I spent most of the day at Brooklyn Artists Gym and got did 2 large oil pastels studies, the first of a nude model and the second, a still life.  You can click on each picture to get a larger view and possibly, the proportions will be more correctly sized.

 

Spent 3 hours on this oil pastel sketch of a nude - painted this model twice before.  As usual, I had difficulty working on the model’s face but managed to do so. I was aware that my proportions for the model were off – but did not mind.  I was going for “feeling” and noticed I was producing a lot of subtle variations of color, and the area in the lower left has many variations of color.

I also used my left hand for some of the drawing (I’m right handed) and found I can do better work when some of it is done using my left hand.

 

Decided I needed to paint more and stayed at the Studio for a couple of house more - had the studio all to myself during that time.   I wanted to paint a still life but there were not apples or pears, no flowers, nothing much I cared about to use as a model for the still life in the studio. Found an almost empty bottle of red wine in the refrigerator and used my own red plaid scarf plus a scissors that was lying around – and the back of a stretched canvas as a model. 

I need to have an emotional response ,with a person or object before painting it – I did not want to start a still life about objects I do not care about – that’s the formula for a bad painting, or at least, a very boring one.  What I picked as objects – I cared about.  I had the last of the red wine in the bottle and I guess the scissors are symbolic too…as I used to know someone who liked to cut things off (I’ll leave it at that).

When I stepped back look at my still life – I felt a clarity in it that I used to not have when I painted still life’s in the past.  Yes, I have changed – I know myself – I’m not fighting it, I’ve accepted what my gifts are.  I’m not trying to be something I’m not – just enjoying being “me” and valuing it – my gifts.  I felt SO GOOD mixing the colors – pushing it while being natural.  Who needs to be anyone else – I’m quite happy to be “me”.  

When I was younger – I tried to be like the artists I admired, and my paintings, After The Bath and Homage to Manet were fully mine yet they looked at the artists I admired and the best of me was held in check while I struggled to be like them – the people I admired.  

Now I know when to “stop” painting – when I have said what I had to say.  I could not do that years ago – I did not know when or how to stop and overpainted quite a bit- I just stopped when I was exhausted or sick of the work. 

See, we get better as we get older – some things do improve.  

Here’s the photo of the still life from which I made the painting above.

I tried to get the angle and positioning as close to possible to match the view in my painting.

I was quite happy with both oil pastels that I painted today and before I left the studio, I spent about a half an hour looking at all the work I did this year and I feel quite proud of my work.  I had some thoughts that came to me as I painted and soon after I left the studio. 

My first thought – I’m pretty darn good as a painter / colorist and I want a show (maybe I should think about framing all my oil pastels – even if it costs a bit) - but it does not have to happen now.  I counted about 18 oil pastels and 5 or 6 paintings I’ve done since this spring – each done in one sitting.   Since I go to many museums and art openings – I have a pretty good idea of what I like, what I think is good or not.  I think my work is good, maybe better than good – but it’s ok to paint and not show anything right now.

OK, two more thoughts.   Had dinner in a Mexican restaurant nearby – there’s a mural in the restaurant that’s quite good ….. but somehow, because it’s in a restaurant – it fades into the wall.  Why is that?   All of a sudden – it hit me – in order for Art to stand out – it has to be well positioned (meaning – if the mural were in a cultural center or perhaps a small museum – it might have stood out).  In order for good work to be great work, it needs to be different somehow, and it also needs to be well positioned (so it can be admired, seen by the many)..  

If you put a Vermeer painting in the Mexican Cafe – it also might have disappeared in the woodwork – or even the Van Gogh I admired last week at the Metropolitan Museum – when Van Gogh first showed his work – it also was not recognized – it took individuals with vision to appreciate someone like Van Gogh.

Maybe the Mexican Mural is not that good – but there’s no denying that showing paintings in a restaurant is not positioning them well, in almost every case – no one will take painting in a restaurant very seriously.   And the other part – enough people need to validate the selection.  So, if your work is in a museum – it’s somewhat validated already – but what really makes works well known is several authorities validating the artwork – first it needs to be “positioned” well and then validated.

My final idea, about positioning again, involves one of my clients whose homepage has 4 types of content (pages).  While the client thinks each type of page is different and one type, called an ideas page, was superior in some respects, web analytics data showed little different in ideas pages from other pages that ran on their homepage.  It turns out, the main difference – that affected how people reacted to their pages – how the client positioned their pages and what the put on the pages.

