Hmm! Wow! Oops! Whoa! Brilliant (I’m British)!

As the year 2008 comes to a close it’s useful for us to look back, reflect on successes, learn from mistakes and generally measure our progress. One such area for us to examine is our art251 website and blog. Hmm…

According to Alexa, an objective measure of many things webby, www.art251.com is now in the world’s top 2 percent of websites as measured for pages viewed and number of unique users, more commonly known as “reach”. Wow!

But, just to show that, as the old maxim goes, “anyone can use statistics to prove anything…”, we’ll dig a little deeper into this number. Most estimates put the total number of unique websites at around 200 million. Alexa actually ranked us 5,129,870th, as of the end of 2008, So, this puts our “2%” in a rather different light. Oops!

That said, Alexa gave us some more numbers to crunch — our ranking is up a staggering 1,692,565 places as compared with our spot 3 months before. Whoa!

So, thank you art lovers, clients of art251 and art blog readers. Thank you for making art251 number 5,129,870. Brilliant! We look forward to rising up the web rankings a little more in 2009, and, of course, spreading our love of art around the suburbs and placing a few more beautiful works into your hands, homes and businesses.

Phew! My feet have lived through a long and eventful weekend. We kicked off proceedings with the Opening Reception for our Contemporary Elements Show on December 4. Then we followed up the next night with our late closing for the annual Holly Days event here in Keller Town Center. I’m delighted to report that around 200 people visited art251 over the last 2 days.

Aahh! Receptions and shows are great fodder for the eyes and soul. But, my feet ache. So while traffic has slowed, today, I’m taking advantage — putting my feet up and collecting my thoughts for some serious blogging. Then it’s back to straightening our displays, moving more artwork around, re-orienting all the lights, and so on. Next on the agenda is our exciting annual Winter Sale (more on that next).

Oops! And, I had been under the false impression that a galley owner could just sit back and admire the art!  (Not my feet pictured here, nor do we have these for sale).

Many retailers and the media have taken to naming the Friday after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday”. Not us. art251 is not a monotonous monochrome (even though I’m a black and white photographer).

Let me explain.

We have subtle azure skies (Trish Biddle), canary yellow and fig greens (Aditi Samarth), eye-popping orange and cool turquoise (Jonathon Kimbrell), soft ochres and umbers (Fil Booth), sunflower yellows and blues (Sean Fitzgerald), burnished gold (Dana Blanchard), lush greens and crimsons (Faith Jessup), fifty shades of grey (Drew Liedtke), rich slate and earth tones (Chad Beene), fiery copper (James Johnson), pale greens and metallic blues (Brian Davis), iridescent emerald and aquamarine (Scott Young), amber and lava (Bobbie Nix), pearl and purples (Jean Storm), maple, ash and cherry hues (Mark Hyde), fuscia, violet and rose (David Gappa), bold indigo, violet, and carnation (Melissa Ayr), deep-space blue (Marnie Vollenhals), purple, lime and soda-pop yellow (Lori Love), soft browns and greens (Vesna Komarica), steely grey (Seppo Aarnos), bronze and chrome (Kelly Berry), warm scarlet, ruby and royal blue (Sara Moe), ocean green (Kim Norris), sunset tangerine (Michael Longhofer), polished brass and pewter (Jay Garrison), terracotta and cream (Mirtha Aertker), bright poppy red (Ann Hardy), gesso greys and silvers (Melinda Brown). And last, we even have rich velvety black (Richard Gaca).

Welcome to my spectrum, on this “Black Friday”.

Well. My trusted sidekick over the last 6 years — my first digital camera — took its last breath a couple of days ago. Yes, in terms of present day mega-pixel monster cameras mine would now be classified as thoroughly obsolete. But, it performed its job admirably for years, until very recently. First the LCD went out, then the lens started stuttering, then the lens stopped focusing, then the lens cap started jamming… then the entire camera stopped entirely.

Needless to say, I’m now without a convenient replacement, one that lets me shoot an image and have it in my blog within seconds. You see, despite my penchant for things technical, I’m a photographic luddite at heart. Yes, I’m still one of those prehistoric beings with a roomful of analog photographic equipment and rolls of film. Don’t tell PAPA (Poor Analog Photographers Anonymous), I have an MF Mamiya, and Nikon and Canon SLRs. All are atleast 20 years old and all still work flawlessly!

