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My Love for you is a Stampede of Horses: Q&A with Meighan O'Toole
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Meighan O'Toole is the woman behind the popular art blog, My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses. One of the best blogs for discovering up and coming artists, O'Toole's blog provides extensive coverage on the sometimes esoteric urban/diy/street art scene. I am always amazed by her blog's fresh content, frequent updates, artist q&a's, and plentiful images. Very well networked in this rapidly growing scene, O'Toole has interned at Juxtapoz Magazine (she worked on the art blog) and spent time living in San Francisco. Somehow between writing, blogging, and curating shows (she's organizing an exhibition entitled, You've Got Light in Your Eyes, coming up in May at Needles & Pens), O'Toole found a moment to oblige my questions:
1) When did you start your blog? What inspired you to get started?
I started blogging almost four years ago, but initially I had no idea what I was doing. I blogged off and on for the next few years, starting and stopping. I started my love for you... in October of 2006, but then I got an internship at Juxtapoz.com. I put the blog on hold, and then in June of 2007 I really went at it.
I have always been really fond of networking and turning people on to new things. I love sharing music with friends, telling a stranger where I bought my earrings etc...I am that person that when you ask what something is that I am wearing I tell you where I bought it, for how much, how to get there and what else they sell. No lie!
I had this idea (that my latest incarnation of) my blog would be a place where I write about things I like; fashion, music, art, craft, trends, etc. I had no idea in real time actuality how hard and daunting it would be to keep up on everything. I don't think people have a clear understanding of the amount of time it takes to physically "blog". There is an incredible amount of work to be done. Long story short, I realized I was writing more and more about art and that seemed to really flow. So I decided to just keep it mainly art. It's been rolling that way since fall of 2007.
Why thank you, however I can't take credit for it. It was, at the time, a term of endearment a friend had text messaged me letting me know they cared about me. I thought it was such a brilliant line. It seemed all encompassing for how excited I can get by things that move me, whether they be fashion, music, friends, etc and in the blogs case: art. It's a verbose and over the top way of saying I love this!! Kind of a mild way of shouting it from the rooftops, I guess. I never realized my blog would take on the life that it has...had I known perhaps a one word title? Ha!
I am originally from Boston and that is where I currently reside. Previously I lived in San Francisco and in the mid-nineties I lived in London. I wouldn't say I am an artist with a capital A, as a good friend likes to term it, but I am creative by nature. I am really more interested in connecting people, sharing and creating community through connections, shared beliefs and aesthetics. I like to think of my blog as a vessel. It brings the goods.
Currently I work in retail as an assistant manager for a denim company...I hope to one day own my own boutique/gallery, that seems like the natural progression.
Well, do you have all day? Ha. I think art blogs and the entire internet has completely revolutionized the way in which artists live today. The era we live in is probably the best time in history for a working artist. Sites like Etsy, Big Cartel, Web Galleries, online Print sites like Little Paper Planes and Tiny Showcase have carved out so many avenues for artists to stake their claim. If you're talented, have a tenacious work ethic, wifi connection, and a digital camera you are on your way to a cottage industry and the possibility of creating your own business.
I think specifically the way art blogs have changed the scene (although smaller independent galleries and shops were onto it way before) is that they get the word out about emerging new artists in seconds. An image, a couple of sentences and BOOM thousands of people have at their fingertips the next Chris Johanson or Margaret Kilgallen. Also, there are no rules, well no real written ones yet. Bloggers started blogging because they had a voice that they wanted to be heard. Smaller galleries, and artists had great stuff to show and the larger museums and contemporary art scene were not paying attention. So people carved a niche. They started their own thing, Hell they threw the party and now others want in! I merely have followed that path as a blogger. It's simply an amazing time we are living in.
5) What do you hope your readers carry away with them when they read your blog?
6) What are your favorite things or things that inspire you?
7) You feature a wide variety of artists--new faces as well as internationally recognized artists. Where do you find all of these people?
8) What blogs do you enjoy reading?
I enjoy a really wide range of blogs, from art to street art to street fashion to everyday bloggers. I seriously have over 100's of blogs and sites in my Google reader. But my favs that I visit everyday would be Wooster Collective, The Moldy Doily, Pikaland, Booooooom!, Design for Mankind, It's Nice That, For Me For You, Sally Jane Vintage, Book By It's Cover...honestly, the list could go on and on and on...
9) What's next for you?
At the moment I am in the midst of curating a show at Needles + Pens in San Francisco on May 2nd called You've Got Light In Your Eyes. It's a twenty person group show that should be a hoot and a holler of a good time. That will probably take up a lot of my time and head space. There are a few other ideas and projects in the pipelines, but nothing to chatter about yet. I am really looking forward to what 2009 brings, so far it's been wonderful. Until then, I will keep blogging. :)
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