Home for Artists

New demo site!

2011-08-29T19:07:17+00:00

We've created a demo site so that you can see an example of what can be created in a matter of minutes at Home for Artists. If you watched the "5-Minute Web Site" video, we followed those exact steps to create this. After that, a few posts were added and some settings were changed. And you can see that we have a great web site with blog posts, pictures, comment system, etc. We even changed out the billboard image at the top - this image can be anything you like.

If you're a visual artist, you may require an image gallery that exists on its own (rather than putting your images in blog posts, as we've done in the demo). Remember that plugins exist for just about any functionality you like in Wordpress's plugin database. For image galleries, we recommend the plugin NextGEN Gallery for most web sites. Just to give an example of how simple this is, here are the installation instructions: In your Wordpress admin area, click Plugins > Add New. Type "nextgen gallery" into the search field and hit Enter. In the results, find NextGEN Gallery and click "Install Now" then "Ok." Then click "Activate Plugin."

And you're done! Adding site functionality really is that easy! Now you will find a Gallery link in the left column that will allow you to upload photos and manage your galleries.

See the new demo site here!

Unveiling the Home for Artists makeover

2011-08-08T22:46:08+00:00

The first step in creating a revitalized Home for Artists is complete. We think you'll find the new design to be cleaner, easier to navigate, and more efficient. More importantly, it provides us with greater opportunities to add more functionality.

That means that new features are on the way! In particular, we will be adding many new community features to the web site, allowing our customers, along with other artists, to communicate, collaborate, share ideas and criticism, aid one another in shaping their sites, and more!

In addition, the blog and FAQ sections will be beefed up steadily with a tremendous amount of information. Where should one look for scripts for particular purposes? Where can one find web-graphics tutorials? How does one go about acheiving rankings on Google and other search engines? What colors should be mixed in order to creat burnt umber, or should you just buy burnt umber in a tube? What really happens on December 21, 2012, and what time does it happen? All of this and more, except for the last couple of questions, will be answered.

If there's anything you would like us to cover, or any features you would recommend, please post them on our Facebook page, our Twitter page, or send us a message on our Contact page! Many thanks!

Inspiring art quotes

2011-07-22T15:41:39+00:00

Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
~William S. Burroughs

I see painting as an evocative magic, and there must always be a random factor in magic, one which must be constantly changed and renewed.
~William S. Burroughs

In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas... a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.
~William S. Burroughs

What the artist must render is a living moment somehow, a living moment actually in action or an inward experience.
~Joseph Campbell

The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward.
~Joseph Campbell

A man of genius makes no mistakes; his errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
~James Joyce

Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.
~James Joyce

That's the artist's role - to strike out always for something new, to break away, to defy, to... grapple with the unfamiliar.
~Brian Aldiss

Creative artists are mankind's awakeners: through the language of metaphor we are the summoners of the outward mind to conscious contact with our inner selves as spirit.
~Ran Andrews

Man will begin to recover the moment he takes art as seriously as physics, chemistry or money.
~Ernst Levy

The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist. The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.
~Henry Miller

The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.
~T.S. Eliot

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
~Paul Gauguin

Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.
~Jean Cocteau

The work of art may have a moral effect, but to demand moral purpose from the artist is to make him ruin his work.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself. What is the use of giving explanations, when all is said and done? A painter has only one language.
~Pablo Picasso

The world today doesn't make sense, so why should I paint pictures that do?
~Pablo Picasso

Life isn’t divided into genres. It’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.
~Alan Moore

To me, all creativity is magic. Ideas start out in the empty void of your head - and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It's an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that's not the most important thing. It's the work itself.
~Alan Moore

I think that storytelling and creation are very close to what the center of what magic is about. I think not just for me, but for most of the cultures that have had a concept of magic, then the manipulation of language, and words, and thus of stories and fictions, has been very close to the center of it all.
~Alan Moore

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
~John Lennon

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
~Albert Einstein

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.
~Albert Einstein

There is one thing one has to have: either a soul that is cheerful by nature, or a soul made cheerful by work, love, art, and knowledge.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

Art is essentially the affirmation, the blessing, and the deification of existence.
~Friedrich Nietzsche

There is no must in art because art is free.
~Wassily Kandinsky

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.
~Georgia O'Keeffe

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.
~William Faulkner

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
~Pablo Picasso

Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
~Leonardo da Vinci

What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.
~Augustus Saint-Gaudens

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
~Aristotle

To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
~Schumann

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.
~Pablo Picasso

I believe that if it were left to artists to choose their own labels, most would choose none.
~Ben Shahn

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
~Joseph Chilton Pearce

The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven's Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it.
~Louis I Kahn

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
~Pablo Picasso

Video: Building a Site in Under 5 Minutes

2011-06-29T20:42:35+00:00

At Home for Artists, we try to make site-building as simple as possible so that even a person with limited or no understanding of HTML and web development can still have a fully functioning, attractive web site. To that end, we've created this short video of me building a web site, using the very easy tools provided to all Home for Artists clients, in less than 5 minutes.

