I went over to the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, right near the Palace hotel, this afternoon.  I thought it would be more interesting but I did not have much I could grab onto so I just walked though quickly and then left.  If I lived here, as I did 30 years ago, I’d might have explored the Cartoon Boot Camp classes.   I noticed an old Cartoon Printing Press in the lobby; also you can rent the museum which sounds interesting …. not sure I’d know what to do with rented museum of Cartoon Art, but maybe someone else would.

But I also found out the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is only a couple of blocks away from me; so I went over and spent an hour with Art.  As a matter of fact, both major shows at SFMOMA are one’s that I have seen in New York City earlier this year.  I thought it might be interesting to see Brice Marden’s paintings as shown here and compare, in my mind, the SFMOMA Brice Marden show to the NYC MOMA Brice Marden show.   I liked aspects of the Brice Marden show as displayed here but I found the space felt smaller, here, even though it was not.   But, I liked the lighting  better here, in San Francisco, than the way the paintings were hung in NYC.   I like Brice Marden’s paintings but don’t find myself connecting with them as much as I’d have thought.  There were drawings in this show that were not in the NY show, but the drawings, I found, to be less interesting, or only interesting for the light they shed on his painting process - but otherwise, the drawings of Brice Marden don’t do much for me, or two me.

I also saw the Picasso and American Art show; same one I saw at the Whitney earlier. 

There also was a show with Matisse paintings in it which was pretty good - actually, more satisfying to me than the other shows.

I’m flying back to New York City tonight - pretty exhausted from spending 5 days here attending the EMetrics Summit.

When I  was at Search Engine Strategies this week I was talking with Bryan Eisenberg about attending EMetrics Summit in San Francisco early next month.  Right now, it’s not certain I’m going;  Bryan mentioned to me that I might be able to offer Jim Sterne a painting in exchange for the conference fee as I can’t afford to pay it and some others on my team are are going- did not know I would need to attend, till this week).

My own opinion is that all US analysts in my team should attend Emetrics, especially this time since they all voted for me.

My mind is somewhat muddled and I needed to paint so I would know what to do - to I get “inner” direction as I paint.  As I paint, I feel myself connected with what some people call “The Higher Self”, and others call “The Guide”.  I often know what to do as I paint my feelings - and I hope when people look at my work the feel my feelings (like I felt Manet’s feelings 20 years ago when I stood infront of The Picnic on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe) (see below) - I felt what I belive was Manet’s feelings though time and space, as he painted- particularly the top, where the bird wasy flying (hard to see even in the high def picture below)- that’s what I strive for - that is what Art is for me.

 

Manet -  The Picnic on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe)

I joked to Bryan, at SES, that a Web Analytics Still life a la Cezanne might be the way to go.

I don’t paint for money, I don’t care about money when it comes to painting - my work is entirely for my self development - but I did want to try out the idea and found it challenging - here’s what I did today.

Marshall Sponder - Web Analytics Still Life study

I’m not sure about this painting. 

I thought about the 5 clay pots as being 5 constructs in Web Analytics (IE: pageviews, visits, unique visitors, geolocation and time spent on page) while the Pepsi/Coke bottle lying dead was the injury of being left out (I was thinking of a  Manet’s painting The Dead Toreador lying on the ground which is actually in the National Collection in DC).

Manet - The Dead Toreador

What is to be done?

My inner guide  - “do nothing“.  

Perhaps, the issue will take care of itself - be made right.  I should find out Monday or Tuesday if I have been elected to the Board (I have) - if so, I’ll need to find a way to attend.  I hope writing about this, which is expressing my feelings, is part of “do nothing”.  I’m expressing feeling, that’s all.

The Trip to Paris late in May complicates issues for me somewhat - I don’t have any spare cash to spend to send myself to EMetrics now as I barely have the money to go to Paris.

Other thoughts that came to me while painting - well…. I was wondering how to show that each clay pot was part of a web analytics structure -  so I sort of scribbled the words “Web Analytics” in the foreground and “Ajax” in the lower left while I put in “pageviews”, “visits” and “uniques” on some of the other pots (but you may not be able to see it that clearly in the picture above).

Since my mind is a little “muddled” about the EMetrics Summit San Francisco trip - it’s not surprising to me that my painting would also reflect my state of mind and emotions. 

Perhaps, there are other ways to get what I want…. and that’s what I’ll explore next week.

So there - the story behind the Web Analytics Still Life Study.