Positioning, more than anything else, determines the value of a thing in our world.  What does that mean to me?

For one thing, as a Artist and Web Analyst – how I think of my work and how I position myself, to  a large extent, determines what is going to happen both in my Art and in my professional life. 

I also think I could be, if positioned properly, an much more well known authority in Web Analytics than I am today, and someone who can bring new ideas in the field – as I’m attempting to do at IBM; or, I can be in a situation where I’m not positioned that way – and therefore – not valued (or better yet, my true value is not seen or appreciated).

This coming year, I’ve decided I want to paint much more, I want to be in a position where that’s going to be easy (to paint) and money will not be a problem, where my Web Analytics will flow and where I’ll “well positioned”.

That’s the thoughts I had today as I painted these two paintings.

I did go over to White Box tonight to see Annie Ratti’s EVAPORATED SEA though I found it a bit disappointing; rather than seeing an aquatic environment created within a gallery – I saw a fake boardwalk and a lot of salt / sand on the floor – but since it was dark – it was just as I feared – no aquatic experience – just salt on the ground and some pictures projected on the walls.

Look, if I want to go see the ocean – I’d go to the ocean – I don’t need a fake boardwalk and sand to remind me of the ocean.  Oh well.

I saw a few other shows, but they too, were somewhat disappointing, like the Who Cares Book Launch Party” for The NY Art Book Fair in Chelsea – I never attended one of these before and I stayed about 15 minutes (see below).

   

 I also ended up going to the Launch party for NOOKA watches at New Museum of Contemporary Art; I ended up buying a Nooka Watch, a white Zob Zot (see below)

 

There’s only one problem, it looks like a Hospital Bracelet – which may or may not be cool.  What do you think …. should I keep it or try to exchange it for a Red, Blue or Black Zob Zot?    I heard Nooka Watches are HOT in Japan and I thought ….. it would be an interesting watch – but if it looks like I was just released from a Hospital …hmm, not sure that’s what I had in mind.  The Zob Zot costs 125 bucks – but some of the more expensive watches in the line were more to my liking …. I just did not want to pay 250 bucks for the next level up, a ZOT v2 or NOOKA Zen-V.  I’d probably buy the Zen-V if money were no object.

NOOKA Watches tell time differently – the dots represent hours and the band in the middle represents how much of each hour has passed while the seconds are represented in the lower left part of the watch display.

I went to a couple of other shows – but they were bad, bad, bad….. or just plain boring.  I wanted to go over to Forbidden Planet and pick up the Blab 17 book that has Amy Crehore’s paintings in it, but decided to do it another day.

So I’m feeling mixed about the watch ….. I kinda want a watch that’s different – If I did want a different color I’m not even sure I could exchange it. 

I’m on my way out the door soon to see Annie Ratti’s EVAPORATED SEA @ White Box.

I’ll have more to say later tonight once I’ve seen it – here’s the description which gives an idea of why I’m interested in going to the opening.

“Exhibition Dates: November 17 – December 16, 2006 Opening Reception: Friday, November 17, 6 – 8pmViewing Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 6pm

Viewing Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 6pmANNIE RATTI’s site-specific installation Evaporated Sea will radically alter White Box’s seemingly archeological space by filling it with sea salt, challenging visitors to revise the parameters by which they view art and overturning any preconceptions they had about what constitutes an exhibition space. The floor will be encrusted in salt. The existing catwalk will be transformed into a wooden pier-like structure that will allow visitors to view the installation from its center. An audio component will further enhance the overall sensorial experience.

This project, stated Ms. Ratti, is a “composite psychological window reflecting the appearance, disappearance, and reincarnation of memories attached to social complexities. This will be represented by the imagery projected in the slides and videos–referencing Lamorisse’s The Red Balloon, children at play, and additional subjects that provoke reconsideration of contemporary society and the essence of humanity.”

