A Look at Art & Design

Carpe Diem Dude!

I've come to the conclusion that I must be either extremely lazy or retarded.  I don't know how it happened.  But upon some reflection lately, I'm pretty sure I'm not accomplishing enough during the course of my day and by default during the course of my life.  I'm holding myself to some pretty high standards here but it was always my philosophy to surround myself with people who are smarter, faster, richer, or better than myself.  It's my belief that by associating with great people, we become better ourselves.

There must be 100 new things I'd love to explore and learn.  My To-Do list is pages long, but I find that while I THINK I'm filling my day and producing a considerable amount ...  improvement can be made.

I look around at those who inspire me and I swear they must not sleep.  My friend, Eric Karjaluoto at ideasonideas.com and Eric Karjaluoto (the blog) is a madman!  He recently wrote an article about the death of Twitter and in it he describes all the networking he does.  The man runs a successful design firm, has a family, 2 excellent blogs, produces several personal projects such as Make Five and Design Can Change and somehow he is still able to Twitter, Flicker, LinkIn and play around with Facebook.  Thank God he wrote a recent post entitled I can't Keep Up.  I was beginning to wonder!

Eric is not alone.  I have client who keeps a fabulous apartment in NYC and a home in Connecticut.  He runs FIVE BUSINESSES.  He is not only a artist showing at several NY galleries but he is also an extremely successful scientist who has invented molecules (or biosomethingoranothers) that have never before existed in the universe.  The man runs FIVE BUSINESSES!  He invented the Brown & Serve bag and still has time to paint, sculpt, travel and run four other businesses!  For heaven's sakes.  Another client of mine, Balam Soto, is also an artist but in the 12 years he has lived in the US (he moved here from Guatemala) he learned English, computer programming, got married, had children, developed a successful artistic career and is now exploring technology in art.  This is amazing considering that 12 years ago the man had never seen a computer, held a paintbrush in his hand or even taken a cab ride.

What is it that propels these people to excel?  When do they find the time to explore all these dreams and all these interests and make them real?  Is there a formula for the stuff we have to do and the stuff we want to do and our ability to successfully do it?

Life is best with humor - My thoughts on two books

I've just finished reading Sarah Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World and immediately upon closing that book I picked up David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

I'm not sure what was up with Thornton's book but it left me feeling strangely unfulfilled.  I think her writing style is quite approachable and no doubt the scope of the book must have been daunting for someone not previously experienced in the world of art.  I hoped that her fresh eyes would have uncovered some interesting insights.  Some of the chapters such as "The Auction" and "The Studio Visit" (which focuses on visiting Takashi Murakami studios) are fairly engaging.  However, the book is so chuck filled with air-kissing blow-hards that I stopped reading before completing its pages.  It seemed that Thornton was intent upon reporting on personalities rather than the art world and how certain aspects of it work. 

I suppose that Seven Days might make interesting reading for some insiders (maybe some outsiders as well) but for me I wanted more meat.  I wanted to know more about how things happen behind the scenes of a world class art fair and not just read through quotes such as "He's C list. She's B list. Nick Serota is A list."  Honest to god, who cares?  Well, I suppose those at the Venice Biennale care, but it all just seems so friggin serious as to who's an A, who's a B and who stays at which hotel. Absolutely the art world can be an incredibly stuck-up environment but the character portrayals here so completely turned me off it made me want to rethink what I do for a living.  The art world is a pretty amazing and dynamic place and for me Thornton's book missed the mark.

On the other hand, I began David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames and while I'm only on page 30, I've chuckled aloud at least 8 times.  Well written, insightful and what fun!  Just goes to show that humor is life's shock absorber.

12 things I don't want for Christmas

1. Bad jewelry
2. A vacuum (let's say no appliances of any kind unless its one of those Cuisinart grind & brew coffee makers.  Coffee sustains me and gives me life)
3. A Barry Manilow CD (This really doesn't need an explanation does it?)
4. Candy or a plate of assorted fruit and cheeses (I'll just throw it out)
5. An exhaust system for my car
6. A jar of dirt (because except for Jack Sparrow, who'd really want a jar of dirt?)
7. Knick knacks, little boxes or other assorted stupid shelf stuff (I'll throw it out, I swear)
8. Gift certificates (it makes me think you are lazy)
9. Port wine (If you are going to give me booze, make it count)
10. A puppy (really cute but please don't do it)
11. A male stripper (no wait...hmm...maybe...)
12. Anything with designer initials on it

When Can You Call Yourself An Artist?

Along the same line... When can you call yourself an designer? A musician? Is there a right of passage?  What say you?

Contacts are Golden:: Creating a workable address book with Apple

I had some time over the Thanksgiving holiday to work on some odds and ends here in the studio.  One of the jobs I really wanted to accomplish was the organization and expansion of my address book.  Sounds terribly exciting, doesn’t it?

