I was invited to attend Spot’s talk at the Entheocentic Salon last night at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors by Allyson Grey, artist wife of the visionary artist Alex Gray. Actually, Allyson is an artist and I found her technique interesting - in fact I can’t imagine how much detailed work most go into it. 

Alex Gray’s work has had a good deal of media coverage although I got the impression it’s not really been accepted in the main stream art world (is that any surprise?  the mainstream art world is much the same as the mainstream music world - you have to fit into a “slot”).  Actually, I’m not sure that’s entirely true any longer - it seems like “Visionary Artists” like Joe Colemen and Paul Laffoley are beginning to get some mainstream acceptance - if they can do it, why not Alex Grey? 

A frame from one of Spot’s Electronic Paintings

The main part of last night’s event at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, for me, was Spot’s demonstration of his new Electronic Paintings - which I wrote up in Smartmobs.com.  I put a lot of work and thought in that post.

Yesterday I was painting at Brooklyn Artist Gym but I could not get anything much done - it seems like time for a change in my approach, technique, planning what I’m going to do before I arrive, things like that.  Anyway, that’s the backdrop from which I came to view Spot’s work yesterday.

Spot just moved to New York, and is trying to get gallery representation for his large Electronic Paintings - I wish him success in this.   One problem I see is in how Spot’s paintings are marketed.  Presently, Spot has, maybe a dozen works that are packaged with 100GB disks and processor (as one unit) - I think with a large LCD screen (but I’m not sure about the screen part) for prices starting at 30,000 dollars USD.

For me, I’m seeing Spot’s paintings as being much more marketable at a lower price by just selling the software with an High Definition Screen, but that’s me.   I see a problem with trying to go after a niche audience of art collectors based on a technology that’s also open-sourced.   Doubt is created in the mind of a collector that what they’re spending 30K on might also be something they’ll be able to buy later for next to nothing as a more advanced screen saver program.   

In a way, this is the same problem that HitWise has, as a web analytic platform; their main program, fully loaded, is about 60K and they have maybe 1200 customers, mostly corporate.  But they’re not Omniture, not Visual Sciences - platforms that can sell for up to one million dollars a pop (you don’t need that many one million dollar installations to make it).  I wrote about this in WebMetricsGuru recently Was HitWise sold yet?

Can Spot sell enough paintings at 30K and above ….. I don’t know.  I hope he’s successful - but I do think the technology makes it somewhat problematic - are you selling the artist or are you selling the technology?   If your selling the technology, your going to have a problem selling the individuality of your creation, that’s my take.

If Spot wants to be an Artist, in the same line as Kandinsky …… he needs to sell his idea past the technology that houses it - and right now I don’t see that.   His talk was great last night, but I felt the star is not spot, it’s his Electronic Paintings - paintings that anyone can recreate with 100GB hard drive and a nice shiny laptop screen, just like the one I have now with my new HP Pavilion dv6000.

It gets back to what Seth Godin said at Google Unbound, earlier this week - to be successful you need to know that business your really in.  The House Designers, my former client for SEO, thought that buying architectural house plans from a consortium of known architects, rather than from a brokerage house like globalhouseplans.com or eplans.com, would be a competitive advantage - but it was not. 

THD totally misunderstood their true opportunity - as a larger consortium of Architects and knowledge base and tools - something they entire missed the boat on - and now that site struggles to break even.

While I’m am artist, first and foremost, I’m also a web analyst and a marketer - and I have to call things the way I see them - people expect no less from a blogger with an audience.   What Spot is trying to do, as an artist, is great, but he needs to sell his vision, not the technology - to gain broader acceptance that he wants. 

I tried the same thing with using Iron On Art 15 years ago - but what I ended up doing is paralyzing my own creativity, and could not separate the technology - Amiga PC scanned images of faces, from painting techniques - and now, anyone can make tea-shirt art - so technology has taken a technique and made it common, almost banal - yet it seemed like a great idea when I first happened onto it around 1990.

How he does that - I don’t know, but one hint - focus beyond the technology - because technology is copyable - artistic genius, on the other hand, is unique.  Be unique.

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 went to a book signing for 100 New York Painters by Cynthia Maris Dantzic  tonight; of course I bought a copy of the book and got it signed by some of the artists and Cynthia Maris Dantzic, who were present and in the book. 

