1. I will get more exercise. OK, this one’s easy: I’ll hang, move, and re-arrange art around art251 more often (courtesy of my 10 ft ladder), and I’ll lift weights (thanks to James Johnson’s unique hand-forged steel sculptures).
2. I will continue not to smoke. I don’t smoke, never have and don’t plan to start. But I do have an old cigarette machine, now living out its life inside art251 as a beautiful blue art-o-mat machine, selling $5 works of art.
3. I will try to dress more stylishly. If not, I’ll just envelope myself in Trish Biddle’s beautiful paintings of glamorous women in fabulous places, and imagine myself in another place and time.
4. I will travel more (often vicariously). I’ll revisit Africa and other exotic locales (courtesy of Sean Fitzgerald’s photographs), NYC (thanks to photo-realistic paintings by Michael Longhofer), and quiet Texas hill country towns (Melinda Brown).
5. I will add more color to my life, thanks to Scott Young, David Gappa, and DJ Naehritz. And I’ll look for patterns for success (Fil Booth).
6. I will tune in to my inner child more often – I’ll dream of flying in space (Marnie Vollenhals) and invent some cool kids’ toys (Jay Garrison).
7. I will stop thinking in terms of black and white, but look at the world more in shades of grey (Kelly Berry).
8. I will slow down and take more time for tea (using Kim Norris’s unique ceramics).
9. I will enjoy both the little things and dramatic pleasures in life (Faith Jessup).
10. I will spend more time outdoors, enjoying nature’s wealth (Dana Blanchard).
11. I will build a relaxing and meditative environment (Aditi Samarth) by mixing soft color (Marie Maines), natural textures (Kris Wood), with light and music (Leigh Ann Williams).

Home, by Faith Jessup.

This is a once a year chance to purchase great art at unbelievable prices. Remember, we don’t negotiate prices or discount at other times of the year. So, now is the time.

And, even though we’re an art gallery we have a great selection of gifts for her, him and the teacher. We have gifts in all price ranges, starting at $5 for an art-o-mat, under $25, under $250, and over. We have gifts for young and not so young, stylish and eclectic. Best of all, none of our gifts require batteries or contain toxic chemicals from elsewhere.

We have beautiful glass vases and rondels. We have glass ornaments for your Christmas tree. We have fine jewelry from wearable glass, to contemporary and colorful polymer clay. We have functional pottery and unique, museum quality decorative ceramics. We have warm sculptures in exotic woods. We have flying machines. We have fluid abstracts and luminous landscapes and soft geometrics. We have detailed, imagined landscapes and lush verdant works of insects. We have subtly soft pastels and vibrant mixed media.

We have fun paintings for children and works for grown-ups who seek sophisticated style. We have vivid photographs of our beautiful local surroundings and far-away lands. We have hard forged steel candlesticks and soft fabric art. We have fine sculpture in metal and in wood. Phew! Did I miss anything?

So, make this season special. Give the gift of art. It’s unique, it’s lasting, it’s meaningful, and it’s local. And, it’s on sale right now.

And, now here we are in the 21st century, floating in a bottomless bowl of a bold media soup; 24-hour opinion and hyperbole; oversized interactive billboards, explosive 3D movies, voyeuristic reality TV, garish commercials, sexually charged headlines and suggestive mainstream magazines. The provocative images, the loudness, the vividness, the anger – it’s all bold and it’s vying for your increasingly fragmented and desensitized attention. But, this contemporary boldness seems more aligned with surface brightness and bigness than it is with depth of meaning. The boldness of works by earlier artists such as Picasso, Dali, Bosch came from depth of meaning rather than use of neon paints or other bold visual noise.

So, what of contemporary art over the last couple of decades? Well, a pseudo-scientific tour of half-a-dozen art galleries featuring the in-the-moment works of art may well tell you the same story – it’s mostly bold as well. What’s been selling at the top art auction houses? Bold. What’s been making headlines in the art world? Bold.

