Yesterday I walked, A LOT, – maybe 5 miles in all, first to Kris Walherr’s Gallery/Bookstore/Salon in Midwood where I talked with Kris for about an hour or so on Art/Life/Travel/Tarot, etc, it was a nice conversation; we talked Art/Life/Cezanne/Monet/Rodin/Italy/Aix/Tarot/Life Energy/Sirens and Mermaids.   Fun.

Kris even had a Tarot for Obama event in her Salon in October – she also has regular events or Salons, usually on Friday evenings, and sometimes, it’s also a Tarot Salon (interesting).   I tend to be vary particular on who reads my cards, but it looks like she has a pretty good community of Tarot Enthusiasts – and she even created a few of her own deck of Tarot Cards which can be bought in stores, and in her salon, and Kris Waldherr’s Salon was also featured in Time Out NYC – as a dating/meeting place.

There was also a nice French Restaurant around the corner from her studio Salon- sadly, it was closed when I went and ended up going to Georges Diner, and old standby resturant,  where I ran into an old friend who still works there, Ralph.  Maybe I’ll try the place next time (I’ll be there next Friday, and try to come for Feb 6th Salon).

Anyway, I went to paint after that and while I started something new, decided not to photograph it – and worked on RejectionToo again, which I think I may have finished (to the extent that anything can be “finished”).  After that I went to First Saturdays at The Brooklyn Museum of Art

Had an idea, of sorts about Social Media from viewing The Black List Project at the Brooklyn Museum – what if I could take every one of those names and see what kind of visibility they have on the Web, and compare them – say the persona from the photos to how that’s reflected on the Web.

Just a thought – don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it, but it’s an idea.

Sometimes people contact me with worthy causes – worthy sites – sites about Art in New York – and what could be more abotu Art in New York City than ….. www.NYC-ARTS.org and www.NYCkidsARTS.org ?

I took a look at NYC-Arts.org and it looks good!  Now, I do think they need to add a Social Networking aspect to the site, and I will speak to Joe Harrell, the Director of Marketing for the Alliance of the Arts, here in New York, about that.

But the sites, as they look now, are first class – they look good.  In fact, what I’d do, if I ran those sites, is add the content from Artcards.cc and also have artists, like me, go out and cover shows and post them to an accompying blog – that feeds into the NYC-Arts.org site – that would generate a lot more content.

Not sure what to say about the kids site – I have a son, but he’s almost 16 years old – and I think a kids site has a different demographic than me – (unless I’m trying to reach out to kids and their parents – in which case, maybe it’s relevent).  At any rate – these are Art Sites about our community – here in New York City – and they ougth to be supported.

Here’s the information about NYC-ARTS.org and NYCkidsARTS.org from recent press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Alliance for the Arts Launches NYC-ARTS.org and NYCkidsARTS.org in Beta Testing

NEW YORK – November 25, 2008 – The Alliance for the Arts has launched the beta versions of its new NYC-ARTS.org and NYCkidsARTS.org, the most complete, customizable and dynamic source of information on New York’s cultural institutions. Curated by people who know the scene, NYC ARTS provides an inside view of New York’s cultural life.

The NYC ARTS Web sites have launched during beta testing. The public is invited to participate in testing by submitting feedback through the “Send your feedback” button at the bottom of every page.

NYC-ARTS.org

Locals and tourists will find in-depth information on cultural organizations and their events, programs and activities.

NYCkidsARTS.org

Educators and parents will find the most comprehensive information on cultural activities for children, including arts education programs that support teaching in many subject areas.

Alliance for the Arts Research Center

The research tools in the Alliance for the Arts Research Center will provide easy access to accurate quantitative data on the nonprofit cultural sector in New York City.

In the increasingly competitive entertainment environment, NYC ARTS and NYCkidsARTS ensure that New York City’s arts organizations stand out in the clutter of choices. The NYC ARTS brand is a powerful promotional identity both for large cultural institutions that command high visibility and smaller groups with less promotional muscle. Unlike commercial cultural listings that have a narrow focus, these sites give all arts groups equal opportunity to promote their programs and attract visitors. The power of the NYC ARTS sites extends beyond the walls of the Web sites with weekly e-mail updates, interest-specific RSS feeds and connections to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Cultural consumers need a strong brand to help them navigate the rich and diverse resources of New York City’s five boroughs. Through recommendations, curated collections and other features such as “Events ending soon,” the sites will be proactive in directing individuals to cultural opportunities they might otherwise overlook.

