Shiny Artifacts..Shiny Art n' Facts?

As EXPO 30, our b. j. Spoke Gallery Juried Competition, is quickly approaching and having lined up our juror, curator Maura Lynch from the MOMA, to judge our competition, it was time to actually place some ads. The hard copy ads were already placed, but the task of posting the online ads,some 4 to 5 hundred of them, remained to be completed. The venture is a relatively simple one, setting up blank emails, cutting and pasting the postings,including a note of introduction as to who we are, etc. The method of actually locating appropriate online venues in which to place this information is completed in a variety of ways, depending on the intention, mood and demographics of my purposes. Sometimes I run through a list of Art Schools/Colleges in a particular state, sometimes I scroll through specific types of artists, ie. sculptors, paper artists, print makers. I have also learned to identify specific groups of working artists who may have an interest in submitting work to our gallery, or perhaps individual artists whom I feel have demonstrated solid, professional quality work which would be suitable for our jurors perusal.$35 buys an artist the chance to submit images of their work on a CD, along with thumbnails all of which are accumulated on a master CD for the judges consideration on a given Monday in Spring. From these, the judge narrows down her choices to between 14and 28 winners. The final winners are awarded a group show in August,and the honor of having been selected from among hundreds of competitors by a curator from the MOMA or the MET or the Whtney, or the Guggenheim museums.. So, that was today's goal..place at least a hundred ads, hoping that they would reach students, designers, artists from all walks of life from all across the US....It really does not have to be a difficult task...unless one is distracted by the seemingly thousands of references to art, fine art, art words, creeping out from every pixel of my PC, sirens that bring me far, far from my objective, right to the site of rocky fascinations with..NEW IDEAS...it was here that I made a vow..I would complete my 100 postings for today, (I did all the art schools in NY, MO, WV and KY and for those last two I was beginning to slack off; not too many art schools in West Virginia and Kentucky..)I finally finished. My neck feels as if it is crumpling under the weight of my motivated head. BUT..FINALLY I am free to return to those sites which I had so hopefully pasted to my "Favorite Places", and so, I indulge myself...in the pure distraction of "shiny objects, art n' facts.."