The annual Kellerfest bash (May 30 - June 1) is well underway. In fact, it’s still underway. So you could classify this entry as “live-blogging”. This year’s festivities include an F-18 flyover, paratrooper jump, tribute to our troops, fireworks, a local battle of the bands, too many carnival rides, far too many sticky foods on sticks and of course art251. I’m writing this during a break from the heat — Kim is braving our display table this afternoon.

Our space is still about 6-8 weeks from opening, but we’re taking the opportunity to stand outside in 95+ degree heat to promote our business to the crowds. Yes, I know we’re crazy. Despite the heat we’ve met lots of our neighbors and started spreading the word about the wonderful world of art — brought to you by art251. We kicked off with a drawing for a chance to win some quality art from four great local artists: Trish Biddle, Melissa Ayr, Kim Norris and David Hendley. We’re also giving away coupons for 10 percent off any one purchase.

Overall, reaction has been very positive and enthusiastic. Some people, though, seem to be truly perplexed that an art space would be coming to Keller and NE Tarrant County. It’s not a dream, we’re here, we’re coming, art in hand.

This is a great question. It’s one of those questions that frequently goes unasked — many art publications and galleries seem to assume that we all know, or should know, the answer to such as “simple” question. Unfortunately, there is no single correct answer, In fact, if you pick up an art history book, trawl around the online art world or ask an art museum curator for an answer you probably will get a dozen or so responses, some broad, some overly narrow. So, here are the most common definitions.

1. Contemporary art refers to any art that is created during our lifetimes.

This is a straightforward and simple definition. However, if you take in to account the age of the world’s oldest living person — and I hope you’re one of my readers — at around 115 years, this would push the beginnings of contemporary art to the 1890s.

2. Contemporary art is any art created by a living artist, or a recently departed one.

Again, a simple and understandable definition. But, again, it’s rather arbitrary because we have no fixed point of reference.

3. Contemporary art is any art produced in the period that began sometime after World War II, around the early 1950s.

Now, we’re getting a little more specific. However, there is general consensus that the general era of modern art ended around the late-1960s (in the United States). The term “post-modern” appeared around 1968 (in the United States) as a rejection and/or extension of the modern art aesthetic — the world had had enough of modern art, time to move on to something else.

4. Contemporary art is a broad collection of emerging movements from roughly 1970 to the present day.

I like this definition. It’s not too broad or arbitrary and it doesn’t pigeon-hole us into a narrow, overly specific categorization. After all, by definition most contemporary art is still being made, and it’s rather difficult and counter-productive to define these movements as they are ongoing. The critical eye of hindsight will no doubt invent all manner of movements and trends and assign them neatly to the era of contemporary art (much like the sub-classifications that we now have for modern art — post-impressionism, expressionism, cubism, dada, pop art, and the list goes on.). I think I can predict some of the contemporary art sub-classifications that future art historians will define for us: the Banksy school, the formaldehyders, the NYC neo-decorative movement, the i-school, me-art, etc, etc.

While a formal definition of contemporary art gets rather squishy when it comes to identifying a particular time period we do have some help from other factors. It is clear that contemporary art has emerged from two recent phenomena: economic globalization and the (new) media explosion. So, while the art being created today is very diverse, we do see that much of it (though not all) does carry a social meaning and may be created and distributed in any number of different media. Above all, it’s a great time to be a lover of art — contemporary art offers something for everyone.

Coming next, art251 Q2/251: What questions should I ask art gallery staff?

… well, the store model anyway.

We’ve added the main display surfaces and fixtures to our model. We’re using stickies to represent spaces for all our art. This will help us plan, allocate and (re-)arrange the space. Also, we’ll be able to show it to our participating artists. Importantly, the store model will help us fine-tune and finalize our financial model. See, it really does serve a useful purpose besides satisfying my latent desire to be an architect.

I must admit even Lady Penelope, our gallery director, seems much happier now that we have some “art” on the walls. I wish that the build-out of our real space were this simple. We failed the city of Keller’s miscellaneous building inspection on May 21. It turns out that the existing return air-conditioning vent and duct was placed in the wrong spot, and hence not up to code. So, our landlord has kindly agreed to move it, but this all takes valuable time. On a more positive note, we did pass our fire safety inspection on May 23 — though, I’m not sure our model is fire-rated.

