I spent some time at the Zones of Conflict opening at Pratt Manhattan tonight, after attending a Tweetup at the Perfect Pint on W. 45th Street.

I like some of the work though I felt social protest art should also have design fundamentals that enhance the message – in fact, I captured much of my thinking on a video that I posted to YouTube, that you can see, here.

I was at the Chocolate Cafe in Park Slope this afternoon; was trying to do some work on my laptop but had a problem settling on a spot to work – all the cafes with free Internet connections were packed, including the Chocolate Cafe on 7th Avenue and 4th Street.

But after first going and and accessing the situation, leaving and walking around, I came back and found a spot that was free.    Then, instead of working on my laptop, I drew with my iPhone, see below.

I want to mention that I might have done more work on this picture, had I not felt, after 30 minutes or so, that I needed to rest my mind; the light turned to dusk and I figured, what I got is it, so I’ll stick with the picture, as is.

I also wish I could play the “animation” of the picture was drawn – that’s pretty much built into many of the iPhone paint and sketching applications, including this one.

I managed to make a online video of the my painting, being played back – but the sharpness and resolution aren’t as good as if I had been able to record it directly on my desktop – and maybe I ought to look into finding out how to get the playback of my iPhone Paintings onto the desktop and recorded as movies, as an adjunct to the works, themselves.

Guess I’m in a little bit of a funky, low mood – and given the damp, cloudy day, along with a few decisions about some friends that I made today, and my own birthday, I’m feeling contemplative and low energy – I guess that’s another way to say, I feel sad, somehow

I drew this street scene from the window view of a cafe in Brooklyn I had Brunch in – it’s an iPhone painting.

I also painting a few people having Brunch in the same cafe, see above.  I guess I enjoyed my loneliness and distance from people – I wanted closeness but was not able to contain it.

Didn’t get much life drawing done, either.

Maybe, it’s just “one of those sad days”.

By the way, I found that uploading the images as .jpg files really took too much away from the sharpness, and the best way to really get the full quality, just as it appears on my iPhone, is to capture screenshots which are embedded into the post.  

I care enough about the images to want to ensure, that if I take the trouble to post them, they reflect the quality I like about them – the vivid colors, but also, the edges – much of that is lost in a .jpg files I’ve uploaded.  Ongoing – I’ll keep my images updated that way, as it matters, at least, it matters to me.

Today is my birthday, and I guess, it hasn’t been a particularly enjoyable weekend – but life has it’s ups and downs.

Standing before Rubens; His Wife, Helena Fourment; andOne ofTheir Children, tonight.

So much of why this painting is good, it happens in my imagination. Rubens paints his own world, he looks old, reflective, with a nice, young, plump wife, who you could feel.

She could be the girl next door, or a lady on the Subway…. The hands are exquisite, and all the energy happens in the imagination.

No wonder great art never truly ages.