Altered Art News

Welcome to Altered Art News, our occasional web journal that keeps you up-to-date with what's new at altered-art.net and what's happening in the world of altered and mixed-media art.

Altered bamboo tiles and pendant by Maria Adams

We'll tell you about…

  • New or updated articles on the website
  • Trends and events in the world of altered and mixed-media art
  • Previous articles that might be worth another look.

You can read our latest journal entries below, but you can also have Altered Art News delivered directly to your computer.

How do I subscribe to Altered Art News?

You don't even need an email address. It's easy to set up an RSS feed using the buttons that you'll find on the left-hand side of most of the pages on this site, but if you're not familiar with RSS and aren't sure what to do, please click on the [?] button here or in the left margin, and we'll tell you everything that you need to know.

Altered Art News Archive »

Is This Legal?

Is it legal to purchase inexpensive prints at retail stores, and then alter them with beads, glass and resin, and resell them (with the artist's name covered

Continue reading "Is This Legal?"

New Threat to the Web: Net Neutrality

I've received an e-mail from Avaaz.org, bringing to my attention a new threat from major corporations to the worldwide web as we know it. If you value the neutrality of the internet, you may wish to read this and consider giving your support to their campaign...

Continue reading "New Threat to the Web: Net Neutrality"

Calling Canadian Artists - ATC Exchange

It seems as though you wait ages for an ATC event in Saskatchewan, and then two come along at once!

We've heard from Jaynie in Weyburn that the Weyburn Artist Trading Card Group is hosting its first mail-in ATC exchange, to be held in conjunction with a travelling exhibition of artist trading cards entitled "No Story is Too Small to Trade", coming to Weyburn in December 2013.

The theme is "The First... Step, Tooth, Car, Day of School, Job...", which you are completely free to interpret in your own way.

The exchange is open to Canadian artists only.

Please send three artist trading cards by 1st December 2013 to:

Weyburn ATC Exchange
c/o Jaynie Himsl
425 2 Street
Weyburn
Saskatchewan
S4H 0V4
Include a stamped self-addressed envelope for the return of three different cards, and please keep your cards two-dimensional for ease of sending through the mail.

Calling All Artists - Regina ATC 11th Anniversary 2014

In June 2014, the Regina Artist Trading Card (ATC) Collective will celebrate its 11th anniversary with an exhibition of artist trading cards, entitled "Celebrate the Senses - Art and the Body", to be held at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Artists worldwide are invited to submit a set of six original artist trading cards, inspired by the theme of "Celebrate the Senses - Art and the Body" or a theme of their own choice...

Continue reading "Calling All Artists - Regina ATC 11th Anniversary 2014"

Twelve Tags of 2013

I'm sure that all of you Tim Holtz fans are way ahead of me here, but for those who don't know, Tim started his new series of themed tags for 2013 before the New Year had even started...

Continue reading "Twelve Tags of 2013"

Twelve Tags of... 2012

I really can't believe that another twelve months have gone by already! Normally at this time I'd be announcing that Tim Holtz had started his annual Twelve Tags of Christmas series of holiday-themed tags, but this year is different.

Those who've been following Tim's blog will know that back in February this year he decided to replace this series with a monthly one, entitled Twelve Tags of 2012, to take off the pressure at this very busy time of year. Of course, there's still one for December with the usual holiday theme, but here are all of the others that you may have missed:

Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov

UK U-Turn on EU Cookie Law

With only 48 hours to go before the new European Union 'Cookie Law' was due to be implemented in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) changed its advice to website owners.

Previously websites were not allowed to store any but 'essential' cookies without visitors' explicit and informed consent. The ICO's new advice is that consent may be assumed if visitors continue to use the website.

This followed the news that 95% of companies and many government departments had not yet complied with the new legislation.

However, we believe that we are already fully compliant, and we intend to continue in our current position.

Our recommendation continues to be that you should accept our cookies to keep the website working as you would wish.

Continue reading "UK U-Turn on EU Cookie Law"

The new EU Cookie Law - how will it affect me?

The European Union 'Cookie Law' comes into effect in the United Kingdom on 26th May 2012. Under this new law websites and blogs whose owners are based in the European Union will have to obtain permission from their visitors before storing all but 'essential' cookies, or allowing cookies to be stored on their behalf by third parties.

The definition of what's 'essential' appears to be pretty narrow: about the only cookies that seem to fall into this category are those used to remember your 'shopping basket' when you're buying something online.

What will this mean for you, our visitor?

When you come to our site you may see a banner at the top of the screen which says that the site works best if you accept cookies, and invites you to do so. You should certainly see a button near the top-right corner of the page that says "Cookies Allowed?". If you've not yet accepted our cookies it will show a red cross.

