The visual art forum has never had the same dynamics as the poetry forums.
I think this is partially due to the fact that it's harder to workshop things which are already complete. I think artists don't want to show something that's not finished.
Recently I tried a post about a collage that was not complete to see what would happen,
http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=21546
and it got relatively good traffic and comments.
I notice that, when specific questions are asked there are more comments, but only about the question which is slightly frustrating.
We also had very good participation when doing the challenges a few years back.
The longest thread ever was at the very start of my moderatorship. It was "Show us your websites" I believe that went on for several pages. That doesn't help with getting a crit though, does it?
Is it more intimidating to comment on fine art? There is a bit of an "Emperors New Clothes" situation in the art world. There! I said it. People don't want come off as clueless. I don't want to either. I always feel intimidated to comment. What do I know?
Another aspect of this situation is this....Why is the poetry side of Erato great?? Because the comments are not pat-on-the-back lovely things your mom would say. You better be prepared for surgery, right? This is why so many Eratospherians are getting published. This is why we are famous. I try to make comments that have some substance to them.
Can this be done in the art forums? Who has the expertise to say something is wrong? Is it even possible to say something is wrong in a piece of visual art? And back to what I said before, people are posting finished work. Digital art can be reworked on a copy but usually a painting can't, a sculpture can't. Things get "overworked" looking from too much fixing. It's not like a poem where a revision has no eraser marks on it.
LOL, Ross, you got me on a roll but I think about this problem a lot. I would welcome any ideas to give the Art forum a jolt.
Did you know that only members can view the images here? Ain't that a kick in the head?