Things I learned today (here):

Leap days, technically known as intercalary days, are calendar corrections. Despite what you have been taught, there are not 365 days in a year. There are precisely 365.2425 days, which means we gain a day every four years. An exception: Century years cannot be leap years unless they are evenly divisible by 400.

In 45 B.C., Emperor Julius Caesar added a Leap Day occurring every four years to the calendar he created. Until then, calendars were a mess.

Leap Night, 6 to 11 p.m. today. A winter fun extravaganza including a winter forest with bonfires, ice-skating rink, snowboard ramp and rail-jam competition, outdoor video-game competition, snowsuit fashion show and food and drink vendors. In a vacant lot at 1100 Old River Road in the Flats, between Main Avenue and Front Street, Cleveland. Sponsored by Pop-Up City.

Seth Chwast  ::  Fantasy Tree Frogs Yellow

RED DOT Project artist, Seth Chwast, was diagnosed with autism as a very young child, and lived for years in a world of roller coasters, haunted houses, and classical music.  A dramatic change came in 2003, when at age 20 he took an oil painting class at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  Seth, who rarely speaks, began describing his world in paint.

Seth has a created beautiful pieces of art that are direct and honest.  He has an amazing story that has been featured on the Today Show in 2007 and 2008.  For more information about Seth and to purchase his artwork, visit www.reddotproject.org

A New York Times article this month covers the use jpeg images to sell artwork.  The article quotes:

Lisa Schiff, a New York art consultant, agreed, saying that “99 percent” of her sales now involve a JPEG at one stage or another. “It’s changed the way we all do business,” she said. “People have begun using JPEG as a verb: JPEG me this work.”

RED DOT Project has a digital database of our artist members’s works that allows for the transmission of digital presentations, short listing of artwork, and streamlined process for art procurement.

 While I recognize that a jpeg is not the real thing, it certainly helps to start the conversation and determine direction for artwork purchases.

James Massena March  ::  City Windows

COSE Arts Network is hosting a half day event, tomorrow, Wednesday, February 20 at Trinity Commons.  Ali Pretty is the keynote speaker with breakout sessions on a variety of arts business topics.  Click here for more information and registration.

From Kinetika’s Tiger and the Emperor

RED DOT Project artist member Richard Tuschman, Rose and Faces, sized 19″ x 13″

Richard Tuschman has over 20 years of experience as a fine artist, graphic designer and illustrator. He creates digital prints that layer painting, sculpture, photography, found imagery, typography and 3D computer generated objects. He combines these various stimulations to convey a sense of warmth, poetry and emotionality in his digital prints, all things not normally associated with technology. 

In preparation for Valentine’s Day this week, a romantic images of Barbie and David from Steve Sorin… 

Desert Rendezvous

Hero’s Journey

Steve has worked with Barbie and Ken, documenting their relationship.  These images are taken in environments throughout Northeast Ohio.  Steve attempts to subvert photography, the ultimate medium of factual representation, to produce images of “unreality.” Sorin works simultaneously on three different series which, while visually highly disparate, share common features and conceptual goals.

Glomerulous

Solar Storm

I am often asked what art sells best.  My reply takes on a rambling quality about the variety of art styles, colors or visual content has been selling.  The art that sells is the art that satisfies an individual requirement.  Sometimes it is color (’we need something blue to go with our carpet’). 

 Betsy Molnar, Cosmos

Sometimes it is content (’we want to show Cleveland’). 

Barney Taxel, Downtown from Garfield’s Monument

Sometimes it is style (’we want something contemporary’).   

Brock Winans, Untitled

More recently, a client found a print she loved by Kate Ward Terry.  Her sister had gone to school with Kate, and she was thrilled to add Kate’s piece to her collection. 

Kate Ward Terry, Disordered

It is hard to quantify what sells best because each decision is based on an individual’s or company’s goals.  What does work best is discovering an artist or a piece of artwork that you love and buy it, hang it up, and enjoy it.

This image comes via Housemartin.  Amy Butler sums it up best, “Great style comes from confidence.  Love what you love, and don’t be shy about it.”

June O’Neil’s textile construction piece, Ohio, has been installed at the Rocky River Library.  The Women’s Committee of the Rocky River Library purchased this piece and gifted it to the library. 

June works with raw edge applique.  The edges of the fabric are exposed and give her work a great deal of texture, places for the light to bounce and create shadows.  June is able to manipulate the fabric in a way that creates movement and energy within the piece.  More of June’s work can be found at RED DOT Project.  Check out this detail of Ohio: