We Can’t Paint

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been super busy. Half of my time was divided between work, school, and this blog, the other half was focused on something quite special. You may have noticed a change here at We Can’t Paint, specifically the adjustment of the blog address from wecantpaint.wordpress.com to wecantpaint.com. This marks the start of We Can’t Paint’s evolution into a more comprehensive experience.

By September 2008 We Can’t Paint will no longer simply exist as a blog, but it will also be an online magazine and online gallery. Before I get into the specifics surrounding content and such I want to explain the rational behind this decision.

In the context of the “blogosphere” We Can’t Paint is still a relatively new undertaking, in fact I have been authoring it for a little under five months. In this very short period of time We Can’t Paint’s readership has grown tremendously and I will say with great admiration that I truly feel privileged to have participated in the collective discourse.

However, I’ve often felt that (for myself) the format of a blog is limiting. This is particularly evident when one rakes through the huge proliferation of posts, archived material that seems to be swallowed by its own process. This facet of an otherwise engaging tool is the motivation behind We Can’t Paint Magazine, and We Can’t Paint Gallery.

We Can’t Paint Magazine will be a place where in depth content (interviews, artist features, book and exhibition reviews, critical essays, etc) can viewed for a lengthier period of time. It will allow myself to collaborate with individuals who submit content (writing, images, and ideas) in such a way as to offer you the viewer a more comprehensive experience of emerging photography. Similarly, We Can’t Paint Gallery will be an online space where photographs and photo-based media can be experienced without the connection to a blog, again, a more contemplative and lengthy experience with the image.

The blog will not be discarded, in fact, you can expect the We Can’t Paint experience to be business as usual; with the exception of the usual Friday post (I need sometime to eat and sleep).

So where do I go from here and how can you contribute? I will be taking the next week off to setup and design these online spaces as well as contacting and responding to individuals for inclusion. I have temporarily set up a hotmail account specifically for submissions:

Send all work and writing to wecantpaint@hotmail.com

All work should include a very brief bio (one or two sentences).

Photographs

Send a selection of 5 – 8 images:

- All images should be 72 dpi

- Sized to10 inches on the longest side

- Saved as a .jpg file and labeled with no spaces or punctuation like this:

your_name_here_1.jpg
- In the body of the email you may list the titles but only if they are absolutely relevant
- No image should be over 5mb

Note: A link to your work is also accepted but strongly discouraged.

Writing

All articles and/or essays should be 500 – 1000 words in length:

- Send a brief summery and intent of your article/essay in the body of the e-mail with the actual article/essay formatted for Microsoft Word.

Books and Zines

If you would like We Can’t Paint Magazine to review your publication, please contact noelrodo@hotmail.com for more information on where to send your “review copy”.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to receiving your submissions.