(This is one of a series of periodic explorations of the Indie Web via the Internet Phone Book project. I am on a personal exploration but also hope to lift the profile of sites I have found.)
Chris Silverman’s Notes Art site (“explorations in iphone notes”), which I found via the Internet Phone Book project, is a beautiful collection of artwork made with the Notes app on an iPhone. Honestly, I don’t know how they do it. I have the Notes app and all I have are words and PDFs. How in the world are they making such wonderful works of art? (Making a note to Self in my Notes app (ha!) — investigate this further).
As I took my time wandering through Silverman’s art, I starting to think, these works of small art are like the covers of New Yorker magazine. The artwork evokes a range of emotions in me — from curiosity to connection. The site is a little museum of art.
(via https://notes.art/work/2026-02-02/)
Since I wanted to know more, I clicked on Silverman’s blog and began reading more of their artistic intentions, and found a post that indicates that making art is a refuge. That’s something I can understand myself. I often lose myself in making music, pulling a curtain on the world around me so that at least for a bit of time, I get lost in the act of making art. (I also found a video about the Notes Art project, from a few years ago.)
Silverman writes, in what seems to me to be the aftermath of the recent US elections, in a grapple with how to deal with the reality of this world we find ourselves living in, particularly in the toxic era of social media platforms run by people like f-ing Musk and f-ing Zuck: “The compromise I made was that while #notesArt might exist on social media, it wasn’t going to be influenced by it. I knew I didn’t have any interest in memes or trying to go viral. I wanted to make and share art, mainly because that was an important aspect of my life that I’d mostly abandoned. Up until that point, whenever anyone asked me if I was working on any cool art projects, I said I didn’t have time. What I didn’t say was that a lot of that time went into scrolling through feeds.”
And then, later in the same post, Silverman adds: “Get offline for a bit. Go somewhere quiet. Walk in the leaves with someone who doesn’t stress you out or consume your energy. Take the time you need to refocus and prepare for doing what comes next.” (What came next is the current political battles against this president, if you ask me).
via https://notes.art/work/2026-01-10/
Later, I wandered back to the Notes Art page once again and got lost for a bit in the art. It was a welcome refuge.
Thank you, Chris, for sharing your art and your words. It feels like we all need constant reminders that our collective small corners of the Internet still have something beautiful to offer, even in this age of rage or chaos. We just need to find those corners, and those people.
Peace (and art),
Kevin