Awexpress.com 2012 Art Materials Summer Sale

If you shop with us here as ASW Express, you probably already know about our great low prices, and even better sales. Chances are, that's one of the reasons that you choose us for your art supply need. If you've never shopped with us, now's a great time to give ASW Express a try!
Our summer sale catalog is fresh off the press. View the 2012 Summer Art Materials Sale online now in time for the 4th of July weekend. The sale is packed with great deals, free offers, promotions, deals, bulk and so much more!

Prefer flipping catalog pages, want it digital? Visit our online catalog; its the best of both worlds. Flip through the pages to view the products, and when you find one that interests you, just click 'follow link' to go right to the page!

The as Deal Center is packed full of new promotions from top brands in the art materials industry. Save even more on the brands you love and use every day. As a great example..

Get a free 5oz. OPEN Titanium White with the purchase of six 5 oz tubes of Golden OPEN acrylics.

See this deal and many more in our new ASW Deal Center

We're featuring some new items, like Turner watercolors, Plutonium spray paint, and Arches new oil paper. In addition, some of our best and well-known brands are on sale: Ampersand boards, Sennelier watercolors, and Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes, to name just a few. No matter what art supply you're looking for, you're sure to find it at a great price this summer at ASW Express!

New Art Supplies

we have added over 600+ new art supplies and materials to the sumer 2012 sale and the website perfect for the professional artist, teacher, student and business owner.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Open Gallery

Do Web Sites Illuminate Unknown Artists?

The New York Times featured an article titled Websites Illuminate Unknown Artists on Monday in its Arts section about ArtistsWanted.org, a website created for the purpose of exposing unknown artists. Anyone can create a portfolio to show off their artwork to the world. To take it a step further, they can enter contests put on by Artists Wanted with some big prizes (i.e., having their artwork on a billboard in Time Square). A contest winner is selected by the Artists Wanted staff from a pool of top contenders who are chosen by popular vote.

Artists Wanted, according to their 'About Us' section, has been around since 2007. Artists Wanted is not alone in their endeavor; Behance has been around since 2006, and deviantART, arguably the most well-known online portfolio site, boasting over 19 million members, has been around since 2000.

There's one major difference between sites like these, and brick-and-mortar galleries: most of these online sites have no selection process. Anyone can sign up and present their portfolio, no matter how good or bad their work may be perceived as. In a gallery, one can't simply come in off the street and hang their artwork on the wall. On the one hand, sites like Artists Wanted can be a good place to get an unknown artist's work out there. On the other hand, how often do you hear of artists getting recognition because of these sites?

Sure, it happens, but the results may be no better than one-in-a-million. In this digital age, more people than ever are discovering their creative edge, and putting the results out for everyone to see.

What do you think? Are open portfolio sites a breath of fresh air from art bureaucracy, or are they a waste of time?