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                                        Keith Linwood Stover

A multi-faceted creative expressionist, Keith Linwood Stover has refined his artistry for four decades. A novelist, musician, lyricist, art curator and philosopher, Stover has explored the horizons of various art-forms, including novels, short stories, song lyrics, essays, newspaper journalism, rock music and photography, challenging himself in each medium by pushing the boundaries of his craft.

 

A freelance writer, Stover, 58, has published journalism and criticism on music, sports, politics and popular culture throughout New England for three decades. He studied English Literature, creative writing and philosophy at the University of Maine.

 

Stover completed his first literary novel, Whistler’s Father, in 2005. Pig Nation, his second novel, is a cross-genre political thriller, science fiction and urban fantasy, completed in April of 2010. The author’s current novel-in-progress is titled Saint Nothing, a paranormal fiction story about an eccentric young artist.

 

After 40 years in the music field, Keith recently produced The Stockton Project's debut album, American Rock. In addition to composing 10 of the 15 songs, he sang lead vocals, played bass guitar and keyboards on the recording.

 

Keith is a resident of coastal Maine and a member of the Maine Arts Commission.

Meet The Curator

March 31, 2014 marks four years since I joined Facebook. Right from the beginning, my social media interaction revolved around the sharing, appreciation and analysis of all types of art. In my fifth decade as a freelance writer, musician and conceptual artist, I found the internet a remarkably-powerful tool for the exchange of creative ideas and information. As a veritable repository for human civilization, the web offers instantaneous access to a treasure trove of digital text, images and music files. Advances in technology and sites like Facebook have enabled virtually any computer user to tap into this repository and share the information that shapes our daily lives. For me, these posts have taken the form of essays, commentaries, short stories, novel excerpts, song files, photos and art images—thousands of them.

 

Concentrating on Impressionistic nature landscapes in the Public Domain, I began dedicating four hours each day to researching art and artists, posting and sharing 10-50 images a day. After posting 5-10,000 images the first two years on Facebook, I refined the displays by formatting them into a daily series of featured artists. Thus was born The Perpetual Cyber Art Show. As the original name is too unwieldy for cyber-space, this is a perfect time to change the series name to “The Cyber Art Show” (abbreviated TCAS).

 

While TCAS began as simply an expression of my appreciation for visual artwork, over time it has taken on mission and purpose: to expose to the world great artworks and artists, past and present, both those who have been swallowed by time and forgotten and those who today labor in relative obscurity. While bringing beauty into the daily lives of my friends, it also affords working artists free exposure for their works and websites. Today, features by contemporary artists from around the world comprise about 25% of The Cyber Art Show. I am hoping that this percentage grows in the future. While TCAS continues to celebrate legendary artists like Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir, the series seeks to shed light on numerous works by lesser-known artists.

 

I am proud to say that four years since joining Facebook, thousands of users see The Cyber Art Show on a daily basis. Over 300 are regular subscribers to this content. As the popularity of the series has grown, I have endeavored to expand the series beyond Impressionism to include genres such as Realism, Expressionism and contemporary works. While getting legal permissions to publicly display artworks can be tedious and time-consuming, I am also hoping to include more photography in the future.

 

The Purpose of this Website

 

After receiving input, support and suggestions from my Facebook audience, I have decided to feature The Cyber Art Show in an environment outside of Facebook—this sister site:

 

https://TheCyberArtShow.com

 

The reasons for this move are several:

 

1. To preserve the integrity of TCAS.

 

2. To offer TCAS in a context free of my other daily Facebook posts, which often include politics, music, literature, sports and popular culture.

 

3. To exhibit larger display images than is possible on Facebook.

 

4. To host an archived record of each TCAS series.

 

5. To enable anyone who wishes to donate funds to support my efforts as a viable, creative, freelance artist.

 

While I have sometimes been asked by viewers how they could financially support TCAS, I have always resisted such a notion. But due to several recent illnesses, I find myself in an untenable financial situation. Any donations will help enable me to continue to dedicate time and energy to preserving the quality of The Cyber Art Show.

 

Be assured that I have no interest in corporatizing TCAS. I intend to keep the series free and accessible to ALL who wish to appreciate great Art. Indeed, the freedom of Art itself has defined my life as a viable, working freelance artist. It has been very gratifying watching the popularity of the series grow with each passing month. I have made countless friendships as a result of The Cyber Art Show, which continues to be a daily labor of love. Thank you all so much for appreciating and supporting great Art!!

