Today (15 December 2010) I got named on the shortlist for the best Personal Content website in the Onyas awards.
As a friend noted, it's an honour to be self-nominated. It's also time to provide a bit more information about who I am and what I try to do here, so here's what I wrote in my entry form ....
Tell us about you - the person behind the site
My name is Courtney Johnston. I’m a project manager in a web development company in Wellington, but this blog is much more about my intellectual/imaginative life (if I can be permitted such an insufferable phrase).
I left university 7 years ago with a Masters in Art History, which – while I didn’t turn it into a career, because it turned out I didn’t like working in the art world – has given me an interest in the visual arts that surpasses a hobby. I’m interested in art – not just the physical objects artists make, but they way it’s shown, written about, sold and presented to people. Best of 3 is where I share my ideas, observations and opinions about the art world, and a few other topics I care a lot about.
Why are you nominating this site?
I think the best blogs walk a fine line between satisfying the writer’s desire to put words and thoughts out into the world, and satisfying an audience for those words and thoughts. I hope Best of 3 does something along those lines: I write primarily for my own pleasure, but with a definite sense that people are peering over my shoulder.
What is the purpose of this site?
Primarily, to act as a record of what I’m thinking and seeing and feeling at any given time. I started the blog 4 years ago as a way of recording my adventures learning about the web – every day, I’d tried to look at something new, and then blog about it as a way of digesting what I’d learned.
I quickly moved on to writing about what I love, which turns out to be art, the web and writing.
I do have a slightly evangelist streak. I know I spend a lot more time online than many of my readers. I try to use the blog to open their eyes to articles, people, trends and so on that they might not otherwise come across. And sometimes I use it to make a point. Like this.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?
I blog a lot, often just to share interesting things (I know a lot of my audience don’t use feedreaders, so I don’t want them to feel disappointed when they visit the site and don’t see new content).
But here are a few longer pieces that exemplify what I’m trying to do.
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/03/silent-listening.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-people-will-pay-for.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/05/turn-to-left.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/06/face-value.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/10/surprising-and-lovely.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/05/acknowledgement-for-paul-reynolds.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2009/11/let-me-be-your-fan-part-1000000.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/09/memory-and-memorials.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/09/surrender-experiment-in-looking.html
http://best-of-3.blogspot.com/2010/10/membership.html
