I am constantly reminded of the unceasing creativity of artists, both those that adorn our gallery walls with their art and those who I admire from a distance. I’m also reminded of the level of ingenuity of many artists as they seek, probe and push alternate media and different forms of expression. I’ve lost count of the types of visual art and media that I have seen – encaustics, scratchboard, oil on glass, glass on panel, horsehair in ceramic, engravings on copper, photographs on metal, watercolors on masa paper, sculptures on manhole covers, polychromic polymer clay, fiber on fabric, to name but a few.

Interestingly, I’ve been recently seeing more artworks based on recycled materials. In fact, making art from, with and on recycled materials and media is more popular than ever thanks to our growing ecological sensitivity, and perhaps increasing thriftiness. So, what a beautiful surprise it is to see art appearing on one of nature’s most ubiquitous substrates – portraits carved into fallen leaves.

The intricate process of carving leaves seems to have begun in China and is spreading across the globe. There is even a Leaf Carving Art association in California. Apparently, the best leaves for this endeavor come from the Oriental Plane tree, which is native to much of Asia. The leaves are first dried, cured and prepared in a complex process. Then, the artist carefully removes the outermost skin of the leaf to reveal the inner translucent layer. Slowly and skillfully the artist scrapes away selected areas of the leaf revealing the final work of art within. The entire process is lengthy and intricate, but the results, as you can see here, are exquisite. Some artists even take commissions. Perhaps these leaf portraits of Marilyn and Mao will one day be as valuable as their Warholian counterparts.

Images courtesy of Daily Telegraph. Dean Prator, President of Leaf Carving Art in California.

As galleries frequently do, we’ve been refreshing our walls again at art251. New artists, new artworks to display means that it’s time to move and/or store some of our older works. While it’s a very satisfying process to see new art on our walls, especially art that may never have hung before, it’s tinged with sadness. We retire the previous works; they come down to make way for the new fresh art. Yet, I really do miss many of the pieces that we have to “undisplay”. One of may favorites, “Birds on a Wire”, a beautiful black and white photograph by Sean Fitzgerald, just suffered such as fate. I found its stark simplicity refreshing. But it had another quality too. I sometimes believe I could hear it – the composition looked like sheet music. I wonder what an orchestra would have made of it.

Go Trish! Local artist Trish Biddle was recently commissioned to be the official artist by the Westminster Kennel Club. Inspired by her interests in fashion and Art Deco, Trish created the image for the official 2010 Westminster Kennel Club poster, “Westminster. There’s only one.”  This is now the second year running that Trish has been commissioned to be the official artist.

Her oil painting depicts an evening street scene outside Madison Square Garden in New York and features representative breeds from all seven groups. The Empire State Building, aglow with Westminster’s signature purple and gold colors, sets the stage. Trish Biddle’s penchant for high fashion is evident, as stylish dog lovers stroll past a Westminster-themed Saks Fifth Avenue window, another New York City icon.

Trish Biddle’s impressive resume continues to grow. In 2009 she was named official artist of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Racing Club. In 2008, she was named official artist of the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby 134th Run for the Roses.

You can see more of Trish Biddle’s “Glamorous Women in Fabulous Places” original works and many of her limited edition, signed prints at art251.

If you’re like me, you may have recently found yourself doing a couple of strange things: one in private, the other in public. In private: you raided your closet (or your attic or basement), the place where you store all your old treasures, you found the nondescript, but heavy box, and there, after dusting off the top, you uncovered your (in)famous collection of old 12 inch LPs. Yes, LPs, long-playing phonograph records; vinyl that is, black gold! In public: you found yourself doing something rather similar. You visited a family run music store (yes, some still do exist), and browsed the aisles, as fewer and fewer people seem to do nowadays. And, there, close to the path lined with jewel-boxed CDs, ear-buds, DVD collections and Play Station games, you found them – rows and rows of LPs in their colorful art encrusted sleeves.

So, what brought me to this point? Well, I think a confluence of events. First, my teenage daughter craving “authentic” music, exploring the pre-historic caves of the pre-iPod, pre-MP3, pre-CD music scene. How refreshing it is to have the younger generation re-discovering “our” music. Second, my desire to reminisce over the grand old days of classic rock, classic disco, classic soul, classic… well, just classic music. Also, my desire to revisit the beautiful art and the rich words that once enveloped the dark vinyl of 33s, like a treasured wrapper around your favorite bar of chocolate. Sadly, the instant gratification delivered by the iPod, and to some extent the CD, crushed the art that one graced the covers of this music.

