I got over to the studio later on this evening – I wasn’t feeling well today but dragged myself over there after running some errands in Park Slope.  Once I got to work – it was 4 or 5 hours of non-stop painting – and as promised - I created my first version of “Is Google God?” study / painting.

Painting: Is Google God?  Marshall Sponder – 3-24-2007  Oil Pastel / Pastel on Paper, 22 x 28″

A couple of things I added – the references to “Top 10″, that’s obviously a reference to the obsession to get be within the Top 10 Search Results.    Also, the long black “line” or “snake” is actually “The Long Tail” of Search.  

I’m really linking how I treated my “Thumb” with 3 patches of color next to each other (Red, Blue and Peach).   Feels great to be able both to imagine and execute on my ideas – I never used to have, years ago, as much freedom to “go all the way” as I do now.  I want to push my paintings as far as I can go.   Adding “The Long Tail” might have made the painting busier – but I got the intuition, last minute, to add it – it made sense to me The Long Tail (as a concept and image) ought to be depicted here.

I’ll probably do a larger acrylic painting, or series of paintings around this theme soon. 

We’ll see.

I am going to try something different today and post about what I’d like to paint before I got over to my studio.  I’m getting a late start but plan to go over there soon.   Also the Paris Trip is moving along – and my Passport arrived today – plus a certain amount of help, not as much as I’d have liked, but it’s in the right direction.

Not that easy for me to get a photo I liked – and it’s not exactly what’s in my mind- but it would do.   If the text in the search box of my mobile phone (IE: The Google Phone?) were clearer…. it would say….

Is Google God?

Well, maybe to some people, Google is like a “God” in it’s ability to reward traffic to those it “favors”.   Hmm, does Google take any ritual sacrifices?  I guess you can’t just make an offering and expect rankings and business to improve.

So…what I want to paint about is the power of Search Engines to shape our lives – and present us with a version of the truth – the Google Truth.  Maybe I’ll post something about this over at Webmetricsguru.com as it’s also about Web Analytics .. kinda.

I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Ha, Ha, Ha……is Google God…. I’m grinning, and having a good time with it….wonder what I’ll manage to do with that idea?  Stay tuned.

Felt tired, burnt out today – but actually it was an OK day, just quiet – not much input from anyone around me. 

When I left work I went over to Winkleman/Plus Ultra Gallery to see Christopher Lower Johnson’s work (and have a glass of red wine).   I wonder why the Winkleman website doesn’t give each artist and each show it’s own unique URL – it seems to be to defeat the purpose of making content more visible to search engines..but that’s just me.   I liked the work but, in an interesting and involuntary movement – decided after 5 minutes that I had seen enough.   I like the paintings and yet….I would think if I really liked them more …I’d feel like looking at them longer and coming back to look again – I did not feel that strongly about the works.

Carrol Dunham’s work at Barbara Gladstone Gallery is clearly a little “direct” to say the least – but I liked the paintings themselves, even if I did not really want to relate to the subject matter.

I also went to Andres Hofer’s opening at Metro Pictures and I did not care for the work.

Went for dinner and then ended up for a short time, at the LEMURPlex in Brooklyn to see Trnzducer.003 – did not stay long – and then went home.

Really nice evening in Brooklyn tonight – I wrote up part of it here and  here.  

While ready to collapse from exhaustion I can’t go to sleep, here in Brooklyn, without mentioning the wonderful time I had tonight at Etsy.com’s headquarters at 325 Gold Street in Brooklyn.

As I approached the building and opened the lobby door – I felt the good vibrations coming right at me and when I got upstairs (6th floor) drinks and several boxes of Pizza awaited anyone that wanted to eat or drink.

People were extremely friendly and humble about what they do, especially Matthew Stinchcomb, founder of Etsy.com (along with his wife – who ran Etsy in their apartment for a while).  The idea of having a place where you can “Make” things, and share in the community feels so “right on” that I’m really glad I got a last minute invite – or else I would have missed the meeting and ended up at a Podcasting Meetup uptown.

And I did speak briefly with Nick Denton, owner of Gawker Media, who was present.  In fact, a lot of really smart, important people showed up at this event which was described on Make.com.  

I also had a long and very significant conversation with Nathanial X. Freitas who runs / owns the site www.cruxy.com and I also found out about Virtual Worlds 2007 Conference here in New York City next week and immediately applied for a Press Pass for that (we’ll see if I get one).

Have to go, I’m about to fall asleep at my keyboard.