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.

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.

I had dinner tonight with Scott Draves, better known as Spot, and wrote up most of my interview in Webmetricsguru.com which took place in Chelsea.

I wanted to talk with Spot more about his art, and find out what inspires him to create his Electric Paintings - which are refinements on what started out as ElectricSheep.org screensaver.

Spot views the work he’s doing with hifidreams.com as a form of artificial intelligence, helping to bring it to life and he’s selling his more ambitious work in order to fund the development of his art and art form.

There’s an element of visual layering and genetic sequencing in the Electric Sheep online screensaver.  I’m too exhausted to write more tonight and if I can make out my scribbled notes, I’ll pick up where I’m leaving off now in a day or two with another post on tonight’s interview with Spot (Scott Draves).