Google is Not the Gallery

As an advertising major, and an art minor, I am always invested in topics that bridge the gap between these two worlds. Of course, I was very excited to be doing a presentation for class on new media art and creativity. In researching for this project, I found a multitude of interesting trends on the rise.  From  video game imagery to speed-art videos, there is truly a wealth of creativity flourishing on the digital platform.  While I uphold the majority of new media art as brilliantly vivid, interesting, and innovative, there is one facet of it that I particularly disheartening.  Call me old-fashioned, but I am somewhat disturbed by the idea of online art galleries.  I know it is a convenient way to sell art and expanding one's market reach significantly, but I hate to see fine arts so commercialized.  I have always been worried about the technique and detail of drawing and painting being replaced by digital art.  It is true that both are excellent sources of self-expression, but I just hope that time can preserve the texture of gesso peaking through oil paint and the delicate lines of graphite.  That is not to say that online art galleries would be completely replacing fine art, especially because it is the selling of fine art online, as is done with apparel and books.  However, it is a step towards eliminating artistic interaction in the real world.  Art is something one cannot fully grasp online; one misses the immensity, proportion, textures and mood alive in a gallery.  I experienced this first hand when I went to the Art Institute of Chicago. My favorite artist is Edgar Degas, and I love his chalk pastel pieces especially. As I walked into the impressionist wing, I was completely blown away.  I had seen his drawings on the internet, but never had I been in the presence of a real Degas.  There is something so moving about seeing real art in the flesh; I hope the experience never disappears from the modern world.  Society needs the Blue Period just as much as they need the digital age.