Annie Ratti has shown in major international museums, galleries, and Biennales over the past twenty years. She has initiatiated and collaborated on projects with artists such as Joseph Kosuth, John Armleder, Allan Kaprow, Hamish Fulton, Haim Steinbach, Ilya Kabakov, Marina Abramovic, Giulio Paolini, Richard Nonas, Jimmie Durham, Alfredo Jarr and Marjetica Potrc. Her work has become known for its focus on collaborations and interactive communication. In that capacity, she has been part of a generation of contemporary artists who experimented and developed strategies for communicative methodology that continue to resonate today.”
These are some other shows nearby – I’ll see how many I’m up for attending and photographing:

Odili Donald Odita & Martha Camerillo at Jack Shainman
W 20 street, 513

“Who Cares Book Launch Party” for The NY Art Book Fair
W 22 street, 548, 5-7pm

Dave Anderson at Andrew Kreps
W 22 street, 525

Launch party for NOOKA watches at New Museum of Contemporary Art
W 22 street, 556, 6:30-9pm

Zoe Crosher at DCKT Contemporary, Inc.
W 24 street, 552, floor 2

Mark Mulroney at Mixed Greens
W 26 street, 531, floor 1

Ivan Navarro at Roebling Hall
W 26 street, 606

If nothing else, I’d have liked to go by the NY Art Book Fair Party.  We’ll see.

I met Jeff Howe of Wired Magazine tonight at ApexArt Gallery in Lower Manhattan.  I saw the notice for this show in www.Artcards.cc a couple of days ago and made the decision I’d show up.  The public notes for this show are below and my comments and transcript follow.

Most of the content of this talk is contained in Jeff Howe’s CrowdSourcing article on Wired.com earlier this year.  Here are my notes and a few thoughts afterwards:

Notes:
====================================
Started with Converse Gallery sent out a viral campaign of why people love their Converse Sneakers…all user generated.  Jeff became a little obsessed with the idea …. outsourcing to the crowd sourcing…term was picked up and widely adopted.   Went from 3 results to 2.2 million results in Google in a couple of weeks.

Crowdsourcing is when a company outsources a job previously done by an employee and gives it to a stranger.

How does it work?  Cambrian House had ideas that are voted on and anyone who has passed the voting gets developed and there’s royalties. (note: I wrote about Cambrian House’s PR stunt bring 10,000 Pizzas to Google for Lunch a couple of months ago – very successful stunt)

Why do they do it?  Average cost of providing amateur verses professional television…great savings result.

If the crown helps build your product then the product will probably appeal to the crowd.

Threadless.com   (shoe design done by social media).

InnoCentive…crowd sourcing science..  Correlation between distance
from problem is better prediction of ability to solve problems …. Krim Lakhami research paper.

Second Life…while Linden Labs built the infrastructure rhe crowd built
the world..the meta verse.

Crowdsourcing can cause economic destruction in areas like stock
photos…. 300 dollars for stock photographer vs 3 dollar for a
crowdsourced photographer.   The quality is almost indistinguishable.
Make up profit in volume.

People who shoot for iStockphoto don’t really do it for the money.

The crowd has many talents and is dispersed, has a short attention span..work is broken up to micro chunk.

Mechanical Turk …Amazon created..human intelligence tasks.  Micro
chunk labor.  Article ii CSM a month ago.   Crownd is full of specialists.  90 percent is junk but 10 percent is good.  Digg is a
crowd filter.

Gannet started a crowd sourcing project.  Line between work and play
have blurred.  Hypoposos  …3 million band profiles o Myspace.

Wired.com  …old media is frozen in time.  We’re never done telling the
story.

1997 ….yellow 3 corner room….viewer is part of it (at either MOMA or Whitney)

Pew Study show majority of 11 to 16 get their news from Digg – sites like that.

Myspace home page can actually be a work of art.

Search for community ….boundary between player and viewer dissolving.

Makers of intellectual properties.

Crowd as creators and professionals as packagers..a lot of jobs are
being eliminating.

Thesheepmarket.com  community

But also.there’s need for an audience.  Internet provides

Wiki books …why are you here now?

Swarm of angels …British film based on getting 1 million pounds to
produce a movie that they can also contribute to.

======================================
I took a look at the Phantom Captain: Art and Crowdsourcing curated by Andrea Grover  – who was in the audience and spoke with Jeff Howe for a couple of minutes tonight – I also looked briefly at the http://www.thesheepmarket.com/ video that was playing in the backroom.

Once I left, I had dinner next door - a glass of Red Wine, bowl of soup and some fresh fruit for dessert – and about 40 dollars later – I was on my way home – feeling fat, dumb and happy – and hopefully not crowdsourced!

Having Dinner and Red Wine after ApexArt.