Ok, this is really about my web analytics work but….to me they’re both connected - and I used the referenece to Cezanne midway (at ~ 18:25 minutes into the podcast) - something about “mountain is just the mountain…but it takes the mind of an Artist to make it Mont Sainte-Victoire “.  

Interview with Marshall Sponder, IBM and Kelly Makimaa, WAA on February 19, 2007

MP3 File

The official version will be published on the Web Analytics Association (WAA) website in a couple of days, along with a transcript.  It’s a long podcast - but makes few demands on your browser or our servers as it’s all streamed from Hipcast.com.

I found the best sound settings for my podcast, at least, on my laptop are this (see below):

However, if your listening to the podcast on a MAC, I’m not sure what the settings would be as I don’t have a MAC.

One thing artists can learn from this podcast is what it might take to measure Rich Media (Flash) events.  Many Art Galleries and Artists tend to use Flash quite liberally - thinking that a more Flashy site conveys information and their work much better.

That might be true, but from an tracking standpoint, most Flash and Ajax applications are not visible to your tracking platforms without a bit of extra work - more than most sites are willing or able to put into place at this time.  As Websites become more interactive, more Flash and Ajax oriented - it’s getting much harder to understand how your visitors are engaging with your website.  I think that’s definitely an issue with Sacchi’s My Gallery web site that looks to be entirely Flash based.  But many New York Art Galleries have the same problems.

So for those of you who want to track those things - my podcast to the Web Analytics Association is of value to you as well.

Enjoy - and I’ll provide the link to the WAA site along with the transcript when it becomes available.

I did three studies today, including the Nude Study from my last post. Here’s the other two - and I did not spend more than an hour on each, if that long.

 

There was a woman painting the rest of the group as we all painted the model - in about 90 minutes she had done a finished oil sketch, maybe 30 x 30″ - I could recognize myself in her painting - it was quite good - though I feel she needs to take her work to the next level - but that’s for her to decide, not me.

Anyway, she took a catnap on the studio couch and I decided to paint her Palette - since her palette was the most interesting thing in the studio to me.  She kinda woke up after about 30 minutes and eventually wanted to use her palette, so I made this a quick study and decided to just abstract off it - thinking of Picasso while doing this - started with Oil Pastels and quickly used chalk over it, then spraying with fixative.

The last painting of the day, below, was another view of the studio - with the theme of “painting within a painting” that I started last week.  Only, you probably can’t tell because my treatment was loose and I got exhausted - but it was a good exhaustion.

I like this study - for all the looseness of it - there’s some color effects that happened - that I allowed to happen.

Again, I asked my self - what’s my commitment to these works?  Answer:  I don’t know.  I only know that it feels right to me doing as I am - where this all goes … I don’t know.

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.