I really don’t know what I felt like yesterday, sorta a lot of feelings – and being realistic wasn’t one of them.

I don’t know if this painting is done or now – probably not, but I’m putting it up anyway – because I had a lot of feelings that were going right into the work.   I had thoughts I can’t really capture now – but ideas come to while painting -  Anyway – here’s another “Into The Blue” painting – but there’s something else going on – perhaps a sophistication I’m going after, represented by the right side of the painting:

I sketched this view of the bar at a restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn today.  As a matter of fact, I was reminded of something said to me a long time ago – in 1987, that is I could paint the East Village, the way I was than, and bring something spiritual and uplifting about it – it would be fantastic.

Well, I don’t think I was able to do much then, but there days – I feel I can go as far with anything I’m doing, artistically, as I want to go.

I know this sketch is dark, but if you look at it for a minute – you’ll see how much I of myself I put into it – I hope it shows.

I dropped off one of my paintings to Heart and Soul Pilates for the show I’ll be in next weekend and ended up spending the whole afternoon and much of the evening there having an early dinner, sketching and going to two openings.  Here were the openings I went to.

Here’s a video of part of what’s going on in Williamsburg:

What was notable was the “Space” performance at MonkeyTown – it was different than anything I was expecting – in fact, I kind of liked the mixture of a “surround” video (4 screens), the futons that you can relax on, the food that’s served while your watching and the performance art that is supposed to play in with the the movie clips.

The only problem – most of the time, the performances didn’t really interplay with the movies all that well and I felt many good opportunities were missed by all the performers and the movies.

Tired and ready for be else I’d write more.

I was at my studio last week and was photographed by another artist – here’s the photo

Also, yesterday I had my Standing Self Portrait and Rejection framed (will pick them up next week) – here’s the works I got framed, below:

Marshall Sponder – Self Portrait – Standing – 18″ x 36″ Oil Pastel on Canvas Paper, 2008

Rejection – 18″x 48″  Oil Pastel on Paper

Looking at the Rejection piece, I’ve always been fond of it even if it might look mild and more nuenced than much of my current work.  As I looked more and more at it – I saw color intereactions and feelings coming from it that I know, if someone takes the time to look – there are many touches in this work that I’m proud of.

Spent a few hours deciding how I’d frame these works since they’re oil pastel on paper and I had seen work encased in Plexiglas that seemed to be inexpensive – but upon research, weren’t (going with Plexi would have cost me up to 700 dollars per work and been difficult to do – it’s also not good for the artwork, so I’m told).   I was also told that Oil Pastels or just Pastels on paper being framed can buckle slightly due to the air pressure when people open a door into the room where the work is hanging – etc.  I didn’t realize framing work had so many implications, besides price.

However, when I finally resolved to go ahead and frame these two works, I was prepared (gulp) to pay $600.00 to use www.Nunugallery.com on Union Street. But, by good fortune, ended up passing Sterling Place Framing on 310 4th Street in Park Slope and got my work framed for less than half what Nunu quoted me.

I can’t say I would have gotten exactly the same frames; perhaps what NuNu Gallery would have done could have been slightly better – then again, it didn’t appear to me the net result would be any better than what Sterling Place Framing charges.

What’s interesting is the owner, Darrin Vonstein, isn’t even on the internet, nore does he try to be all that accessable, but the feel of the place is just where you’d want to go if you wanted to get something framed that’s going to offer you a fair price – and it seems they’re busy with a lot of framing that the guy looks like he enjoys the work he does.

Anyway, last night, after all of that activity, I was met a friend from Italy and then had dinner in Florents, in the Meat Packing District of Manhattan – it was a long day and a couple of wines later plus two more meetups with friends and some interesting experiences – I called it a night and ended up home around 2AM.

Today, I’m just trying to recover – and realize the steps I took. I also was able to verbalize that my activity painting – even when I don’t do it that much, provides a favorable influence to the rest of my life, giving it a richness it might not otherwise have, and is it’s own justification.