Hannah Wilson chose a pseudonym when she launched an Etsy site for her fine art photography – Darla Dear.
In the time since Wilson began testing the waters of the commercial art world, she has developed her ideas on running an online shop, sharing her ideas and her art via Etsy, and recently starting a blog exploring her ideas on photography and fashion.
I’m an editor of a small arts journal in the Antelope Valley in the southern reaches of the Mojave Desert and we had a chance to publish some of Wilson’s Darla Dear photography in 2011. Hearing that she had started up a blog, I tracked her down to ask her about her projects and to try to get some insight into her views on art in general.
Who are your favorite artists?
I had to think a long time about this question. My favorite artists aren’t necessarily ones whose bodies of work I admire the most, but whose work caused me to think of art in a new way. When you realize the ability art has to change your perception of the world, you don’t forget that.
With that said, my number one “favorite” artist is abstract-expressionist Mark Rothko, especially for his painting titled No. 14. In an art history book or online, the painting looks quite dull and boring. In person, however, it emits this heavy, vibrating anxiety that you can’t really describe with words. I had never fully understood the power of art to move viewers emotionally until I stood in front of that massive canvas. The fact that Rothko was able to create something so powerful out of simple fields of discordant color is mind-boggling to me!
You can see the painting yourself in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
What would you like to achieve with your blog?
I started my blog with the intention of increasing exposure to my Etsy shop, after realizing that those who are most successful utilize multiple social networking sites, and network in their communities like crazy. My photography is not going to get anywhere just sitting, buried in the immense pool of artists that is Etsy.
However, after really getting into the blogging routine, I can see that blogging is so much more than business promotion. Blogging provides motivation to be more creative, to enjoy and document everyday life, and to establish friendships with bloggers around the world!
I would love to become popular enough to accept sponsors and receive a small extra income from that, but more important than that is creating a blog with quality content that people like me want to look at and be inspired by.