Redtree Times

Running a little late this morning, getting work ready to be delivered next week, and I check the stats for this blog to find that it’s hit and passed the 500,000 hits mark for this year alone.  I’m kind of stunned because when I started this blog last year I was struggling to get 100 hits in a day and the idea of a half million views seemed kind of ridiculous.

Now, I realize that all of these hits are not real readers.  I do submit, on a daily basis, to a blog-surfing engine, Alphainventions, that generates tremendous traffic from all over the world.  Many of these folks have never heard of my work or blog and simply stop because they are attracted to the images at the top of the post, which is a good thing for someone whose work is based on visual imagery.  Many will only stop once or twice but many become regular readers.

So, what does it mean, this 500,000 number?  I don’t really know.  I guess there is a certain validation of the power of the visual image.  I can get a pretty good idea of the reactive power of a painting by how many people respond to it on the blog, so in that way it’s useful to me.

But beyond that, it’s probably just another number, albeit a fairly large one.  I’m going to think about this today while I plug along in the studio but first I think I’ll listen to a little Leonard Cohen.  Here’s his Tower of Song…