EL MANIFIESTO REVOLUCIONARIO DE WICASTA LOVELACE DE LA MANCHA
I intend to ...

Code my own web sites.

Has anyone else noticed that artists tend to have the most horrible web sites? One would think that being an artist might lend itself very well to the creation of a web site, which one would think might involve a certain artistry, imagery and graphical design. But oddly enough, artists seem to do very poorly at it.

I think this is because there is a difference between art itself and the artistry of coding a web page. Making web sites display properly and look nice is a technological exercise that is quite different from putting brush to paint and paint to canvas. And yet there is an art to it, just as there is an art to everything (the difference between a race car driver who holds a steering wheel and zooms around the track, and another driver who has an instinctual feel for the machine and finds ways around the track that others don't seem to be aware of).

I also think artists tend to think of their web sites as some kind of virtual matte for their work. The web site is simply there to frame the work. Nothing more. They don't realize that the web site is not the matte surrounding the work, but the gallery within which their work is displayed. The impression made by that gallery influences how your work is perceived by your audience, for better or worse. And who knows better the overall impression an artist would like to make with his or her work than the artist?

I've chosen to learn the code. Sure, I'm cheap. I refuse to pay someone hundreds of dollars for a few pages of simple HTML code when this is something that I can very well do for myself. Of course, that's easy for me to say. I bought a template for $50 which I used as the basis for this web site, and I modified it to fit the overall theme that I was looking for. But I saw that as a short-cut that let me get up to speed quickly. In the process, I've updated my ancient HTML skills and, in the future, can craft a more strikingly original gallery for my work, without begging anyone else to make me look professional. I am in full control of my own image.

In the future when I make music, write stories or create artwork, I will already have a rather attractive gallery in which to display my work. But more than that, since I know the HTML code that makes this web site work, the web site itself will be part of the artist expression. In a very real sense, the web site is a work of art, and should therefore not be trusted to the whims or intents of another person.

We should all do it ourselves, I think. Even if it doesn't look very professional, if you do it yourself, it will reflect your personality and artistry. In the end, isn't that really what it's all about? Putting forth an accurate representation of who and what you are?
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