The City of New York is the major underwriter of NYC ARTS. Because the system supports hundreds of cultural organizations and their events in all five of the city’s boroughs-in effect shoring up the cultural infrastructure-the City of New York has invested $1.5 million in capital dollars for the first release of the system. It has also pledged additional enhancement funds for future releases of NYC ARTS.

New York’s philanthropic community has joined the City as investors in this project. Local foundations and corporations supported the research and development of NYC ARTS.

About the Alliance for the Arts

The Alliance for the Arts serves the entire cultural community through research and advocacy and serves the public through cultural guides and calendars. Through its NYC ARTS guides and calendars, the Alliance promotes New York cultural institutions. Through its research studies highlighting the importance of the arts to the economy and to education, the Alliance helps government and civic leaders understand the importance of cultural organizations to New York City. More information on the Alliance’s work can be found at the new www.AllianceforArts.org.

Contact:

Joe Harrell, Director of Marketing & Product Management

Alliance for the Arts

jharrell@allianceforarts.org

(212) 947-6340

Again, what I think is needed is Social Networking that supports and encourages community – and I’ll help where I can, being of this community – we want to not just have engagement – but encourage it with Social Media for Engagement.

Sounds like, at least for some, Art is moving away from Galleries and Dealers – according to The Gaping Void in a post titled desertmanhattan update that my friend, Valeria Maltoni, brought to my attention yesterday.

I’ve met Hugh Macleod a few times, though I don’t know him well, and while I’ve never really been his fan, and probably won’t ever be, I think he says some things that need to be said, they’re some of the same things I have been thinking and saying, but in some cases, Macleod has said them more eloquently:

For one thing, Hugh Macleod has explained why hardly anyone can sell their work

“…The artist doesn’t determine the price of the work. The re-sale value of a price determines the price of the work. If the perception exists that the work will be significantly more valuable in five or ten years, paintings are easy to sell. Without this perception, it’s damned hard to sell a painting, even if the potential customer falls in love with it.“

Well, there it is … without the “market” to establish value, most Artists, who can’t market or have hired the wrong people to market for them, are pretty much ….. well, on their own – to say it nicely.  You can’t sell something if there’s no one to sell it to.  Since the value of art is set by demand, which in turn, is controlled by dealers, which in turn is fed by Museums and Collectors – it’s a closed circuit loop, and if your not in the loop, your out of it – period.

“… An artist is about as good example of a “Global Microbrand” as you can get.

Right, and who cares about “microbrands”?   People are so filled up with information these days, it’s really hard to get pass all the walls people have put up – to defend themselves from the demands for attention.  And who needs “attention” the most?    Artists – they hunger for it – but with so much noise out there, it takes something really “loud” to even be noticed, else, your invisible.

“….I don’t need a gallery; I have a blog.” I’ve been approached by a few gallery owners over the last couple of months about doing a show. So far the conversations have gone nowhere. So far I’ve yet to meet a gallery who can sell a painting better than my blog can. Gallerists talk a lot; they’re not quite so fond of putting down financial guarantees in writing.”

How true … how very true.  I can’t say it’s worked that way for me, but then, I’m really ambivalent about selling my work and now, showing it.  I need to figure out what the next step is which I wrote about in Yet more thoughts about painting when it’s hard to paint- and for now, till I get the next vision of where I need to go with my work, I’ll continue to sketch, when I feel the need to and also paint, perhaps on my iPhone, via graphics software.

I attended Ilana Simons opening at GirlsClub last night (actually, Thursday night 9/27/07) briefly and enjoyed looking at her work; here’s the video.

By the way, I didn’t know Ilana Simons teaches Philosophy, and Plato in particular..thought I had to mention that.

I noticed the large variety of paintings Ilana had showing (you can see them in the video) and it occurred to me (and I mentioned it to her) to exploit the shape of the plates, particularly the smooth plates, with the protruding depth, much as Monet used the oval shape of the room in Paris where his Waterlily paintings are housed near the Louvre.

As a visual artist (that is, when I get around to painting) I’m very aware of the language of form and color; what makes painting interesting, as opposed to literature or other art forms, is the exploitation (if that’s the right word for it) of two dimensional design, texture, subtle properties of color, contour, drawing, etc.  

Succeeding as a visual artist, to me, is finding a way to take your motif and translate into the language of form and color.  Often, working sincerely, as Ilana does, I can feel the love that goes into the portraits – and sometimes, the color hues work for me more in some than others.  But I would say that when you teach philosophy, write and paint, you have a trinity (at least that) and it’s intersting to see someone that does all three in a consistent way.   All the paintings have consistency, the writing has consistency and I bet, the philosophy classes are pretty good too.