http://www.artbabyart.com went online in April 1999. The domain name originated from frustrations about not being able to find an "art name" out there that wasn't already registered. I think I saw a TV commercial one evening about Laurel Race Track (Horse Racing) and their little saying was "GO BABY! GO!", well, now you know the rest of the story.
a complete unknown to me
I was completely in the dark about the how's and why's of websites, I needed to find someone who could do a site for me. I knew a podiatrist, who moonlighted designing web pages, but soon realized this person really did not get the concept I had in mind for the website. So, I paid him a few dollars to tell me how and where to upload webpages to a server. The first months of this site was designed using Netscape Composer v4.04, great for a beginner like me, but often produced loose and sloppy results. The website started out with 2 or 3 pages and I was ecstatic to see this LIVE over the internet, I thought it was magic!!! So away we went and realized I had to search for STUFF to feature.
With this in mind I went to a couple of art shows and read the paper looking for any announcements. The first artists I met were Susan Fox Hirschmann and Mary Lin Yoshimura (famous wife of "Homicide: Life on the Streets" writer Jim Yoshimura) at the "Alternative Show" to the ACC Fair. Susan was the FIRST ever featured artist on the website and Mary Lin soon came aboard, plus Mary Lin told me about the Pearl Gallery in Hampden. At the time all the 3 of us did was tell and email friends about the website, joined a Webring or 2, and started linking to whoever would link to this site. Our "hits" numbered around 250 a month for a few months.
I thought Susan's Art Pottery was a hit and set out to find another artist or two. That's when I ran into Randall Gornowich. It was during the open studio tours in Baltimore spring of 1999 that I had a chance to meet Randall for the first time. Awesome studio, cool Art Clocks and lots of TALENT. Then along came Joyce, Angela, Bruce, and others. By July of 1999 our hits rose to 500 - 600 a month.
all is art
But, something was missing. I felt the site was turning into one of those "online art catalogs", it wasn't the direction I wanted to go. I always (and still) believed that the art was secondary to the artist. It was the artists I wanted to know more about, what makes them create what they create, where the ideas came from, the why's and the how's!!! After July, our "features" changed a bit and why the period between August through December of 1999 changed the direction of this website. Artist began submitting work and words that better described and more personal who they were and why. The "who are you" was being defined.
This was probably the most significant period for us, it paved the road this website would travel for the next 27 years...
to be contiued...
Rick Santiago - theunartist
re: artbabyart.net and artbabyart.org - Please be advised artbabyart.net or artbabyart.org are NOT part of this website. Neither domain, artbabyart.net and artbabyart.org, has been part of this website for many many years. Some links may exists on older or archived pages, we're removing them as fast as we find them - Thanks!
