Postmodern Commercial Social Media in the Art World, Does it Work?

I stopped watching television in 1974.  Why?  As Marshall McLuhan reportedly stated, The Medium is the Message was seemingly true, and as far as I was concerned the message was Buy this, and your life will be complete.  As a young artist, I grabbed my backpack, paints, and a journal and headed for the woods on a regular basis.  The first time I worked on a computer was 1989 (graphics) and in 1990 was given an office with a computer in my now long-term professor position at a rural University in northern California.  It took me a little while to figure out my Apple turn-on button.  It has changed my life in some commonly known good ways, and has filled my mind and thoughts with that of which I can do without.  The TV commercials I eschewed now come to me while I work in constant flow of cryptic messages.

Northern Sierras, California

It's true that social media had an opportunity to communicate with its buyers.  Tempted by five dollar or 20% discounts, shoppers can sign away their email addresses to businesses to receive even more discounts.  Frugal buyers saw those opportunities as ways to balance out their monthly budget, but alas, didn't realize that they would be bombarded by, at times, with daily offers with discounts and promo codes for online shopping. To deter the bombardment, one could easily divert these promotions to one's spam folder, or in a more efficient manner, allow Google's Gmail to separate your promotions from one's regular email.  The only problem is that it's become overwhelming and seems a bit abusive.  In my experience, I've learned my lesson about disseminating my email address, and on a regular basis, put on two pairs of reading glasses to find that light colored word at the bottom of the email called UNSUBSCRIBE.

Artists who make objects versus conceptual artists who largely write, spend money to make those objects.  As an oil painter myself, I can easily spend $15 for a moderately good paintbrush, and as much as $50 for a studio sized tube of professional grade paint (gulp!).  If I don't have the time to build stretcher bars and cover them with canvas and gesso, I can seek out a pre stretched and primed commercial version for typically more than double the price.  This art-making process is costly (at least I don't make bronze sculptures), so what do I do?  Look for coupons!  Sigh. In a shrewd effort (I believe) to seduce artist buyers, art supply distributers will allow coupon codes on select items, so in some cases, for example, you may only receive a discount on some of your order.  A especially frugal artist may cost cross-analyze different suppliers, so by the time one chooses one, realizes the partial discount, tiredly hits the SUBMIT button in budgetary exhaustion.

I would surmise that all the artists in the visual arts---painters, printmakers, sculptors, ceramicists, and electronic media artists---all bargain shop, as well as other artists in music, theater, and performance.  We are not known to be especially good business people (and the ones who are, are commercially-focused, and in my opinion, in a different type caste), so we struggle with the funds we have to live on, as we are more so dedicated to getting the materials we need to produce our art forms.  I suppose that famous artists are sought to use and advertise art media so that the emerging artist feels he or she will become successful, but there are those artists, such as Andy Warhol and Lou Reed of the early Velvet Underground, who both rebelled against the social news media as young artists.  Warhol succumbed (partially as his art form and partially as a business man) to the commercial system, as the Warholian magazine, Interview, manifested in the 1980's.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview_(magazine) 

Lou Reed, on the other hand (who I listened to with gritted honest teeth), had a disdain for media and relinquished his privacy by refuting journalistic media.  Nasty as he was reported to be, he stood his guardian dark angel position as a truthful artist for many years.  He was loved for it. http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/227588/jou rnalists-remember-interviewing-lou-reed/  Laurie Anderson, a brilliant performance artist since the 1970's is/was Reed's wife, took him home from the hospital last week to die in their home.  He died practicing tai chi while meditating on the trees seen from his window. http://music-mix.ew.com/2013/10/31/lou-reed-laurie-anderson/

He won.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders