Goodbye - for now

A month ago, on Jan. 5, I took a new full-time position that is completely different from my past careers. I am now a tax collector for the state of New York, a job that uses some of my native talents (such as the gift of gab), along with some of my recently learned skills (e.g. accounting), and serves a vital purpose in a difficult economy. It's not by accident that a key issue in the current political debate is that of fairness - and nowhere is fairness more critical than it is in the levying and collection of taxes.

The upshot of all this for me - and this blog - is that I am overwhelmed by the new training, work, and schedule, and am not finding the energy or time to continue writing reviews as I did so regularly for the past three years. Not wanting to do it half-assed, I have decided that, for the time being and foreseeable future, I will not be posting to Get Visual.

These three years have been a wonderful experience for me, and I have loved being able to reach an audience - whoever you are - with these opinions, descriptions, and reports on the visual arts scene of the Capital Region (and beyond, as the subtitle says). After having self-published 185 posts covering at least as many shows, my perspective on the offerings of our region has broadened, and my life has been immeasurably enriched by the opportunities to interact with artists, presenters, commenters, and other writers who care about these matters.

I hope that this experience has also been rich for the blog's readers, many of whom have been kind enough to provide feedback that is largely positive about what Get Visual offers to them. As the traffic here has increased steadily from a trickle to a regular stream of about 4,000 page views a month, I have been amazed at the reach of the Internet as a medium for genuine sharing of visual ideas. It's humbling, and I have taken the responsibility as seriously as any professional journalist, though my role is a voluntary one and, therefore, that of an amateur.

If circumstances allow, or when the spirit moves me, I may come back here to post again. But, for now, this is goodbye. As ever, thank you for reading.

-db

Janairo on Criticism

I'm a daily reader of the print version of the Times Union, Albany's daily newspaper, and I think their arts coverage is very good and continually getting better. This is probably due to the leadership of Features Editor Michael Janairo, whose occasional column on local culture is always fresh and thoughtful.

On Sunday, in the special section they call Unwind, Janairo wrote a wonderful primer on how to be a critic. It so well captures the crucial elements of intelligent criticism that I decided to recommend it by providing this link to its online version at the TU's Arts Talk blog. Check it out, and let me know what, if anything, you would add or take away from his bullet points.

And, to all Get Visual's readers, best wishes for a prosperous and visually rewarding 2012!