I think Social Search and Social Media works and my attendance at a concert tonight at The Cutting Room on West 24th Street happened purely because someone invited me on Facebook - I looked at the invitation, liked her music, and attended.

I wasn’t disappointed - I had a great time and Nikki Shannon and her band played very well - and I got to meet her and speak for a couple of minutes.  I was in a room with total strangers - there wasn’t anyone that I knew - but I felt I was still “invited” and it turns out the PR Person is one of my Facebook friends.

So … Social Media Works - it really does - the problem might be - can you get enough people to see and interact with the content - any content?

But I would not have come had I not liked her music - so it’s all about “realness” and Art.

While visual art, painting, and music are both similar and different, one thing speaks to soul, genuineness - and she has it - I could feel it.

Why I decided to listen, why I opened up, maybe it was the power of Social Media - it can do that - if people want to listen, want to see, want to listen.

Maybe we’re Early Adopters of Social Media, or I am, anyway - and there’s a good post about it in Social Media Today

“…

While the increasing mainstream coverage of tools like Facebook and MySpace may be a sign that we’re moving beyond the introduction stage and into the growth stage of social media tools, from my perspective we’re still at a point in social media when everyone is learning. That’s especially true in public relations. PR has been around for a long time; social media has been around for just a few years.  I think we’re early in the lifecycle.

We have a bunch of new tools to experiment with; I think it’s up to us - the early adopters - to work out which ones are useful and how to use them.”

I just got done meeting Liz Dimmitt of Gumshoe and walked out the door of La Bottega cafe at the Maritime Hotel in Chelsea when I beheld this building - a felt as if I was looking at a structure from another world.  I was compelled to take a closer look.

I really have to go back to this building which is across the street from Chelsea Piers - Interactive employees are beginning to occupy the building - can Barry Diller be far behind?  This has got to be one of the most interesting buildings I’ve ever seen - it’s almost all glass - but the transparency changes based on the time of day, I’m told you can’t see in during the day but becomes much easier to look into later in the day - and I was moving by the building towards dusk.

I’m envious of the people who’ll work in this building - and I liked everything about the design, as well as the galleries across the street - this is truly Art.  I wanted to walk in - some construction is still going on.  Well, I’ll be back.

I went to a couple of Art Openings afterward, including Vincent Geyskens opening at the envoygallery, and another somewhere nearby - then I had dinner and went home.  But I did stop at Pearl Paints on 23rd Street and buy some expensive Oil Pastels and a new pad.

If I do make it to Paris in late May, I’ll probably only bring along a pad a bunch of Oil Pastels /Watercolors - maybe a portable easel; that’s actually enough for me.

Time to end this post - and interesting day!

I went by the Chelsea Art Museum tonight for an opening of “Dangerous Beauty” - it was packed and the first time I actually toured the museum.

I also notice there were several books about Jean Miotte at the Chelsea Museum book store in the lobby. I don’t know anything about this artist but I see there’s’ a Jean Miotte Foundation connected to the Chelsea Museum - maybe that’s why the books are available in the lobby.  I don’t connect with Miotte’s work, lets leave it at that.

Took a lot of pictures tonight - but I won’t put the pictures here; I’ll just mention the works that struck me.

Emily Eveleth’s Conjecture, 2004, Oil on Canvas, 49 x 76 inches (great to have a camera and unlimited storage - so I can take pictures of everything, including the name tags next to the painting).   I think this was one of the most successful paintings in the museum and looked like either a gel filled donut leaking out gelly or a gunshot (guess that’s why it’s called “Conjecture”).

I also like Barry Sullivan’s Sirpa Front, painted in 2006, 64 x 46 inches, oil on linen.  I found the nude woman with breast showing a turn on - in a show that was very depressing, actually.

Donald Sultan’s Egg and Tomatoes painted in 1998, 48 inches x 48 inches was pretty darn good as a painting.

I also never heard of a painter called George Condo, whose’s “Fruit Man” painted in 1983 is an interesting painting that I liked a lot.

The Genealogy of the Supermarket by Nina Katchadourlain is fascinating parody of the faces next to our brands and how they gave birth to characters from other brands.

The Mummified Barbie Dolls, made of Barbie dolls, are fairly small.

Meanwhile, Tom Sanford’s painting of Paris Hilton, 29×29 inches was one of the more interesting, if soulless, images in the show.

And I have to say that I was not comfortable in the Chelsea Museum; just the overall feeling about art and what it takes to be an artist.  It makes me wonder if I want to show my work at all - and right now I’m having an identity conflict with doing the work - I’m sorta afraid I won’t end up harnessing my full creativity.  And I need to paint more.