Is art too about fads, the famous or infamous or the latest rage

Folks are talking more and more about Dan Colley, a very good, and very prolific Chicago sketcher.  Apparently among his artistic talents is the way in which he so brilliantly uses and layers Faber Castell Pitt Pens.

I saw a vim about Dan Colley recently and  another with a fellow named Justin Klein who is beginning to get some play.

But when I entered the art fray, late in life admittedly, the sketching craze and talk was about that lanky loner Dan Price, creator of Moonlight Chronicles.  With a modest price tag anyone could send a fiver in the mail to Dan and get his first and foremost sketchbook, "How to Make a Journal of Your Life (now $6.00) and any number of his other zines (each for five dollars plus a nominal postage rate of your own choosing).

I had the good fortune to be at a zine symposium in Portland (OR) several years ago and met the scribbler.   He is as natural as he appears in print.

Sometime later, how much I don't recall, the art journal yahoo group changed hands a few times, and during that change over Danny Gregory joined.  Before too long Danny started the everyday matters yahoo group and most members of artist journal seemed to creep off to what matters most, "every day," and the earlier and possibly earliest yahoo group slipped nearly into oblivion.  It still exists,  but the number of posts is way down, and the action, enthusiasm and exchanges are way off.

Danny's books took off and his name became and remains synonymous with sketchers and the freedom to sketch anywhere, everyday.   His books are huge sellers.

Somewhere in between Dan and Danny, and others I can't name now, Richard Bell's work was considered par excellent.  It still is, but I rarely hear his name anymore, although his work remains superb and he has updated his online blog here.

Gabi Campanario started Urban Sketchers, and Enrico Casarosa started Sketchcrawl, both huge successes from the sketchers perspective, little remuneration for either man, but books are beginning to spin off the sketching phenomenon, and today I received, "Urban Sketching," not the first book from the group, but thus far the most accessible.  Other books on the market, mainly from Asia and Europe are more dear to purchase because of postal costs.

Just ruminating on this grey day after having finished writing a piece for our art alliance.