Below you can see what our space looks like early in the morning. Notice how many of the fixtures are movable. This will help us keep the space fresh, and open it up for events and artist openings.

OK, if you’re not a Thunderbirds fan, you’ll be scratching your head right now. So, just keep scratching and read on.

I’m visual and Kim is tactile. So, she had this great idea of building a model of our space. We couldn’t stop at mere drawings or a 3D computer aided design model or a virtual art space in Second Life. No, we had to build a real model. So, here’s our space, complete with 6 inch gallery director. Let’s call her… well, Lady Penelope. Our 6 year-old daughter will be hopping mad when she finds out that I’ve kidnapped one of her minions to become our first official gallery director. Be sure to return to our blog often to read more about Lady Penelope’s adventures in art.

You’ll notice there’s no art on display yet, the doors and windows are missing, and there are small gaps between the floor and the walls. Please bear with us, it’s a work in progress, and the contractor is currently busy on another job. Despite needing some minor adjustments, the model is actually to scale, 1 inch to 1 foot - so Lady Penelope would be 6ft and the walls 14 feet high. We’ll be adding fixtures, display space and some art next. This is so much cheaper than building a real art space!

As for Thunderbirds. It was a children’s cult classic puppet show by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson from the late 1960s. Our kids watch re-re-runs of it today. They like Lady Penelope and Thunderbird 2. My favorites are Parker and Brains.

One of the great opportunities in the beautiful, yet byzantine, world of art lies in the area of accessibility. Or, making art more accessible to more people. I’ve visited many art galleries, and while I’ve found most gallery staff charming and informative, I’ve usually returned home lacking both art and answers.

A certain air of impenetrability exists in that unspoken space between gallery staff and the customer. I’ve found that some questions, when asked, get answered. But most questions go unasked. Why is this? Sometimes, I’ve felt intimidated - my clothes were not quite appropriate for the venue. Sometimes I’ve felt embarrassed - other customers might hear my “dumb” questions. Sometimes I’ve felt out of place - “no prices listed next to the art, must be out of my price range”. Sometimes I’ve been talked down to - not going back there.

So, this leads me to believe that we need to encourage customers to ASK us (more) questions. All questions, about art, will be welcome, no matter how trivial, no matter how deep. We may not have all the answers, but we’ll work hard to ensure our customers do not leave our space feeling embarrassed or intimidated or out of place or confused. Of course, we’d like all our customers to leave with a piece of art. But if not, we’d like each customer to leave feeling they know a little more about their favorite work or an interesting new artist, and also a little more comfortable with the notion of buying art.

Thus begins a major new series on this blog entitled, “251 things you should know about art before you buy“. (I picked 251 things for obvious reasons). Should we trademark this?

The answer, without hesitation, is “yes”. Everyone should have some art. OK, that one was simple. However, I have many other, more difficult questions - though the answers are usually staring us in the face. I’ll attempt to answer these here - on our art251 blog - over time.

From the beginning of our business planning process we pondered weighty questions like these:

Why is so-called “fine art” usually only accessible through high-end galleries?

Why does my annual art festival that purports to support local art host mostly artists from out-of-state?

Where can I find all the local artistic talent?

How is it that most affordable art comes from places like Crate and Barrel, or my local framing shop?

Why do most art enthusiasts not visit commercial galleries?

What’s wrong with great, limited edition copies of original art?

Why are fine art prints called “giclées” and not inkjet prints?

Why can I only find good local art from emerging artists in my local restaurant or coffee shop?

Why do I have to negotiate with gallery staff over a price that isn’t published?

In these questions an entrepreneur will see nothing but opportunity. There’s an opportunity to improve the connection between artist and art enthusiast; there’s an opportunity to build a commercial gallery that’s approachable and fun; there’s an opportunity to make the language of art more accessible; there’s an opportunity to assist local artists on a more local scale; and there’s a huge opportunity to make good and great art much more affordable. These are some of the reasons we founded art251.

On May 14, Christie’s sale of contemporary art netted $348 million. In a good sign for the home art market, around 70 percent of the buyers for the 57 works on sale were from the United States. Mark Rothko’s work “NO.15″ pictured below took in $50.4 million (auctioneer not included).

Now, will similar sentiments continue in the less stratospheric regions of the art market? I believe so. Art still remains a fundamentally good investment (aesthetic and spiritual). So, despite some short-term economic ups and downs, I expect to see more people buying more art over the long-term. Art provides a clear alternative, to that provided by mass-produced sameness, for those who are increasingly looking for the original, unique, rare, obscure, different, authentic.