But seriously, with the recent purchase of my Macbook Pro and Ipod Touch, I wanted to refine my contact list to sync between these two tools and provide me with the best and most updated information no matter where I was.  (The little Ipod Touch is an invaluable little gadget on so many levels...)

Mailing lists and contact databases are probably more valuable than my beloved Ipod and because of the now dubbed “official recession” it is even more important to maintain marketing and outreach and to do it in the most cost effective manner.  Address books are worth their weight in gold.  Networking and outreach is incredibly important and while I’m not talking about compiling a spam database (don’t just add random names) there are ways to build a valuable and workable list that is legit and will serve you for years.

My project began mainly because the address book on my Blackberry wasn’t the same as the book on my desktop, which differed from the book on my laptop etc etc...  and it was very frustrating to try to obtain consistent information.  I also knew I had emails in my inbox which weren’t included in my book at all.  Some entries only contained email addresses while others were very complete.  My goal here was to create a book that would serve as my “bible.”

Apple makes it very easy and almost fun to organize your address book.  In my book I began by setting up “Group Names” or categories such as artists, galleries and museums, clients, personal, press, advertising/PR.  A bit of manual labor was involved here in organizing names but after awhile a fairly accurate database revealed itself.  I specified where each contact name should be filed in a given group.  Obviously artist contacts were filed under the group “artists”, family and friends went under “personal” and so on.  (You DO NOT need to categorize EVERYONE in your address book.  Apple includes the default group “All” which will contain miscellaneous names or those folks who defy a specific group as well as those who you have already grouped. I find that categorizing EVERYONE just becomes an exercise in frustration and so I keep to the KISS principle and Keep It Simple.  If it becomes necessary to create another group I can do so, but I don’t get caught up with categories and subcategories of subcategories.)

The groups or categories are important to me because if I want to send out an email campaign to only my clients, I simply select that category for a mailing.  I can structure the email and the message of my email specifically for that target group.  If I have a Press Release or campaign that I want to send out to the press, I select the “press” category.  For some years I also had a “birthday list” for my loved ones ... that list had somehow been neglected resulting in forgotten anniversaries and birthdays which got me into a lot of trouble. The personal group now contains much detailed information and my Ipod provides me with a Birthday List... all compiled from my Apple Address Book. I've even set notifications so that I'm alerted when a birthday comes along. Ical provides an option for creating a birthday list from the address book and while I utilize this option I find the Birthday List by Shuji Fukumoto via App store on your ipod or iphone works better for me.

Having entered and organized everyone already established in my various books I went back into my email inbox and reviewed the names of those people and contacts who have written to me whom I hadn’t had a chance to add previously.  If you don’t add to your book as soon as you receive incoming in your mail, you’ll be amazed at how many new contacts come into your life that get lost simply because they haven’t been included in your book.  Most business savvy people include their Vcard or their contact info as a signature in their emails so obtaining phone numbers and street addresses is pretty straight forward.  Apple provides the ability to highlight a name or address in the email then add it directly to your address book.  You can add to “existing contacts” or make a “new contact.”  This exercise also encouraged me to reach out and get back into touch with people whom I haven’t spoken to in some time.  Nice!

With my laptop address book complete (or as complete as it can get today..tomorrow there will be more names to add) I use MobileMe to sync my laptop, my desktop and my Ipod Touch.  Now all information is uniform and up to date across all my computers and tools.  It’s a beautiful thing and I feel pretty confident that when I need to reach out to someone, I’ll find their name at the touch of a button.

Dec 3 - The Fair Begins

Yes sir, it's December 3 and Miami Basel has begun.  Usually all about the glitz and glamor of the art world what will this year bring? With many keeping an eye on what's up down south, (rumor has it that the quality of art is excellent amid financial gloom) so can you by following these fine links:

Read this hopeful article at ArtInfo, "A Kinder, Gentler Art Basel" by Judd Tully.  For a more skeptical view see, "Twenty-One Cranky Ways of Looking at Art Basel Miami Beach" by Linda Lee.  ArtInfo has a dedicated section to this year's fair.

Also following the fair:

Art Faq City
Edward_Winkleman
The Art Newspaper TV
Cool Hunting

My friends at MyArtSpace are launching their new ecommerce capabilities this week at Miami Bridge Fair. ArtLOOK has been looking forward to the launch of NYAXE.  Have a look.

Tobias Meyer of Sotheby’s has been named one of the most influential people in the world

Tobias Meyer of Sotheby’s has been named one of the most influential people in the world by DETAILS Magazine.  DETAILS is releasing their annual DETAILS Power List - the 40 Most Influential Men in the World, part of the December issue going on newsstands tomorrow.  Meyer appears on the list at #35 for establishing himself as “the art world’s most dynamic deal-maker.”

Who’s #1?  Obama’s Secret Service Agent claims the #1 spot on the DETAILS Power List, who, according to DETAILS, is “the only thing standing between the free world and a catastrophe.”

Check out the Power 40 online now and be sure to pick up Details Magazine.