 

                                  - K.L. Stover, Curator

 

 

The History of the Cyber Art Show

MY BUTTON

Growing Pains?

 

So we're two weeks into this new home in the Cloud for The Cyber Art Show. Frankly, I am a bit disappointed in the viewing results so far (less than 100 LIKES,  a single $1 donation). 

Based on the history of the series' Facebook participation, I might have over-estimated the popularity of TCAS. From the outset, I planned on creating a separate website outside the FB environment when we hit 300 subscribers. We hit that mark about a month ago, but have only added 13 subscribers since.

The idea of this move to a separate website was based in wanting to offer a better-quality viewing experience for the works of these fabulous artists. I chose a format which accommodated a greatly-expanded image area, which I felt was superior to the thumbnails displayed on my FB wall. I ruled out a "click-and-play" slideshow display, as this does not favor the serious viewer, who wishes to spend more than three seconds to study the details of each piece.

In recent days I have heard from a couple viewers that the new layout format requires more clicking to access the series. This is the trade-off I accepted when I made the decision to trade the quantity of displayed images for the quality of images. But now I am second-guessing my decision. So I have posted a poll to find out what YOU prefer.

 

I've kept the poll simple by offering only two choices--the current display format or the thumbnail version. After each Daily Exhibition, I store the series in thumbnail form, under the Image of the Day. So just click on the previous galleries under Daily Exhibitions to see this alternative layout format. 

The difference, of course, is that the current format of 3 images per page requires more interaction than simply calling up one page with all the images thumbnailed. The choice, as always, is between quality and quantity.

The whole point of The Cyber Art Show series is to share quality art with as many art appreciators as possible, while offering exposure for these talented artists, both past and present. I seek to offer a high-quality daily experience for all viewers. This means hours of daily research to update and maintain the site 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I have always found this work to be a labor of love, and still do. But this investment of time and energy only makes sense to me if the TCAS stays vibrant and popular with the public. As long as the viewer base continues to grow, I believe my efforts are justified. If it does not stay viable, then I would probably put the time and energy back into my own art--writing and music--rather than spending hours each day promoting the works of other artists.

I consider the debut of this website a trial-and-error period for TCAS. If I think I can make a go of it, I will spend the requisite time to learn and apply the Search Engine Optimization techniques necessary to grow the series beyond my Facebook viewers. But I will be relying on your reactions, input and feedback during this process.

 

As always, thank you so much for supporting all forms of ART and ARTISTS!!

 

                                                        -Keith

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS

NEWS

NEWS

The people have spoken! 65% of viewers favored the Image of the Day display with thumbnails underneath. So as of today, I will be using this format for all Daily Exhibitions. Thanks to all of you who took the time to cast a vote in our first poll.

 

The poll told me a little more about our audience. It says that The Cyber Art Show series attracts casual viewers as well as serious art aficionados. While some like to peruse the paintings over their morning coffee, others may only have time to stop in briefly. So hopefully the new display format will accommodate both types. Certainly this format saves time and energy--mine and yours.

You will note other changes as well. In an effort to eliminate the redundancy of extra clicking, I did away with the Home/landing page. As I learn my way around the page-building features, I am experimenting with what works and what doesn't. So please bear with me as I seek to improve your daily viewing experience.

 

 



 

 

 

As much as I hate dealing with the commercial aspects of a life in the Arts, the reality is that I have to. Since launching this new website over two weeks ago, I have received exactly ONE DOLLAR in donations. And Paypal took a third of it. So my balance is currently 66 cents.

I have pledged to offer a quality aesthetic viewing experience free of bells, whistles and the distractions that come with flashing advertisements. This means that I will be relying on the generosity of the viewing public to support this site. While I am glad to donate 4-6 hours a day, 7 days a week to finding and sharing great art, I am a poor freelance artist and this monthly venture is an added cost. I just can't do it alone. So I would greatly appreciate your financial donations. Consider it the equivalent of busking in the Cyber Subway. 

While I'm sure there will be many challenges ahead if I am to sustain and grow the series, I hope you are enjoying the new home of The Cyber Art Show as much as I am.

 

ART IS SANITY, so as always, I wish to thank every single one of you for supporting the Arts!

