My Negative Experience with ArtSelector.com

My last blog entry talked about beginning a new round of self-promotion. So after that entry I began making the rounds to some various art oriented directory sites where I could create some promotional profiles. One of those sites that I had found previously and then went to create a profile on was www.ArtSelector.com.

My initial impression of the site before I went to create a profile was a positive one. They promoted themselves as a site oriented towards the contemporary artist. And they represented all major areas of artistic discipline including photography.

So I went through the process of creating a profile on the site. After I created my initial profile, I proceeded to begin uploading images of my photography to my profile to finish the setup process. At a certain point in the upload process an error occurred, and the upload process was interrupted. That then forced me to have to re-login to the site. When I did I found that my new profile was completely lost along with my initial signin codes. I couldnt get back in at all. At this point in time it was late in the evening, and I decided to deal with this problem the next day.

The next day begins, and I again attempt to signin to my profile. And I find that I cannot. My created signin codes fail to get me back in. So I am forced to re-create a profile a 2nd time. And during this 2nd attempt I am able to completely finish the process of creating my profile including the uploading of images for my profile gallery. So I'm feeling good at this point except for a minor irritation. That irritation being an error msg that was created after the first failure at uploading my profile gallery images. That error msg was reading "Embedded Gallery2 is not available or requested URL does not exist." No matter where I go on the site this error msg is constantly following me around on the screen. It refuses to go away.

At this point this error msg is irritating me enough to contact the site operators and report the problem. Other than this error msg not going away I'm feeling ok about the site and expect to gain some quality promotional benefits from working through the site. Afterall, the site seemed to fairly active and had a large number of registered artists on the site.

A few hours go by, and I find in my email box a reply from ArtSelector.com in regards to my sent msg. They replied back apologizing for the problems I had with the site. But then they laid a major bombshell on me immediately after their apology.

They specifically stated the following, "Unfortunately we are unable to show your work on ArtSelector as i contravenes our terms and conditions of use on which our funding agreement is based. We are a contemporary art website that aims to support, promote and bring together criticaly engaged, contemporary art practioners and viewers. Sorry about this."

At this point after reading this I found myself becoming more than irritated. No where during my signup process was there any form of a warning that would alert me to the idea that maybe my work would be flat out rejected or be undesired so that I would not waste my time on this site. It's not like I am a producer of adult hardcore porn. I generally work with fitness models. I produce fitness, fashion & glamour images. And I will on occasion produce soft erotica. Soft erotica that's softer than a Playboy magazine centerfold spread. I tend to personally consider my work as sexy as the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition. So in my book, I dont consider what I produce or what I posted up as examples of my work for my profile to be a problem.

But apparently there was a problem for the people at ArtSelector.com. Because it took my signing up onto their site twice, and apparently automatically having my profile blacklisted & removed to learn that my work was a photographic work was a problem for them.

And this whole experiecne begs several questions that I'm quite sure I will never get an answer from, from anyone at ArtSelector.com. Such as why does it take 2 signup efforts to learn about there being a problem to begin with? If the site operators are concerned about contemporary art than I have to wonder why there is a problem with someone that produces fashion & glamour style imagery? My personal experience tells me that fashion & glamour photography is fairly contemporary in its development & production?, and the site stated that they allowed photography among its disciplines. So how was my posted work not contemporary?

During the period that I was successfully online with the site and my profile, I did see other others in using other media that were showing work that was figurative and that was semi-nude & nude. So why was it perfectly ok those artists to continue to be on the site, and not me?

When I got ArtSelector.com's reply to my problem, I immediately responded back some questions to get a better understanding of what their problem truly was with my work. But as of yet I have not gotten any response to my questions. And I do not expect any response at all.

So at this point considering my experience with this site, I am here to tell everyone reading this that they should scratch off ArtSelector.com as a site to consider for artistic promtional use. There are other sites that do not concern themselves with cherry picking which online members are worth keeping online and which one's are not.

I have created profiles on other art oriented sites and have not had any problems at all. Those sites I will discuss in upcoming posts.

But when it comes to ArtSelector.com, all I can say at this point is this, if ArtSelector.com changes its policies and contacts me with an invitation to rejoin, I am here to tell them to flake off. They need me alot more as a member than I need to have them as a vehicle to promote my work. Ignore ArtSelector.com in your artistic online travels.