And, now I find that artists, including our very own Nix Johnson, are making art, and wearable art at that, from these very same LPs. Nix’s bracelets and cuffs are made from reclaimed and recycled vinyl records. So, while I’m not quite ready to see my classic Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Motown LPs turned to accessories, I certainly like Nix’s creative and eco-friendly mission. Come take a spin at art251 to see more of Nix Johnson’s colorful vinyl creations.

art251 joins the tweetsphere. You can find us right here. We’re certainly not the first art space to arrive on Twitter. In fact, we follow in the heavy twittering footsteps of more notable venues such as Tate Britain, MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim, Whitney and the Brooklyn Museum. And, numerous galleries around the world have been tweeting quite happily across the great tubes of the internet for a year or more. So, why did we take the plunge into twitterspace now?

Well, it’s really a technical answer. Even though tweets on twitter are limited to 140 characters, I didn’t want the added burden of having to update the art251 twitter status each time we posted new material on our website and blog. Of course, there a numerous ways to push status updates to twitter from websites, but I couldn’t find an efficient and reliable way until now. Now, that is, following a complete software upgrade of the art251 website. Hopefully you haven’t noticed any difference – we updated all the behind-the-scenes, inner-workings, and not the outer shell. So, if you follow art251 on Twitter, welcome and, stay tuned for more tweets and a little more art!

I know a mere 4-6 inches of snow is trivial compared to the recent record breaking blizzards in the eastern United States or the regular snowfalls in our mountainous regions. However, when it happens in the Dallas Ft.Worth area it’s a Texas-sized event! So, of course the entire area is rapidly coming to a frozen standstill. It’s beautiful out here – I may even have to build a snowman with my kids. However, art, for today at least, has come a standstill as well.

art251 is closed, and unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel our scheduled Gallery Walk in Keller Town Center on February 11. So, many apologies. Normal service will resume very soon – if you know anything about Texas weather. In the meantime, I’ll be making some art in the snow! Now, where are those skis of mine?

Update: After I hit the “publish” button, another 6 inches of snow buried our neighborhood. Not good for business, but great for our children and all kids at heart.

While it’s often fun to look back, the omnipresent media retrospectives – year in pictures, stories of the decade, “the oughts in words”, top ten tragedies, “best” of reality TV – have become a little tiresome. So, here at your friendly local, suburban art gallery, we’re looking forward.

We’re looking forward to more art, and less office cubicles. We’re looking forward to more color on walls and less grey concrete under our feet. We’re looking forward to more bold sweeping vistas, and less of the fleeting peeks from someone else’s corner office. We looking forward to abstractions that will envelope and transport us, rather than pictures from the local “skycam” of the local traffic jam. We’re looking forward to discovering new and unique creations, rather than the next “big thing” in reality TV. We’re looking forward to more standard deviations and less of the same-old and the normal. We’re looking forward to decorating more homes with unique and original art and less of the manufactured so-called originals from far-off lands. We looking forward to finding, developing and assisting more “artoholics” like ourselves and lessening our chocaholic tendencies. We’re looking forward to encouraging the next generation to keep the creative spirit alive and kicking rather than letting it be dismissed and quashed.

Yes, we’re looking forward to another great year of… ART.

Yes, art can be fun as well as beautiful. art251?s December exhibit is almost here. We?ll be unveling new paintings by Marnie Vollenhals, a Keller based artist. The exhibit begins with an opening reception on December 11, 6-9pm, and runs until January 16, 2010.

Her playful works are collected by the young and the young at heart. So, bring your children or just your inner child ? come and revisit the world that you never really left behind, courtesy of Marnie Vollenhals.

Marnie Vollenhals is a natural born illustrator and a prolific artist ? she paints, paints and paints. Her most recent paintings of a group of animal friends, centered around Hawk, the Rocket Dog, a suburban dog with big dreams, is garnering a loyal following both locally and nationally.

Marnie comes from a family of artists, which goes back generations. From an early age she has been surrounded by rich visual arts. This has enabled her to establish a unique illustrative style, melding classic and modern influences, and diverse ideas and media. Marnie?s works balance a keen sense of design with her skills of artistic composition. And, shining through is an underlying sense of happiness and a playful spirit.

Our very own Sean Fitzgerald, photographer extraordinaire, picked up a handful of awards recently courtesy of the Trinity River Corridor Project. The City of Dallas sponsored a photography contest for images from the Trinity River. His four entries won the Professional division for landscapes (1st), wildlife (1st and second), and architecture (1st).

An exhibit of some of Sean’s stunning images is on display at art251 – Man And Nature runs until the end of November 2009. All the more exciting for us, because the Trinity River Audubon Center – home to many of Sean’s beautiful wildlife pictures – is also home to art251 Trinity River.

The Trinity River Corridor Project is the most complex and the largest urban development effort ever undertaken by the city of Dallas. It aims to transform a flood protection solution into an opportunity for community revitalization, economic development and the creation of a world-class greenway.

