ONLINE ART REGISTRIES: What Are They Good For? Absolutly Nothing.

Well, perhapes not nothing but I wanted to parody a protest song and I didn't know how obvious the reference was without the answer. Anyway, about a year or so ago I began looking for online registries as a way to increase my exposure and possibly drive visitors to my site. I began with Artists Space and White Columns. And while I don't know anything about the vast majority of the people who visited my page on those sites, I do know that the only people contacting me from them have been decorators and other slightly more doubious online art registries. Registries have begotten more registries. The best of them was Saatchi's Your Gallery. Yes, I got an e-mail signed by Charles himself saying he liked my work. I was pretty freaked out and hesitant to get involved. Follow the link and you'll see the results of that.

The most recent solicitation came this very night. It was something called Art Face Off. The following was the e-mail message I recieved:

Hi,
We found you on afonline (Artists Space) and thought you would be excited to find out about another website that is changing the way the world does art.ArtFaceOff.com is a beautiful FREE art community website that makes viewing easy and enjoyable. We have created a free democratic system that makes art lovers and curators excited to view art.We receive over 400,000 hits a day.Here\'s what one artist said about her experience with Art Face Off.

Steve,This is exciting, isn't it? I'm loving the responses I've been getting to my work. Already, I've been contacted by an Australian website and publishing house to be a part of their group and by a grassroots TV show in Chicago who wants to do a feature on my work. I can't say thank you enough. -Leah Brown

Our democratic style has made the papers like speigel.de and techcrunch, AND WE ONLY BEEN ONLINE FOR 4 MONTHS.Our system works very well, because when an artist signs up, they send postcards to their friends and family asking them to rate them. Through this and other systems in place artists get great amounts of exposure. It just keeps growing and growing that way.Curators from all over the world are using our system to curate shows too.At the end of this year we are going to present the best artists worldwide in a show that rivals the Oscars.Come join the movement!Be prepared- we are soon going to upgrade the website with some of the best tools online for getting exposure and shows! This is a PR Art World like never seen before!To sign up goto http://artfaceoff.com/signup.php and click on the artist.Thanks
Steve
Art Face Off

Well, I was sold. So I followed their link to check it out. I began by looking at the current face off's. I thought I might vote, put my two cents in and then sign up. One problem, like the last presidential election, it was somewhat difficult to find anything worthy of my vote. I was ready to close the page and forget I'd never heard of artfaceoff.com. But then, as if a light shone from Heaven in the style of one of my drawings, I realized something. I might actually have a chance here. Perhapes, and I mean perhapes, I could go all the way. So if you want to see me go all the way to an Oscars style awards show, help me. Go to my official artfaceoff.com page, thomasmartin.artfaceoff.com, and rate my artwork. I have no idea how I get into a face off but we both know that when I get in the ring I'm gonna kill that dude. They don't have a chance. We can do this. We can win this together. Will you take this jouney with me? Will you help?

Update: Okay, I looked into it and after one month I can fight somebody if my ratings are high enough so help me out. On March 1st I'm gonna kill some crappy artist.