YourGallery.com — 'MySpace for artists'

I read about this website in yesterday's Wall Street Journal story by Rebecca Davis O'Brien.

London gallery owner and mega-collector Charles Saatchi is behind it.

So far the website has about 2,500 artists who belong.

Once registered, artists can upload images of their work, post biographies and provide contact information for interested prospective buyers.

Sounds like a no-lose proposition to me if you're an unknown artist: sort of like tossing your penny in a wishing well, to be sure, but I've never heard of anyone losing more than a penny by doing so.

The article noted that there are other similar sites like Eyestorm.com and NextMonet.com, but the cachet — and deep pockets of Saatchi — make YourGallery.com a bird of another (read green) feather.

According to the newspaper story it does appear to have one thing in common with MySpace, FaceBook and their ilk: "Arabella Proffer, a Cleveland painter.... finds checking the site addictive. I'm afraid if I explore it too much, I'll end up being glued to the site all day instead of painting, she says."

Proffer hit the jackpot, for sure: her painting entitled "Courtney Taylor" (top) accompanied the Wall Street Journal article.

One thing I instantly liked about YourGallery is the following, on the homepage: "The order that artists appear is random and changes regularly. The most recent entries or edits go to the top, until the next random re-shuffle."

That means that the most unknown and out-of-the-mainstream artist on the site has every bit as good a chance of appearing up top in plain view of the world as the most famous individual registered.

Sort of like Google's "I'm feeling lucky" — which I don't believe I've ever used.

I mean, why would I?

Feeling lucky's my baseline, so why bother?