Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Identity and Privacy

Its only been within the past few months that I've started posting and sharing my artwork online; my work is the main source of content I post publicly. I want everyone to see my art, to discover it, to take an interest in it. It's a gateway to my mind, my interests, opinions about the world. A lot of people think that they have control of what the put online and who gets access to it, and they do for the most part. People chose what to say, what to post, and how to go about it; its all a choice. The scary thing is, whether you realize it or not, your information is in the hands of a lot more companies than they think. Just the past week I was reading some articles about privacy online when I came across this one:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/spring-cleaning-who-has-access-to-your-data/

It was basically a how-to for cleaning up some of your privacy settings on your Facebook. Before then, a lot of the apps I used I signed in through my Facebook so I wouldn't have to go through the annoying process of getting another username and password. I literally had no Idea that the app uses this technique to get your information through your account. When I finally looked up how many apps had my information, and I was shocked to see how many apps I've accessed though my account, apps I haven't used in years, apps I don't even remember using!
I immediately cleaned though about 250 apps. They all had my name, age, gender, birthday, email, and list of my friends. I don't even think it cleared that information from those companies, It just denied access to my info from now on. They all had this much access for such a long time without my even thinking about it for a second. It really hit me that I don't have as much knowledge of who or what had my info as I originally perceived.
I know my super personal information, like the stuff I have on my personal Facebook isn't exposed because of my privacy settings. If anything gets out thats controversial or provocative, It will be thought my art work. Thats how the world will get into my head.
A lot of adults seem to think young people don't really care what they put online or who will see it, sure we see a lot of "scandals" online exposing young peoples photos or silly Facebook or twitter posts all the time, but I don't think that the mistakes of the few (I know its ALOT more than a few) shouldn't really speak for the whole. There are just things I think a lot of kids and young adults have become desensitized too and don't create such a shock online anymore. Thats not to say we can all do some cleaning up and inspection of your privacy settings from time to time. Especially if we are looking for a job, the internet has become the new recruit grounds for companies. I also don't think just because we should be more careful with what we put online and how we perceive ourself, we shouldn't have to censor ourselves. The internet is an amazing space for discussions, opinions, movements, declarations, It has the power to change the world, and so do we.

Monday, September 8, 2014

My art

Hey whats up :)
As I mentioned in my first post, I am an artist.
Currently I am an art student going to school in New York city. I am in my Junior year. I've done a lot of the usual things such as drawing, painting and sculpting. I am mainly a painter as its my favorite medium. Although I am getting into printmaking this current semester. I wanted to share one of my painting series I did last spring. They're all acrylic paint embellished with this sequin like medium I mixed with the paint.  They are all quite huge and each painting stands at least 4 feet tall. 



This series was about exploring acrylic (this was the first time I've used acrylic paints as I was very attached to oil beforehand) as well as experimenting with textures and color. These paintings are my absolute favorite pieces I've made in school so far. 
I hope you enjoy! I'll be sure to share more of my work with you soon :)