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.