 

                                                     --Keith

 

 

 

 

14 May 14

 

The New Display

Donations

 

 

 

Maiden Voyage

 

Good morning! So here is the maiden voyage of the new improved TCAS!  Or at least I am hoping it is improved. I feel like the kid who has a nice new bike, but requires training wheels to ride it. Obviously it is going to take some time for me to tweak the finer points of web design. But I can share with you my thought process in the meantime.

 

Facebook was beginning to feel cramped for me. The simple issue of repetitively typing the words CLICK ON INDIVIDUAL IMAGES was a pain because so often, people didn't bother. I knew this because some of these same viewers would come on the TCAS thread later and exclaim, "Wow! I just saw the full image. What a difference!" So there was that.

 

The biggest motivation for me to go offsite was simply the size of the digital image display (yes, sometimes size DOES matter). Instead of posting 15-30 smaller images a day, I will now look to feature 6-10 high-quality digital images a day. The expanded image area affords the viewer a much-closer look at all the elements that make up a great painting--composition, framing, brushstroke technique, etc.

 

This leads us to the discussion of display presentation. The design tools for this particular website, like most, are powerful and versatile. There are numerous display options, ranging from cascading tiles, to masonry walls to slide-show presentations. I tried many of these features and ultimately chose none of them, opting instead for a simple scroll-down display of TCAS paintings. In keeping with our new motto, "Bringing the Museum to You," I think this old-school style is fitting. And while I also have the option of putting an actual digital "frame" around these paintings, I would never choose to. This is simply a matter of personal preference. I do not like the look of these picture frames in a digital display. They take up valuable layout space, add nothing to the paintings themselves and can sometimes detract from the on-line viewing experience. This is one of the times I am glad I am the boss.  :)

 

Beyond this, I see no advantage in making wholesale changes to TCAS. I think the series has become popular for several reasons, one of them being the fact that I keep things fairly simple and consistently uniform. TCAS is a known quantity, in many respects, to many viewers. The emphasis has always been on featuring quality works by wonderfully-gifted artists. While I could go into deeper details about the technical aspects of each painting, I choose not to. Part of the reason for this is that I do not paint or draw myself. As curator, I feel that in some respects this actually gives me the advantage of some form of objectivity. They say "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing;" sometimes it can be a good thing, too. 

For me, the ultimate criteria of a superior painting is the visceral reaction it produces in me. I don't need a detailed knowledge of either materials or technique to ascertain this. If I were a REAL curator, of course, I would need as much knowledge as I could gather about each piece. But face it, these are but small digital images on a computer. Anyone who is serious about painting and curious about these artists and their works can and will research them further on their own. 

The same thing applies to the Artist Bio. The internet has spawned a state of informational entropy that is mind-numbing. Too much information is a form of attrition which daily wears us all down. A couple of paragraphs of key information about a given painter should suffice for the purpose of calling attention to his or her respective artworks. Anyone thoroughly intrigued by a TCAS artist always has the option of going to Google for more background information. And this allows the site to move with cat-feet fluidity on a daily basis.


While my personal Philosophy of Aesthetics is deep and complex, my philosophy of web-page design and layout is not. I wish to keep it clean, simple and easy-on the eye. In researching art each day, I visit dozens of sites a week. Many of them are so busy that they make my head hurt. I believe that clean space, easy-to-read fonts and simple, user-friendly layout will afford TCAS viewers a better artistic experience. I want the emphasis to be on great art, not a circus of bells and whistles. Ultimately, of course, YOU will be the judge. As always, I will be relying on your input and feedback to judge what is working and what isn't and why. Comments are welcome both here and on my Facebook page. I believe the comment section here is limited for now (they want more $$ to accommodate more comments), so Facebook is still the best place for interactive discussion.

The reasons behind this momentous move are spelled out in even greater detail below, in The History of The Cyber Art Show. Anyone interested in how the series began and why we are transitioning to our own site should read it.

And lastly, I wish to personally thank my good friend Greta Sproul, who actually did much of the technical layout for this site. She has basically done the design work I have suggested, while I have concerned myself with text and images. Please keep in mind this maiden voyage is a shakedown cruise in many ways. In six months or a year it may look and be totally different. But I think it's a great starting point for the next part of our epic creative and artistic journey together. I look forward to learning and exploring along-side all my good cyber friends! BON VOYAGE!!

                                                    --Captain Keith

 

 

 

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