The trend is and has been set for a while: it has to be brighter, louder, bigger. Indeed, a recent feature article in the New York Times on the 25th Paris Biennale seems to confirm this trend in Western art. (Background: The Biennale is home to around a hundred of the world’s most exclusive art galleries, those that purport to set the art world’s trends, make or break emerging artists and most importantly (for them) set “market” prices.) The article’s author, Souren Melikian, states:

Perception is changing. Interest in subtle nuances is receding as our attention span shortens. Awareness of this trend probably accounts for the recent art trade emphasis on clarity and monumentality and the striking progression of 20th-century modernity.

Well, I certainly take no issue with the observation that “commercial” art has become much more monumental and less subtle, especially over the last 40 years. By it’s very nature for most art to be successful in today’s market overflowing with noise, distraction and mediocrity it must draw someone’s fragmented and limited attention, and sadly, it does this by being bold, bright or big! However, I strongly disagree that “clarity” is a direct result of this new trend in boldness. I could recite a list as long as my arm of paintings and other art works that show remarkable clarity even though they are merely subtle.

Perhaps paradoxically, brokers and buyers of bold seem exclusively to associate boldness with a statement of modernity, compositional complexity, and layered meaning. The galleries at the Biennale seem to be confusing subtlety with dullness, simplicity and shallowness. Yet, the world is full of an equal number of works that exhibit just as much richness, depth and emotion as their bolder counterparts despite their surface subtlety. There is room for reflection and nuanced mood; there is room for complexity and depth in meaning from simple composition; there is room for pastels in this over-saturated, bold neon world.

As Bob Duggan eloquently states, at BigThink:

The meek, such as 2009 Turner Prize winner Richard Wright (reviewed recently by me here) may yet inherit the earth, but only in a characteristically quiet way. Hirst’s jewel-encrusted skulls will always grab headlines, but Wright’s simpler, pensive work can engage hearts and minds in a more fulfilling way. And why is it important that the right thing happens and the Wrights win out over the Hirsts? Because art remains one of the few havens for thought in our noise- and light-polluted world.

So, I’m encouraged to see that I am not yet a lost and lone voice in this noisy wilderness of bold brashness. Oh, and in case you’re wondering what a meaningfully complex yet subtle painting looks like, gaze at Half Light by Dana Blanchard below. This painting will be on show at art251 in October.

Milton Glaser is the most celebrated graphic designer in the United States. He’s to thank (or blame) for the ubiquitous “I ‘heart’ New York” logo amongst many other memorable items of iconography.

He has had one-man-shows at the Museum of Modern Art and the Georges Pompidou Center. In 2004 he was selected for the lifetime achievement award of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. As a Fulbright scholar, Glaser studied with the painter, Giorgio Morandi in Bologna, and is an articulate spokesman for the ethical practice of design and for the value of ‘commercial art.’

Then

Image courtesy of Gettysburg College, Digital Center Art (yours truly not pictured)

Now

Image courtesy of Rutgers University, New Brunswick Development Corporation and Time Magazine, 2010

While a major remodeling project sponsored by the Home Depot via your parents’ credit card or being featured on one of the many “designer-star-remodel-color-challenge-on-a-dime-organization-remix-divine-curb-appeal-creative-closet” reality TV shows is likely to put you at odds with your dorm neighbors and the college “police”, there is indeed hope.

I’ve listed below 10 important, and simple, dos and don’ts that you should consider when making the space your own. After all, your dorm room will reflect you, your personality, your tastes, your likes, your style. You’ll want to make a winning impression with your new neighbors in the real world – think life outside of Facebook.

Don’ts

1. Don’t line your dorm room walls with empty (or full) beer bottles or cans, especially those “lite” beers. This is so 1980s.

2. Please avoid the once ubiquitous Warhol, Marilyn, Che posters. See art-related “dos” below.

3. On the subject of posters, don’t use any that include the following imagery: cars, trucks, El Caminos, parts of the human body below the neck, UFOs, Godzilla movies, wrestlers, footballers, motivational slogans with images of mountains in the background, periodic table (unless you don’t want any new friends), vegetables.

4. Don’t fashion a table from user pizza boxes. Enough said.

5. Don’t assume revamping your Facebook (or Myspace) pages counts. Hanging out on Facebook can only go so far (yes, eventually you’ll have to socialize in person!), so you’ll still need a cool room.

