out his work here (also, until I get the site made it’s on myspace): www.dascoart.com

Has beginning the site gotten you more involved in your own artwork?
My artwork is something that is unrelated to people outside of my home. My girlfriend and I are known for having art parties - strictly for people to come over and chill and make art together. I trust once I am free from undergrad, I can take my art parties worldwide with the amazing artists I meet through the site. If anything it takes me away from my art, but I make up for it.

What advice would you say to folks sitting in cities with little or no art scene?
I come from a city that has no art scene to speak of, so finding faults with your area and placing it as a limitation upon your work in effect limits yourself and your art. People in these areas have to look outside of their home to find what current artists are doing, and you can do this obviously through the web. It is very hard to create an art scene like many optimistic people - some city governments fail to realize the benefits a thriving arts culture can ultimately bring to their community, and we are seeing the benefits of fiscal governments thinking this way in cities like Omaha, Portland and Milwaukee. Some local governments fail to realize that it is the arts that help bring a city to face that of other cities, because when you get the arts people you in return get a city full of free thinkers and creativity: this is what brought New York City and Los Angeles out from coastal towns and into the two major arts players. So, if your city government won’t do it for you, and you have little time to take it upon yourself, then just chill and work on your stuff. One day you might have to move towards cities with respective goals like your own, and when that day comes you will know it is only to advance your work. Sure, the internet is nice and you can create contacts with it, but it is a lot better talking with these galleries face to face. I know that from first hand experience.