 

There was about 25-30 people in the room, on the 6th floor of the YMCA rooftop.

 

  

Personally, I’ve met, known or studied with a couple of the artists in the book - which seems to have a lot of the people around in the 70’s and 80’s when I was studying painting in NYC and briefly in Vermont.

First, I never met Cynthia Maris Dantzic, who is an Art Professor at LIU, but she spoke very well and warmly (she’s wearing a black jacket, seen in the background with her arm resting on a chair).

I studied with Harvey Dinnerstein (who was not present) in 1974-75 at the School of Visual Arts, I was in one of his drawing classes and his work is shown on pages 80-81 of the book.  I met his brother, Simon Dinnerstein, at the book signing tonight and his work is on page 84-85.

Janet Fish, who is featured on pages 100-101, visited the Vermont Studio School when I spent the summer there in 1987 - she often goes there, even now - I may have personally met her but I don’t remember speaking with her if I did - and I like the paintings in the book.

I can’t swear to it, but I may have studied with Louise Fishman at Hunter College (unless I’m mixing her up with another artist with the first name Louise -and that would be in 1971-1972) - Fishman’s work is on pages 102-103.  Audrey Flack also visited Vermont Studio School when I was there in 87, and her work is on page 104-105.

Sonja Gechoff was a personal mentor of mine in 1987-1988 after I returned from Vermont but lost contact with her shortly after.  I even took her to see my painting, After The Bath, when it was hanging in a show I had in the East Village.  It’s nice to know that Sonja is still active and Gechoff’s work is featured on pages 112-113.

I went to Cecily Kahn’s art opening several weeks ago in Chelsea and immediately recognized her as the daughter of Wolf Kahn, who also visited Vermont Studio School and who I saw at Hunter College in the late 1980’s along with his wife, painter Emily Mason.  All three artists are in the book, pages 130-133 and 152-153.

I also notice that Vincent Longo’s work is featured in this book, pages 144-145, and I think was a teacher of mine at Hunter College in the late 1980’s.

Helene Manzo was at the opening and her work is on pages 148-149; got her signature.

I’m not sure, but I may have also taken a class with Don Nice at the School of Visual Arts sometime between 1974-76, his work is on pages 160-161.  Doug Ohlson was a teacher of mine at Hunter College in 1971-73 and I remember him well. 

I seem to recall meeting Paul Resika, that I was influenced by him many years ago, but it’s not clear to me how or when, and his work on pages 174-175.

Susan Sills was at the book signing and lives in Park Slope, I got her signature on the book, on pages 194 and 195; I liked her paintings which are adaptions from Manet, mainly.

Pat Steir’s name sounds familiar - I probably met her in Vermont, her work in on pages 196-197.

Come to think of it, I also studied  with Robert Swain at Hunter College in the 1970’s; his work is shown on pages 200-201.

I met Ella Yang a couple of months ago, she has a studio in the same building Brooklyn Artists Gym is located in - and I first heard about the book from her; Ella’s work in on pages 214-215.

OK, those were the artists that I studied with or personally met - many that I knew well enough that I could say some of them might remember me (15 artists out of 100).

What about the other New York Artists in the book that influenced me but who I did not personally meet?  Well, I remember hearing about Lennart Anderson while taking classes at the Art Student’s League in the 70’s-80’s, but I don’t think I studied with him.  Will Barnet has been a well known figure in the New York Art world and while I took some courses at Cooper Union as a teenager - (Saturday courses) I never personally met him (though I know he taught there).

I also am very familiar with Chuck Close (pages 66-67) but I never met him; I knew of Richard Estes (pages 92-93) via William Beckman, who’s not in the book but whom I studied with and knew in 1973-76 when Beckman taught art in Staten Island Community College - as it was called then. 

Of course, everyone knows of Eric Fischl (pgs 98-99) though I never met him - I saw his work around NYC often, there were many shows of his work, esp in the 1980’s. Jack Levine is well known, and I recall looking at his work though I was never influenced by it; same goes for Philip Pearlstein and Robert Mangold.  I am also very familiar with George Tooker’s work - and yes, he’s still alive and living in NYC, but very old by now.

And that’s about it - I studied with, met, knew or was influenced by half of the artists in the 100 New York Painters book! 

Yes, I had to buy the book.