So, until I find a suitable, dare I say it, digital replacement, this blog will be flying without images. I’ll not mention the brand of my ex-camera. May it rest in peace.

China perhaps, or even a dog!

As you know, a vast amount of global manufacturing is outsourced to China. In fact, a fair deal of so-called “original” art now comes from China as well, where art factories of “copyworkers” are busy reproducing works by old masters or, for a few extra Yuan, originals in this or that particular style. For instance, the city of Dafen, China manufactures more “Van Goghs” in a couple of weeks than the real Van Gogh created in his entire lifetime. Dafen produces some great bargains — $2 for an unframed old master, $3 for a custom version (prices before enormous markup) — if you like to buy your art by the square foot.

You’ve probably also seen miscellaneous watercolors emanating from talented elephants in Thailand, the late Congo’s tempera paintings auctioned at Bonhams, or the German artist chimpanzee who, with her handlers, recently fooled an expert into believing her work was that of Ernst Wilhelm Nay.

Well, now comes a second biography of Tilamook Cheddar, or Tillie, the most successful animal painter in the history of, well, animal painters. Tillie, a Jack Russell terrier from Brooklyn, NY, has been painting for around 7 years, and has headlined 17 solo shows across the country and in Europe.

Despite these somewhat disturbing developments, I think artists will be around for some time. But, what about gallerists and art dealers? Could you see the Toshiba robot or a couple of (smart) lab rats or an Art-o-mat replacing your friendly gallery owners? Please don’t answer this one!

Portrait of The Dog. Image courtesy of T.Cheddar.

After “When are you opening?”, this is the next most frequently asked question.

Our space will definitely reflect the tastes of its owners. Over time it will also reflect the tastes and recommendations of our advisory board. We’re putting a board in place to ensure we are constantly challenged with new ideas and don’t limit our “inventory” to a narrowly defined focus, which is solely dictated by the owners.

We’re the first commercial gallery in this part of the world. So over time our customers, collectors, and artists will also influence the type of art we show on our walls, as we learn their unique tastes. That said, there are several lines that we will not cross — for instance, we’re not a traditional or Western art gallery. Nor, are we interested in art that most would consider vulgar or violent or pornographic or exploitative.

We’re a contemporary art space. Our influences are modern and post-modern. We’re focused on our local community, but we have a global eye. We’re based in the suburbs, but we’re here to stir things up a little (or a lot), rather than to fade into our homogeneous surroundings. We like bold color and both strong and fluid forms.

We want art that is edgy, brave, different, fresh. We look for art that has meaning, evokes feelings, offers a narrative, or is simply technically adept. We’re interested in artists who have passion about their work and who are passionate about growing as an artist.

Finally, we’re pursuing a holistic approach to filling our space. This means we’re looking for art works that combine well together — not necessarily similar, but rather, act in a complementary fashion.

I get lots of strange emails, many of which are eaten by my spam and junk mail devourer. I received an interesting one today, from China from a company that manufactures telescopic ladders, and I suspect lots of other items as well. Is this phenomenal targeted marketing, from 7,000 miles away, or is it spam? You decide?

Dear Madams/Sirs,

Please let me introduce Myself. I’m Ms Sufee Hua, come from a professional ladders factory.

Zhejiang Bihu Ladder Co., Ltd. is Specializes in designing and developing all types of aluminum ladders.

We are the one of professional ladder manufacturer in Asia and we make laddesr for use in all kinds of environment .

The company passed quality certification of ISO 9001 In May 2002 and En-131 in 2005.Our aluminum ladders go through regular quality inspections and obtain satisfactory inspection reports.

Our insulating ladders passed quality checkings by Ministry of Electrical Power Safe Electrical Equipment Quality Control & Checking Center and Wuhan Pressure Testing Center.

　　We hold an attitude of being responsible for customers and insured all our products with PICC eliminating quality concerns by customers.

Oh, by the way, I already have enough ladders.

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.