Link to Us, Get a Discount

2011-06-15T20:04:41+00:00

If you choose to provide a link from your site to Home for Artists, we will consider discounting the rate of your hosting by up to 20%. Discounts will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Simply email us with a link to the page displaying a Home for Artists text link or banner and we will determine whether you quality for a discounted rate. We greatly appreciate prominent links in visible locations, however any link is helpful. Many people choose to link to us in their footer, using, a small chiclet graphic or even a transparent logo - all available on our "Link to Us" page.

Links buried in pages that cannot be reached from the front page of the site will not be considered for this discount, although any link we get will be greatly appreciated, and will make you our best friend.

On a quick unrelated note, many new features and resources for artists and their web ventures are in the works, so stay tuned!

Social Sign-In Now Available

2011-06-12T00:32:41+00:00

The days of having to jump through hoops to register for a site are behind us. Think of all the times you've seen a blog post, wanted to comment, but chose not to because of the anticipation of filling out a form, waiting for an email to confirm, then finally being able to go back to the site, log in, and post. Now, at Home for Artists, you can simply click the 1-Click Sign In button and use your social networking accounts to sign in here. Then you can do all the things any other member can do - comment on posts, ask questions, post on our upcoming forums, and so on.

We offer the following ways to sign in: Google, Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, Yahoo, and AOL. If you have an account with any of these services, you can use it to sign in to Home for Artists with one click and possibly one more to confirm. This means you can be commenting in seconds. It also means not having to remember yet another login... just make sure you login with the same service every time.

You'll find social sign-in options in the right column as well as anywhere that comments can be posted.

New FAQ Section Launched

2011-06-03T21:12:24+00:00

Today we have added the first of a series of new features that were referenced in our last post - a Frequently Asked Questions section.

This new FAQ replaces our old knowledgebase with a more robust system that we created for easier navigation and increased helpfulness. Not only can you browse the categories and questions, and see the answers to those questions, but you can now submit your own questions to be considered for inclusion, and you can comment on existing ones. We encourage everyone to comment if you have any questions on a given answer, need further clarification... or if you have an answer for a question asked by someone else. And if you notice any mistakes, please don't hesitate to bring them to our attention - we're human beings, and we're as prone to mistakes as anyone.

Today there are only a small collection of very rudimentary questions as we launch this new section, but we will be expanding it over time. Please, if you have any questions you feel should be covered, contact us and let us know! If you have any ideas to make the FAQ more helpful or easier to navigate, again, please let us know!

I'd also like to mention - the old knowledgebase was specifically focused on how to manage a hosting account with us. We feel, however, that we have plenty of video tutorials explaining these topics. Much of this ground will be covered here as well, but we don't want to limit this FAQ to just questions about hosting - after all, this site is about helping our customers be successful with their web sites, rather than merely offering web space. As such, the FAQ will not only cover the basic areas of hosting management, but also of web site management, design, web site promotion, SEO, Photoshop/Illustrator, and more. Anything that could be helpful to an independent artist, musician, writer, or other creator trying to promote their work online will be covered.

Visit our FAQ!

Rebuilt the Site - New Features Coming

2011-05-30T23:45:07+00:00

With a great deal of work and effort, we have rebuilt the site with an entirely new back end management system. This will allow us to do much more with our system, with much more flexibility to be creative.

The first thing we'll be adding is a new comprehensive FAQ (to be expanded over time). Not only will it answer many of your technical hosting questions, but also will offer answers, tips, and advice for building and maintaining a successful web site. These questions will be answered by us, and then will have a comment system for each question and answer so that you can ask for clarifications, correct mistakes, offer further advice, help one another out, and so on. We urge everyone to participate!

Edit: FAQ has launched! Here's the link: Home for Artists Hosting & Web Site FAQ

Refer Your Friends!

2011-05-10T17:58:14+00:00

If you have entrusted us with your web site, and you feel that we’ve done a great job of helping you get setup, and that our service and support is worthy, then we ask that you refer any friends, acquaintances, and associates you have who might be on the market for hosting, or have expressed interest in launching a web site. We greatly appreciate the support of our clients and friends!

We also appreciate referrals to our community on Facebook, Twitter, our blog, and our forums!

Green Hosting = Wind Generated Power

2011-05-05T21:56:38+00:00

The word “green” is used as a marketing gimmick by many companies after they change from using Styrofoam lunch plates to recycled paper plates in the break room. So we feel it’s important to explain exactly what we mean when we say we’re a green hosting company.

A data center, as a hole, can be a bit hard on the environment, and particularly when it comes to power consumption. Data centers currently account for 3-4% of the electricity usage in the world. One server can have the same climate impact as a 15 mpg SUV, and one data center may have tens of thousands of servers. (Note: It’s said that Facebook alone uses over 30,000 servers – that’s a lot of SUV’s!)

We use only the most energy efficient servers, and this alone reduces power consumption by as much as 36% from that of average servers.

More importantly, we are located in a data center that runs entirely on wind-generated power (for both power and cooling). If we’re concerned about the environment, and believe it is important that we do our best to take care of our only home, then we should support companies that use clean, renewable energy. It's not enough, but it's a start.