In the last month or so, I have not really focused on painting as much as living - I decided to give up my studio space, for the time being, at Brooklyn Artists Gym, but am keeping my work there - and I plan to revisit that arangement later this fall.

But I’ve still been sketching, as usual, and going to openings, when they attract my attention.

Here’s some recent sketches - I’ll put up a few now and the rest in a few days:

This is a sketch of a new friend of mine, Nancy H.   One of the things that’s interesting about Nancy - she’s lived in many places in the Middle East and Central America - I find her story interesting - though her circumstances now, are difficult.  In fact, another friend of mine, Liz C. is having a pretty difficult time and almost died this week - but is recovering.   My life has touched many people, lately, in all kinds of circumstances - and I’ve tried to help, where I can, and yet, not be swallowed up by it.  Sometimes, I feel depleated - exhausted from it all, and my work on the Board of Directors of the WAA, plus my Monster WorldWide work.

I guess, that’s why I decided to take a break from painting - it felt like another “job”.

I drew this picture of the interior of a restaurant that is mostly French - I indulged in Steak Tatar and some wine, the wine glass broke (a waitress knocked it over) and I thought it time to leave.  Meanwhile, I read in a magazine about France nearby where I sit about “Mr. Big” character of Sex in the City - turns out he often visited and lived in Aix, and visited Cezanne’s studio, just like I did last year.  Who would have known?  Life is full of interesting tidbits.

But I have to admit - I don’t feel as committed to these sketches or to the dimensions of this sketchbook - which it more for landscape painting - I don’t care for the aspect ratio - but am committed to finish the sketchbook before going on to another.

In fact, this drawing was an experiment in summerizing my feelings about the sketchbook - and I felt, in some ways, it was more real than some of the other drawings I’ve done lately.

Also, this drawing, above, was done one weekend, while sitting in a cafe down in the financial district of lower Manhattan - it was pouring hard outside and I tried to capture the feelings of the day - a day I had gone to Governer’s Island.

By the way, I’m looking forward to Amy Crehore’s opening here in New York City - and also meeting her - probably in the next day or two - Amy Crehore’s Opening at Ad-Hoc-Art on July 25th.

Ok, I’ll put up the rest of the drawings I just scanned later on this weekend - need to get some sleep and dream.

I attended Marissa Levy’s concert tonight at Rockwood Music Hall in Soho and the acustics were so good and her singing was so good, I decided to take out my Flip Video Camera and capture many of the songs she sang (I came in almost half way through her performance but got a good part of it here - enjoy).

I think Social Search and Social Media works and my attendance at a concert tonight at The Cutting Room on West 24th Street happened purely because someone invited me on Facebook - I looked at the invitation, liked her music, and attended.

I wasn’t disappointed - I had a great time and Nikki Shannon and her band played very well - and I got to meet her and speak for a couple of minutes.  I was in a room with total strangers - there wasn’t anyone that I knew - but I felt I was still “invited” and it turns out the PR Person is one of my Facebook friends.

So … Social Media Works - it really does - the problem might be - can you get enough people to see and interact with the content - any content?

But I would not have come had I not liked her music - so it’s all about “realness” and Art.

While visual art, painting, and music are both similar and different, one thing speaks to soul, genuineness - and she has it - I could feel it.

Why I decided to listen, why I opened up, maybe it was the power of Social Media - it can do that - if people want to listen, want to see, want to listen.

Maybe we’re Early Adopters of Social Media, or I am, anyway - and there’s a good post about it in Social Media Today

“…

While the increasing mainstream coverage of tools like Facebook and MySpace may be a sign that we’re moving beyond the introduction stage and into the growth stage of social media tools, from my perspective we’re still at a point in social media when everyone is learning. That’s especially true in public relations. PR has been around for a long time; social media has been around for just a few years.  I think we’re early in the lifecycle.

We have a bunch of new tools to experiment with; I think it’s up to us - the early adopters - to work out which ones are useful and how to use them.”