6. Don’t hang audio speakers (if you’re beyond ‘phones and buds) on shared walls. You will quickly spawn a rivalry with your neighbors; one that you will not win after they invest in a professional Marshall amp and speakers having a total wattage that exceeds your zipcode by a factor of 10.

7. Don’t display any dead animals or tools or pictures of your parents or your rock collection (as in pebbles) , anywhere, in your room.

8. Don’t accessorize with any of the following: glitter ball smaller than 36 inches in diameter; multi-colored floor lamps (save these for your first retro apartment or pass them down to your kids, eventually); “plug-in miniature rock garden water feature” thingy; toaster oven (its use with cause odors to permanently permeate your cool clothes).

9. Don’t lay down any rugs that have a pile deeper than an 1/8th of an inch (you’ll be surprised what may end up lurking there), and avoid any fabric colors from any Martha Stewart palette.

10. Don’t confuse a well-organized display of your personal toiletries with good interior design. So, hide your hair products, shavers, tweezers, eye-liner, deodorant, puffs etc far away from other humans.

Dos

1. Get some real art on your walls. Display a well-edited selection of quality prints and paintings that show who you are, and that engage others. My top recommendation, of course, is art251 – a great source for affordable originals, prints and art-o-mat art at an astounding $5 per pull.

2. Buy a decent set of desk and floor lamps. You may not have time or inclination to open a book (during your first 2 years), but you’ll need light to illuminate a path around and over the inevitable piles of clothes. Good lights will let you change the mood of your room quickly and cheaply.

3. Check out online design resources to help you plan your space, organize your furniture. A great one is: DesignYourDorm.

4. Visit IKEA and/or Craigslist – probably two of the best sources for affordable furniture and accessories and even room mates (the latter only for room mates).

5. If you must make pictures of your family visible, display these randomly intermingled with a vast assortment of other random photographs of random objects. This will ensure suitable anonymity and distance.

6. Invest in a good set of sheets, blankets, pillows and comforter, and, for that matter, bring your own bed. You’ll need to insulate yourself from what has gone before. Better still, find someone to give you a new futon as a gift.

7. Buy storage bins that fit under your bed, which will allow you to instantaneously hide all the clutter that you will find the need to hide from people who don’t yet wish to know all about you.

8. Find an interesting potted plant and challenge yourself to keep it alive for more than one semester.

9. Buy a couple of white boards, one for inside the room, one to post messages outside your door. Yes, this is like your Facebook wall, and will add color and creativity to your non-digital persona (yes, you do have one and you may be surprised to find that others will wish to meet it).

10. Do have fun (and learn) – you’ll discover that it will be one of the best times of your life!

Cortes Distortion, Oil on Canvas by Michael Longhofer.

If you’re like me then the heat of summer in Texas requires respite, or better still, an antidote. Well, an antidote to the heat we cannot offer but there’s plenty of respite here inside art251.

Recall when you’re on vacation, the weather turns miserable, it’s pouring with rain? You need something to do despite the inclement weather, right? It’s not uncommon for many of us to seek out a museum or an art gallery when the heavens open. Well, you can do the same when the sun is blazing as well. What could top a visit to a gorgeous gallery when the elements are conspiring to damage your hair, your skin, your clothes and your mind.

So, remember there’s no need to wait for it to rain for you to visit your cool, local gallery. We keep the thermostat reasonably low and the art on the walls will take your mind off the sizzling temperature. This summer we are pleased to welcome several new artists to the gallery. James Brandon a photographer based in Ft.Worth adds his stunning HDR photographs; Renee Hanson from Austin displays her new abstract works.

Also, three of our established artists – Melissa Ayr, Michael Longhofer and Marie Maines refresh our walls with some bold new paintings. Melissa Ayr displays a collection of 6 new vibrant abstract canvases that will enliven any wall; Michael Longhofer envelopes us in his ever-evolving style; Marie Maines takes a bold step with her cool pastels with 2 new works in subtle shades of grey. And, we have lots of shimmery new jewelry by Jean Storm, Katy Fenley, Diana Casabar and Noelle.