As mentioned before, social bookmarking sites can be a helpful resource to those searching for art criticism. It links readers to intelligent responses about the art world as well as introduces them to unknown artists, gallery owners, and members of the the art scene. Unfortunately this method of unknowingly discovering people who are active in the the arts is rather hit or miss and requires some luck, but a good way to overcome this is to find someone who has similar interests and social bookmarking interests. One way to learn about something new is to be taught by a person who understands it, but a more interesting way to go about learning is to do it with someone who is learning as well. A good site to meet these people is del.icio.us.

Del.icio.us is a website created as a social bookmarking tool that allows its members to keep a running list of every page they bookmark. In addition to the personal lists the site will create, delicious also allows its members to view the pages of other users, connecting people through their common interests.

Since this blog is focused on the understanding of the underground art community in Los Angeles, delicious is a good site to use when looking for people who are interested in the same topic. After searching through topics ranging from art criticism to street art, the delicious user arlisnap came up. Arlisnap has bookmarked pages from galleries, museums, artists, and the topic of art as commerce. This bookmarker seems to lean towards contemporary art and is very drawn towards images and film about this topic. Her bookmarks are followed by very detailed descriptions of the webpages, a skill that few bookmarkers seem to have, that makes it easy to see her direction of focus. Browsing her long list of over 500 bookmarks leads to the web page Wooster Collective, a site about street art worldwide appreciated by this blog. In addition to her appreciation of street art, arlisnap also introduced me to museum websties as well as artist appreciation sites. As mentioned before, the bookmarker is drawn towards commerce, for example, one of the bookmarks is an article about maintaining integrity in painting. Since arlisnap had a wide range of pages, it was interesting to discover sites that encompased a number of my interests.

These kinds of bookamrkers are good to look for because they introduce readers to the people who make up an art community. Stressed before on this blog is the idea that the people within the art world supply the interest to the community. Bookmarkers, like arlisnap, are drawn to pages that reflect their personality and are considerate when commenting on their saved sites. In the end this allows newcomers to discover aspects of the art world that they had never heard of before, whether it is in the discovery of a new museum, artist, or gallery.

Thanks to arlisnap’s wide range of art and culture bookmarks, it was easier to trust the pages the bookmarker recommended. Hopefully people like that will help this blog and continue to share their knowledge and personality with other readers. For now, following arlisnap will hopefully lead to an entire community of artists and art lovers.