OK, OK, I admit it, I’m biased, I’m co-owner of art251, I’m a photographer. So, how do I summarize the first few days of our new show Man And Nature, showcasing photographs by Sean Fitzgerald? Well, let me try.

Sean Fitzgerald’s images stand by themselves – beautifully composed, technically adept, faithful and yet almost surreal renditions of our real world. Importantly, his images aren’t just excellent photographs, they are interwoven by an vivid narrative. It’s a multifaceted story – of pristine wilderness, of man’s coexistence with and encroachment upon nature, and of nature’s ability to adjust and ultimately prevail (sometimes with help, sometimes not).

His story takes us on a journey from the untouched, surreal natural landscapes of central African deserts, to the lush growths of Caddo Lake (the only natural lake in Texas) and the encroachment of man in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas; it takes us to the rising and eerily beautiful Devil’s Lake in North Dakota, and on to decaying manmade structures in the Upper Midwest.

It takes us to the ruins of diamond mines in Namibia being subsumed by sand; and then the journey brings us back to wilderness being re-born in our very own Trinity River valley, in East Dallas.

So, if just one of the following questions perks your interest:

intrigued by images of faraway lands?

fascinated by man’s impact on the environment?

interested in nature’s delicate coexistence with humans?

don’t believe wilderness can be reborn on a former waste dumping ground?

like to learn more about your home state (Texas, in this case)?

appreciate technical craft?

sometimes wonder, “how did he do that?”, or “where on Earth is that?”

ever looked closely at the nature right beneath your feet or above your head?

… do this: set aside 25 minutes, drive or cycle or walk (or parachute if you must) to Keller Town Center, open the door to art251 (we’ll even open it for you), and breathe in Sean Fitzgerald’s gorgeous images of this fragile land, both near and far. Man And Nature runs until the end of November 2009.

Earlier this year (Spring 2009) I unveiled the art251 Art Health Index (AHI). You may recall we use the AHI to measure the relative strength of the fine art economy in our area. It’s an objective and subjective measure and includes: smiles on the faces of our customers; periods of quiet contemplation looking at new art; sighs of satisfaction from the artist whose work we are featuring for the first time; simultaneous conversations about art; art teachers within the space; average time visitors spend looking at artwork; ratio of small shoe size (kids) to large shoe size (adults); and empty wine glasses and Italian soda bottles.

So, I’m happy to report that the AHI for October 2009 remains vibrant and stable. This follows our successful Opening Reception for Sean Fitzgerald’s exhibit Man And Nature on October 29. While the wine and refreshments are gone, Sean’s stunning images will remain on our walls until the end of November 2009.

I’m still drafting my definitive answer to the question “what makes great art, great?” As you may guess this is no simple task. After all, the question has taxed philosophers, pitted aesthetes against one another, confounded critics and perplexed mere mortals, such as myself, since cave dwellers first etched and painted on the walls of their prehistoric (more precisely, Mesolithic) European “homes”, over 30,000 years ago. Though, I suspect that one of the qualities of great art is that it is lasting ? great art creates a truly lasting impression, both on the individual and on the culture.

So, while recently wondering the canyons of New York city and contemplating the weighty issue of “what is great art”, I stumbled across one of contemporary art’s venerable institutions, the Gagosian. Now, strictly speaking this was the Gagosian Store on Madison Avenue, not one of the famed Gagosian Galleries. Yet, etched on the glass walls I found a simple proclamation. There it was, an anti-definition staring me right in the face, in bold, white? lettering – “Pop Art is:”

More often than not I’ve found that it’s easier to define something by first deciding what it is not; by envisioning its opposite state, and then working backwards towards a solution. So, the “definition” of Pop Art struck me as rather apt. Perhaps, truly great art is not “gimmicky”, it’s certainly not “mass-produced”, it may not be “popular” (initially), and it’s definitely not “transient”. Yes, I believe, thanks to Pop Art, I am somewhat closer to an elusive answer on the nature of great art.

In the meantime, and back to our prehistoric ancestors, I wonder if the artists who created these ancient works had to contend with prehistoric critics (perhaps brandishing clubs), prehistoric gallery directors (perhaps dressed in neutral black animal hides), and prehistoric art lovers wanting the works framed or in a different hue or looking for something in a more “traditional” Paleolithic style.

Were our ancient artistic ancestors misunderstood? Did they have creative tantrums? Did they have second jobs? Did they have good gallery representation, perhaps in the “grand community cave”? Were they concerned that the next big art movement would consign their works to the artistic rubbish heap? Regardless, the passage of 30,000 years has brought some of this great art into the present. It’s interesting to ponder if any of our contemporary or Modern or Pop Art, could withstand the flow of 30 millenia. I think mostly not. It may be “big business”, but it’s certainly not truly great art.