The last website was built by hand in a plain text editor.  I had no idea what I was doing, and changing one thing meant opening and editing at least 4 separate files.  This was a whole lot of very monotonous work, and the urge to procrastinate nearly always overpowered the urge to update.

This new site is using a lot of ready made components with lots of advanced content management systems; I’m halfway through uploading all the content and I’m still discovering new features that aren’t even advertised by the theme’s creator, Devin Price.

There is now a master gallery listing of images.  Images can be tagged in various ways, and galleries can be created on the fly based on whatever tag you select.  That means if I tag things “abstract, 2009, acrylic, Toronto,”, you can click “2009” and see a gallery of everything I painted in 2009.  With just one more click, you can be taken from there to a new gallery depicting toronto, or all my strictly abstract work.

I think this is a great addition to the website, because it frees people from the rigid organizational scheme I used on the old site, and lets you search for things however you want to search for them.

As I play around with this website further, I’m sure I will discover more cool new features that have so far gone unnoticed by me.  Content from 2006 to 2010 is currently uploaded and tagged, but I still have to go through and update all the information and the availability of each piece.  That won’t be a fun job…

Happy 2014.

You may have noticed that things look a little different around here.  That’s right, I’ve got a new website.

My old website was built to be fast and efficient, but it wasn’t flexible or easy to maintain.  With the introduction of tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and web-enabled gaming consoles, flexibility has become, in my opinion, much more of a priority.  And based on the frequency of my updates, making it easier for me to do so is probably going to be a welcome change on my end.

Moore Gallery, which had me on their stable of artists, has transitioned from a gallery with a physical space into focusing on private dealing.  That means that I’m a free agent in the Toronto art scene again!  As much as the internet changes things, democratizes the art world, and bypasses the gatekeepers and tastemakers of the past, I’m still the kind of artist who wants to show physical objects in a white cube.  I like galleries, and I’m working on settling into a new home for the foreseeable future.