Robert Rauschenberg, an icon of 20th century American art passed away today, aged 82.

Regardless of the labels that many attribute to him, such as post-war modernist, sometime anti-abstract expressionist, pop art precursor, founder of found-art, or 1950s enfant terrible, he should best be remembered as an avant garde inventor. He refused to limit his skills to one medium. He crossed many artistic boundaries and often blurred the distinction between media and disciplines. His skills covered painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, assemblage, papermaking, set design and performance art.

While I’ve always truly admired great technical achievement and virtuoso design in art, I have even greater respect for those artists who invent new forms, bring us new combinations and who push the boundaries, and our hot buttons. Bon Chance Mr.Rauschenberg - art really can change the world.

Well, it’s time to make a startling confession. I’m a Mac-head. I’ve used a Mac since the early days of the Apple II. Please don’t try using this milestone as a way to figure out how old I am. I use a Mac Pro for my image processing and a Macbook Pro for all my other tasks. Kim has a Mac, and our oldest uses a Mac as well. We’re a Mac family. Or, we were until yesterday.

With apologies to Steve Jobs and my Mac friends, and after careful deliberation and head-scratching we decided that our new art business would have to run on a Windows based PC! Our newly arrived gallery management software from Masterpiece Solutions could certainly run on a Mac installed with Windows virtualization through Parallels. However, our art space also needs to use point-of-sale equipment, such as barcode scanner, magnetic card reader, cash-drawer and a receipt printer. It turns out that the Windows world has more history and options for ensuring that all these peripherals work in our retail-ish environment.

So, let’s all give PC a welcome. And, while we may have finally compromised our technology principles we did not yield on our need for cool design with artistic flair. So, here’s what our new PC looks like, courtesy of some young artists (and HP).

If you’ve read my previous article about Mac versus PC you’ll now know that I’m the person on the left.

Phew! Another weekend, another art festival. It’s a tough life being in the art business. The Cottonwood Art Festival running on May 3-4, in Richardson, Texas (north of Dallas) is now in its 39th year. It draws around 200 artists from around the country, showcasing their art on the grounds of a delightful old park complete with lake and ducks. This year’s festival featured some exciting new metal work from Moises Diaz and Kristin DeSantis, puzzle-like faceless portraits from Signe Grushovenko, and fluid acrylic sculptures by Rod Garrett. Other notable works included the uncanny photorealistic portraits of Jeannie Maddox, Jeffrey Cannon’s soft landscapes in pastels, and Ed Taylor’s iridescent raku pottery. Also, on display were some bright, new works from emerging, young artists from local high-schools - notables: Shay O’Brien and Holly Lyons.

Great art and weather made for a good turnout. So, while the top end of the art market in the New York auction houses may be suffering from economic splutters, the affordable end of the market seems to be doing rather well in North Texas.

We’ve spent a while assessing and evaluating various art gallery management, art asset management and retail systems applications. Of the dozen or so candidates we narrowed our list to our top two systems from: Art Systems and Masterpiece Solutions. Early in our analysis we found that we needed a system that could cope with the byzantine nature of the art market. This meant typical retail management software was out, even though we found some really cool software, such as LightSpeed Point-of-sale from XSilva.

We finally picked Masterpiece Solutions’ Gallery Management software. It does everything we need, and more, is flexible and reasonably open (more on that later), and gives us the ability to feed our website.

Unfortunately, for Apple / Mac lovers - myself included - this software and almost all the others we evaluated operates exclusively on a… W… Win… Windows platform (there, I managed to type it!). So, we’re now faced with the uneasy prospect of possibly, maybe, perhaps buying non-Mac hardware, which will run our new Gallery Management software, and all the other applications, such as accounting and merchant processing. Though, there is one light at the end of this tunnel - we could still buy a Mac, and install Parallels. Parallels is a superb piece of software that will let us run Mac and Windows software seamlessly together on the same cool machine! I’m using it on my Macbook as I write. The video below will give you an idea of my dilemma - by the way, I’m the person on the right!

or, for fellow Brits in the audience

So, will we choose Mac or PC hardware for our art251 space? I don’t know yet. This will be sooooo difficult, and I may need to resort to stress-relief medication as Kim and I make our final deliberations.