On clicking the button you'll see a panel where you can give us permission to store and use cookies. There'll also be a link to our cookie policy, where we explain more fully how they are used on our site. Once you've given your permission the panel will close, and the red cross will change to a green tick.

If you change your mind at any time, just click the button again, and you'll be able to withdraw your permission.

Just about everything that you see on the internet these days, from your bank or building society's remembering which colour scheme you'd prefer when you visit their website to all those social networking buttons that seem to be everywhere, needs cookies to work properly, or perhaps at all.

If you would still like it to be 'business as usual', we'd recommend that you accept our cookies.

Pinterested in our images?

This is a hard one...

Whilst we're very flattered that our visitors like our images of Maria's work enough to 'pin' them at Pinterest, and we'd love others to follow the links to our site, we don't believe that it's in our best interests to allow this.

We hope that you'll understand if we ask you not to do it.

You're very welcome to post links to our site if you've enjoyed your visit, and you'd like to share with your friends. Most of our pages have a Link to this Page button that will help you to do this. You'll also find social media buttons at the foot of those pages if you'd like to share that way.

What Pinterest is encouraging you to do is illegal unless you have our permission. Please see our Copyright Statement for our policy on the use of material from our site.

Keep Google Honest

We trust Google to bring us the best search results. But now Google is betraying our trust...

Continue reading "Keep Google Honest"

Twelve Tags of Christmas 2011

Wow! It really doesn't seem as though twelve months have gone by since the last time, but Tim Holtz has started his fifth annual 12 Tags of Christmas series of holiday-themed tags today, 1st December 2011. Every day for the next twelve days you'll find ideas and inspiration for creating your own altered shipping tag on a Christmas theme...

Stop the Craziness!

Do you have a website or blog? Do you like to visit websites and blogs?

I know that it's a silly question, but something has happened that's going to affect most of us in one way or another.

In May 2011 a law was passed which means that if you live in the European Union (regardless of where your visitors come from, or where your website or blog is hosted) practically everything that you do that involves storing cookies, either directly or indirectly, is illegal unless you explicitly ask your visitors for permission.

You'll almost certainly be affected if you have third-party advertising on your website, or collect statistics about how many visitors come to your blog, or even if you have Facebook Like buttons. That's right: under this new law those Facebook Like buttons that you see everywhere are illegal if you live in the European Union.

Those are just a few examples.

Even if you live outside the European Union you may be affected. Do you like to visit websites or blogs run by webmasters from Europe? If they're trying not to break this law you'll be asked whether you'll allow them to store cookies. That could be annoying the first time, but what if you want to refuse? Under this crazy new law it's illegal to store this information, so you'll be asked again, and again, and again...

Please click here for more information and a video guide in less than three minutes.

So what can you do?

If you live in the European Union it may not be too late to make sure that when this law is implemented in your country all the craziness has been removed. It's not due to be implemented in the United Kingdom until May 2012. Please consider contacting your elected representative about this badly-considered piece of legislation.

Calling Arizona Artists!

It was on 14th February 1912 that Arizona became the 48th of the United States of America, and in celebration of one hundred years of statehood next year the Artists' Coalition of Flagstaff is sponsoring the Arizona State Centennial Artist Trading Card Project.

The project is open to residents of the state of Arizona, and original artwork submissions in the form of artist trading cards will be accepted until 15th December 2011. Your submission may be in any medium or combination of media, including paintings, photographs, collage, metal, fibres, ceramics and glass, and be on any subject related to the past or present of Arizona. As usual, the only restriction is that of size.

There will be a touring exhibition during 2012, and submissions will be shown in art galleries in Flagstaff, Sedona, Jerome, Prescott, the Phoenix and Tucson areas, and Bisbee. If you're an Arizona artist, this is an excellent opportunity to have your work seen.

Paricipants may submit up to ten artist trading cards, and will receive an equal number of randomly-selected cards after the exhibition.

We are pleased that the Artists' Coalition of Flagstaff has recommended our website as the source of information on artist trading cards.

Like this Site?

You may have noticed Facebook Like buttons starting to appear at the bottom of some of our pages. You'll now find those buttons on most of the pages on our site, and also in the left margin if you like the site as a whole. If you've enjoyed your visit, or found a particular page useful, why not let your friends know by giving us a Like?

Small Art, Big Impact (updated)

We've just received an update from Stephanie Zing at Bohemian Art Cafe, who tells us that the closing date for entries has been extended to 15th July 2011. Get creating, folks!

Continue reading "Small Art, Big Impact (updated)"

More altered art news »

Subscribe to
Altered Art News
[?]

RSS/XML

Follow us in Feedly

Add to My Yahoo!