Meet the Artist-Turned-App Developer Changing the Way People Buy Art
Los Angeles-based artist Joshua Rogers has long been delving into the question of consciousness versus unconsciousness through his artwork. With his colorful pieces, the abstract painter studies the idea of expression and the state of being. It’s clear the artist, who holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, thinks deeply about unseen ideals. Perhaps that is why Rogers has brought the unseen into the seen with his creation of the ARTSEE app.
Aware that his pieces of work would perhaps hang in places yet unknown to him, Rogers realized that there needed to be a way for art collectors to be able to view pieces of work from either individual artists or galleries in the very places they intended the piece to be hung. Within months, after working with a coder, Rogers and his team launched the ARTSEE app.
“I saw a need for art buyers to be able to visualize how a piece of art might look in their home,” Rogers explained. “At the very highest end, for very wealthy collectors, a gallery might deliver and install a painting just so they can see how it will look in their home. But this is very time consuming and costly. With ARTSEE, we make this possible for everybody in just a few seconds.”
The artist likes to point out that the app is extremely easy to use, and anyone who is involved in the art world can benefit from it. According to Rogers, for galleries, it is a great way to make their art offerings easily available and manageable to potential buyers. For art buyers, it makes it easy to keep track of art they are interested in buying, and to see how it will look in their homes. “A use that we did not anticipate is from independent artists, who are not yet represented by a gallery and handle their own sales. A good portion of our app downloads are from this group. They use ARTSEE to sell their pieces to collectors,” Rogers said.
Creating an art app hasn’t come without its challenges or lessons for the artist-turned-app creator. “I find that being an artist is about expressing some deep truth about yourself,” he said. “An artist must focus on letting out whatever is inside and letting that come out into the artwork. The creative process needs to somehow insulate the artist from the outside world, so that the inner is not corrupted by it. As an app developer, it is almost exactly the opposite. The app developer must deeply consider the needs of the market and tailor the app to those needs.” He added that creating a good app is “certainly a creative endeavor, but the creativity with an app must be bound by the technology and the needs of the market.”
Rogers noted that there are still exciting improvements to be made to ARTSEE, which they are working on now. The social media functionality is currently being worked on, allowing users to share artwork that they like on their feeds with their connections. For this artist, it looks like the app world is taking a liking to his creativity, as he continues to explore the idea of consciousness through both art and technology.
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