'Rationale'

Initially I thought to name my website willowstacey.wordpress.com which would have been logical, as when you are researching an artist the first thing you do is type their name into Google. I then considered existing online presence I have created, in which I have branded myself as Yecats Wolliw, simply my name spelt backwards- although a friend thought it was because I was crazy about cats. As this name already exists in relation to my work I thought it apt to continue with it. I though it sounded more memorable and intriguing. Than my name in its original state, this may have been a mistake, only time will tell.

Before embarking on wordpress I had already considered the minimal layout that artists tend to use when promoting their work, allowing the artwork to speak for itself without getting distracted by extravagant fonts, layouts and colours. I chose the theme titled Chunk for its straightforward look, with bold typography and use of one colour throughout. It has a strong and prevalent font making titles stand out. I wanted my site to be logical and easy to navigate, this was considered in both choice of theme and when creating pages. Each page is distinctly labelled with an appropriate name found in an easily navigated drop down menu.

When selecting images to upload I wanted to depict as many different aspects of my artwork as I could to show diversity and flexibility. I have combined images of works that I make at college, that I consider to be Fine Art and the more commercial pieces that have gained commissions. These are two very different approaches to working, the commissions are generally much more illustrative, combing pen and water colour, whereas the ‘fine art’ pieces are much more abstract in use of materials. To create order within the wide variety I have created individual pages dependent on medium, initially I had mixed medias to a page but I thought they looked too mismatched. The initial categories were drawing, painting and sculpture, the three main aspects in fine art, as I put more work up I felt there needed to be more categorisation to make it easier to navigate and find images. I created sub categories for drawing and sculpture, the two aspects I adhere to most. Sculpture was divided into three additional pages, cerae, aliquam and poculum, the Latin names for wax, latex and glass, the materials I am most fond of working in. The individual pages act like exhibition spaces, each with there own distinct theme or title, filled with pieces of work form a series. Although there are a lot of different things going on within the pages of my website I feel it is true to me, with a large part of my practice material based.

I primarily use social media to circulate my works, I post images and links to my wordpress via Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest. The instant gratification you feel when someone likes, pins, reblogs or tweets a piece of your work is irreplaceable. It reminds you that people are interested in your work. One thing I do worry about with the mass circulation of work online is that it is easy to lose ownership, someone copies your image and reposts it as their own or take an idea and rework it. Although I worry about this I have not done anything to combat it, I could consider water marking my images or reducing resolution so that they are not easily reproduced. The use of the internet as a promotional tool means that anyone, anywhere can access your work. It is an easy and fast way to reach a wide range of varying audiences; location, gender, age and race do not come into play, internet access is the only requirement.

A combination of a wide audience and a wide range of works are part of my aim in reaching audiences, having two large variables increases the likelihood of overlapping. In that the more people who see you work, the higher the chance that someone will appreciate it. 
Currently I am only using online methods to promote my work, to target the audience that are not online I will need to approach publicity in a material, tactile way. I have started to looked into ideas for printed media, in the form of business cards and posters, as of yet I have not produced any. This is an aspect of my personal professional practice that I still want to develop. 

I have kept text on my website to a minimum, I feel that the work should speak for itself without influence. I have used language that I feel to be appropriate for its use, the language is straight to the point, informative without excess. 

Although I have found wordpress relatively easy to use I found the free theme had constraints, the format of the sites primarily blogging. Once I become more established I would consider paying for a theme that gave me more freedom and in turn buying the domain yecatswolliw.com or looking at a different provider that works to your specifications.