#I just spent hours writing and printing out and glueing and cutting the lables for the exhibit I did

[punk-raphaelite]

@warmingtrend I hope it’s alright that I’ve screenshotted your tags, I think they’re a great addition

There’s also plenty of art galleries - the ones whose collections skew more towards a specific art historical time period rather than contemporary art - that have digitized collections on their website. And a lot of them have a section in their drop down menu to show works in the public domain.

And as a practising artist myself, if someone took a photo from my website or instagram and reposted it with my name and a link I wouldn’t be mad. I’d be excited someone liked my work enough to share it - as long as I’m given proper credit.

That’s the exact way I’ve found so many artists (living and dead) I love on this website. Thanks to people who go through digital gallery and museum archives, art databases and artist websites and post works of art along with the basic information you’d see on a placard in a museum. The title, year, artist name, medium and dimensions. And since this is an online medium the source of the image, so that same museum archive/database/artist website.

Enjoying art cannot be just appreciating the final product, it has to include the person who made the work as well. And for artists who are still living and trying to make a living off their art practise, online credit is extremely important.

I hate moodboards. Where did you get these images? What is the source? Who took these photographs? Who is the artist?

If you think that including credit to the person who made this piece of art is ruining your watered down appreciation that you call your aesthetic then you and I do not appreciate visual art in the same way.

Art is work, art is labour. Someone has spent their time, money, and expertise to develop their practise and create this thing. And you were too careless to even copy and paste their name to include in your post.

Not including an artists name is actively devaluing art as a whole. It shouldn’t be about pretty images that you scroll past as quickly as possible until you’ve had your visual fill. Art has more value than that. When you scrub the name of the artist from their piece you turn their art into a digital consumable. It commodifies their work and robs others of being able to learn more about the creator and their wider practice. And it does the artist (if they’re still alive) direct material, financial harm.

You want to support artists? That includes fine artists. People who make the types of works of art you’d see in a gallery. Photographers, painters, sculptors etc. Though the field we work in is all about money, most of us aren’t rich. We make art because we feel called to. And for many of us we cannot do anything else. Most artists aren’t lucky enough to make art full time, it doesn’t pay enough. The least you could do is include the artist’s name when you post a photo of a piece of art that person has lovingly crafted.