I did make it over to Brooklyn Artists Gym this afternoon and ended up doing a self portrait.  Here’s a picture Peter Wallace, owner and manager of BAG took of me with my SideKick 3 camera.

I feel this painting, self portrait, is one of my best.

 

The photo I took is decent - but many of the subtleties are not showing up in the digital picture - the work is much richer when looking at it - and some for the lighting I captured on my face looks more arbitrary in the photo than in real life.   The painting looks better, I feel, standing in front of it - than seeing it online, like I have it, above. 

I think I spent close to 5 hours working on my self portrait.  Once I started painting again last year - I let myself go - when I paint - it’s 100% of me and I often feel as if something else is working through me and I’m just along for the ride - and that’s totally fine with me.

Also feel that I can complete my work now where I could not years and years ago - I had no idea what “finished” meant - I did not know when to stop.  Feel much more  confident of my abilities as an artist.

It’s also nice when artists at my studio come up to me and tell me the painting is beautiful - it’s unsolicited feedback.  Without taking it too seriously - if I “see it”, “feel it” and “know it” and other people (who have no idea of how aware I am of the “energy”) come over to me and tell me they’re drawn to the work…..I must be onto something.

But I’m totally glad I’m not out to sell or even show my work at this time.  It takes a alot of courage to put your work out for the world to see - in a gallery show - my soul is exposed.  I’m not ready for it yet.  Maybe I’ll never be ready - I’m fine going on, just as I have -and I’ll see where the road takes me.

BTW, here’s what my Self Portrait looks like at a distance:

I believe a painting should look good at a distance but also close up - but the power of painting is different at a distance - I hope if this work is ever shown, it’s also seen at a distance, like I’m showing above.   Getting close up, another set of associations takes over as you can see the textures and the forms are clearer.

Well, that’s enough for one post and after 5 hours, I packed it up and left the studio, a little after 7PM, Saturday.

This looks good.  I got an email on another site that allows an artist to show their work - and so far, I like what I’m seeing, even though I haven’t signed up yet. 

True, I’m not really interested in selling anything at this point; my art is entirely for my own self exploration.  I’m not against selling it, but I’m not creating anything in order to sell it and it’s fine if I never do.  I noticed FineArtAmerica.com is aiming at artists who want to sell their work.   So, in that sense, maybe I’m not entirely in sync with them.  But that’s fine, I’m more interested in how I can bundle my work, and it looks like FineArtAmerica.com does that well.

But being a search expert and the author of www.Webmetricsguru.com. FineArtAmerica.com appeals to my “Web Analyst” persona.   I make my living as a Web Analyst for IBM and others.  When I see a site that appeals to artists and yet offers Web Analytics, I take notice.  Here’s what I like:

“…AUTOMATIC LOCATION DETECTION - One of the most powerful features of the site is its ability to automatically detect a visitor’s geographic location.  When you visit our website, we automatically identify your location in the U.S. and then display content that is designed specifically for your location! ”

“….If you live in Chicago, for instance, our site will automatically tailor itself to the Chicago area.  If you were to view our list of featured art galleries, you would automatically see galleries that are located near Chicago!  Similarly, if you were to view our list of upcoming events, the list would be sorted with Chicago-area events at the top!

I’m going to need to set up an account and play with this later this week.  

Finally, someone is starting to use technology to improve site experience (which is, by the way, Art).

The other thing that’s really, really smart is the bi-monthly newsletter that’s published by FineArtAmerica; readers to Webmetricsguru.com know how often I mention email marketing as lead generation.  Email marketing, when done well, is very effective, especially when you have a fresh, targeted list of recipients.   Listen to this:

“….BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER - On the 1st and 15th of every month, we e-mail a unique newsletter to all of our registered fine art collectors.   The newsletter features artists, artwork, jobs, press releases, and events that have been posted on our site during the previous two weeks.   This is a great way to introduce your newest releases and upcoming events to an interested audience.   Each collector receives a customized newsletter which prominently features events that will be occurring in their area (see AUTOMATIC LOCATION DETECTION).

I’ll let readers know when I have my page set up on FineArtAmerica.com and have tested it out.  I’m looking forward to seeing the customized results, which I’ll probably also write up in Webmetricsguru.com, SmartMobs.com and BigGreenBlog.com, if I think the material fits those blogs.

I meant to write this earlier this weekend but have been so busy with painting and SEO Work, and life (I suppose) that I really did not have the time or energy - but I think I can write it down now.

Yesterday, when I worked on the painting / oil pastel sketch below - a couple of thoughts were on my mind.

One thought - how much different is what I’d doing now than what I painted 30 years ago?   For one thing, I don’t overwork nearly as much, work a lot faster and more focused - but for all that - I feel limited - that I haven’t really challenged myself enough - to go past the edges of what I know how to do visually.

And yet, the painting / sketch above seemed to have caught something I noticed several years ago about my Homage to Manet painting (see below)

There’s a “twist”, slanting that somehow works for me.  Yesterday, the same thing sorta happened, a slanting of the post is the left part of the picture that somehow made it more interesting.   In both cases i did not plan it - but I’m aware of it now.

That reminds me - Brice Marden mentioned in his talk today that he spends the majority of his time thinking about his work and deciding about it vs. actually producing it (he might have said it a little differently - but I think that’s what he meant).  When he was younger - he worked more than he does now - and he thinks about it more  - maybe, then he did earlier in his life.

Now, getting back to my paintings - when I detect things that work - even though there’s a lot I need to work on…..that still don’t work for me ….. I can use that information again - I can be more aware of choices I have before me.