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thoughts?
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February 3rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm
What most caught my eye was your use of photos. This blog discusses graffiti quite a bit, so it’s great to see some real examples of this art form. Your site is also visually appealing. It’s crisp and simple to navigate – it’s quite functional.
Overall, your site is very consistent in a few ways. You stay focused and true to your mission statement. While every post is about art crime, you discuss a variety of topics within your theme. You do a good job of categorizing your posts and sticking to only a few categories. The graffiti photos category makes it really easy for a reader to check out all of your photos, which is a nice touch. You maintain a concise writing style with an informative, yet light tone throughout your posts. It’s nice to be able to read a post quickly and know exactly what you are saying – keep this up!
I think your use of links is appropriate, but I think you could do a better job of linking to more content. A few of the posts only included one link. This will give readers more breadth about the topic you are discussing. Also, I think that some of your posts could be a little longer. Maybe you could vary between the short-and-sweet posts you’ve been doing and some longer, more in-depth posts. A good way of getting information in would be to try some scannable writing techniques. Having bullet points or breakout quotes will make not only make the page pop more, but these techniques will set apart your key information.
Favorite post: Virtual Graffiti Artist Paints in 3D
http://kaylawebley.com/2008/01/30/virtual-graffiti-artist-paints-in-3d/
You really encompassed the key elements of a good blog post here. The links were appropriate and added information beyond what you wrote. Linking to other bloggers gave other insight into this project and probably created more traffic for your blog. The video showed exactly what the project is about, and it was neat that you used multimedia in this post. Great job!
Least favorite post: Chicagoan Tapped in Stolen Art Investigation
http://kaylawebley.com/2008/02/02/chicagoan-tapped-in-stolen-art-investigation/
While I found the Chicago connection and the topic of this post to be interesting, I saw it as just a summary of the news. Giving the highlights of the story is a must, but I think you could have added some commentary of your own. How does this story relate to other cases of stolen art? Have authorities been cracking down harder on art smugglers in the past year?
February 4th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Love the blog.
I picked this as the third, you-pick-it-yourself blog to review for the Medill class because I’ve been reading it all along and quite enjoy it.
I like the topic and I think you have chosen an appropriate voice for this topic. I also think you have a good sense of when to let the graffiti speak for itself with a minimum of commentary.
My least favorite blog entries of the last 10 have been the ones dealing with art theft, rather than graffiti art. Granted, that may come from a personal appreciation of graffiti art, but the art theft topic doesn’t ring as interesting.
That being said, I like the inclusion of art theft. It’s a good juxtaposition of crimes involving art and art as a crime. It gets people thinking about the two topics in a broader sense and gives your blog a little more credibility than a blog that just talks about graffiti.
Granted, I like those blogs, but people who just think of graffiti as vandalism might be inclined to blow off your blog as graffiti apologism rather than an exploration of the twin concepts of art and crime.
I did have two problems with the “Glow-in-the-dark Graffiti” entry of Jan. 30. First, I had no information to go off of regarding who the “gadget blogger” was or why I should visit that link. Second, I think Krylon might not appreciate a link to their product in a blog about graffiti. I think the topic is important and the post was interesting. I just think those links could have used a little more explanation. And I do mean a little. That is probably my least favorite entry, but mainly because the assignment required we pick a least favorite.
In short, great blog, great topic, great voice for that topic. I also continue to explore the links on the blogroll and have yet to find anything uninteresting.