Got together for some tea late this afternoon with Liz Dimmitt at the La Bottega cafe at the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea.  I had written about Gumshoe a couple of times but this is the first time we met.

Liz Dimmitt and her Gumshoe partner, Tracy Nolder, met in college while studying the Art Business (don’t recall the exact name of course they were studying) and gradually found themselves going to art gatherings and then learning to make those gatherings happen.  I guess Gumshoe is a cross between an Art Guide Service and Event Planning – helping to bring artists and buyers together.

Right now, Liz works full time developing Gumshoe while Tracy has a full time job (the business is still in the process of taking off) and Gumshoe knows many of the artists here, and around the world – Liz and Tracy have direct connections with some – and is involved in building more contacts (and that’s what the Art Fairs help to do); there’s a bit  of travel involved.

Last week, there was also several art events that Gumshoe set up, and last month Liz and Tracy also put together the Pratt Alumni Art Show (which I wish I had gone to) as I knew one of the artists in the show a while back, Linda Lauro.  That show got past me – did not know about it.

And then there’s the Gawker Artists which is fairly new and hosted on a blog – not the same platform as the rest of Gawker.  I asked Liz to talk more about it – and she answered all my questions (I’ll talk about those answers at Thoughts on Gawker Artists over at Webmetricsguru.com) but I will say there’s a great deal of potential for Gawker Artists. 

Around 5;30 PM, we ended our first meeting as Liz Dimmitt had a studio appointment with Kehinde Wiley in Williamsburg.  I knew who she was referring to; last summer when I went with my son over to the Brooklyn Museum I saw this large painting hanging in the lobby and I thought it was cool – I had no idea why a Black Artist of today would paint a neoclassical painting of himself as a Black Napoleon …but then I though…why not?

Liz told me Kehinde Wiley does not always paint this way – he’ll pick a model that attracts his attention and ask them to pick the way they want to be painted – and then he’ll paint the person in that style.  

Kehinde Wiley has a large studio and often travels to China; while Kehinde does not need Gumshoe’s help (Kehinde Wiley’s work sells in the six figure range) - yet Liz is building relationships – that’s what Gumshoe is all about.

I really enjoyed our meeting and I hope we have more of them.

On my way out of the Maritime Hotel I saw a strange building – I’ll talk more about it and show some pictures of it in my next post.