Mobile technology is more and more becoming a visual medium. Touchscreens are great, and storing all your music in one place is a handy feature, but the visual aspect is quickly taking center-stage in the tablet and smartphone world.

And so it’s a perfect breeding ground for the dissemination, cataloguing, and sometimes even the creation of… art.

With the speed of online publications and the ease of RSS, the latest works by the greatest artists of today need not wait for an official gallery opening. Images can be digitally distributed throughout the world in the blink of an eye. Online arts magazines can publish special issues far more conveniently than their antiquated hardcopy counterparts. And social media is like a self-amplifying chamber, creating ever-widening echoes of art throughout the online world.

But there were still nooks and crannies to be filled, and mobile technology stepped up to fit the bill. A recent emphasis on screen resolution, screen size, and available color palettes has made tablets and smartphones the ideal technological windows onto the world of modern art, casually stored in a pocket or purse.

Perhaps even more revolutionary is that art itself can now be created by using the medium that carries it. Drawing and painting apps abound on every mobile platform, each attempting to outdo the other with access to brushes, sensitivity, and nuance. A new generation of artists is emerging, one schooled in an intuitive digital art that leaves such archaic conventions as keyboard and computer mice in the dust.

Online arts magazines are becoming more than simply art magazines online. They are embodying the expression of the mobile age, both conceptually and practically. They are keeping their readers informed and involved. And they are, as every medium in ages past, stoking the fires of creativity.