A New Online Marketplace

Charlie Buckley, The Arts Company, oil on muslin-wrapped panel, 14 x 8.5'', 2010

Business models are a dime a dozen these days. Every time we think we have one cornered, it slips away in mid-thought. It's a swift world out here.

From day one in our art business our idea was to make art commercially viable by locating in the middle of an active marketplace where people transact all kinds of business within close proximity to each other on a daily basis. A hundred years ago that was the town square. Then the center of cities. Then the suburbs. Then shopping malls. Now we're back to the town square, but without the brick and mortar.

Bob Grannis, Capital Construction, photograph, 20 x 30'', 1957

The new town square is online, with a multiplicity of communities you can choose to connect with. You create your own town square online, defined by the people with whom you converse and share confidences and by the sources you count on for shopping and purchasing.

Even though we are in the art business where everything is original, one-of-a-kind, it's hard to know how to find a brick and mortar location in a prime traffic location where people go to transact business and look for tangible goods and services. For us, the center of downtown Nashville continues to be a good bet. For a simple reason. Nashville is magnet for creativity, and downtown is an arts destination. People from around the world come to downtown Nashville to seek out the Nashville experience--that is, the unusual combination of lots of institutional and commercial venues in music, art, museums, libraries, and honky tonks, all within walking distance of each other. Fortunately, that combination attracts consistent foot traffic. Still, that's a kind of activity-based market scenario, not the daily kind of traffic that stems from the daily business of people's lives.

Charles Keiger, The Vault, oil on panel, 20 x 18'', 2009

It is not easy to find a thriving daily physical marketplace. The marketplace of our time is online, and any business wishing to thrive has to reckon with that elusive, seemingly amorphous structure and find new ways to get their goods and ideas noticed. Case in point: we now look online or "onphone" to locate brick and mortar places. In essence, when someone finds us now, it's likely through an online source more than just happening to be in the neighborhood.

This is not to bemoan change. On the contrary, we are looking for that new thriving market where real goods and real people can still get together in an active marketplace environment. That's why we are moving forward quickly to adapt ourselves to the new online marketplace. We are launching a new business partnership with Moontoast, an online social commerce platform. We are matching their online savvy and resources to ours--fresh, original, contemporary artwork, a selection that can be encountered and purchased online 24/7.

We can't wait to see who we meet up with in this sprawling new world of tasteful commerce. Join us if you dare. Try it out. Be a pioneer with us. We promise that over time it will be one heck of an adventure. We'd love to have you with us.

All you have to do is click here: theartscompany.moontoast.com. Join our online community, and together we will help shape this emerging marketplace for artwork.

Beauty in the Mystery: by Robin Venable

*Image of Einstein from: http://wespenre.com/quotes.htm

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

This is a quotation by one of the most inventive and creative minds of our time - Albert Einstein. His revolutions in scientific thought - specifically the theory of relativity - are some of the most profound revelations of the human mind.

I am currently reading his biography simply called Einstein by Walter Isaacson. Through the detailed accounts of his personal life and scientific struggles and triumphs, one sees a man whose quest for the unknown mysteries of the universe are unquenchable. These mysteries would keep him deeply thoughtful his entire life.

Some of the most (dare I use the word) beautiful artistic expressions are those that leave us guessing... ones that take us on our own quest for understanding with some guideposts along the way...but not too many so that we can find our way on our own.

Here are a few examples from artists that we represent that give the viewer that air of mystery, which, according to one of the greatest minds of our time, keeps us alive.

Tony Breuer, Virginia Falls, mixed media on canvas, 30 x 40''

Bill Starke, Climber, cast aluminum, 25 x 13 x 9''

Jim Hubbman, Corvus Camerae, watercolor and graphite on paper, 40 x 25.5''

Rod Daniel, Canyon de Chelly #9, archival digital print, 48 x 32''

Aggie Zed, Man with Box, porcelain, 7 x 4 x 5''

Don Dudenbostel, Tonna, platinum print, 5 x 4''

Charles Keiger, Wishing for Blue Skies, oil on panel, 22 x 20''

Modern Day "Window People": by Robin Venable

With the huge success of social media networks like Facebook, we are able to peer into other people's lives. That is, the lives that they want us to see.

In a somewhat-controlled environment I am able to post status updates, pictures, and videos to inform my "friends" of my ever-changing life.

Norman Lerner, "Piano Tuner, 1950's", archival digital print, 13 x 19 inches

When I post something, I know that it will pop up in my friends' news feeds, but I don't know who is actually coming to my page, looking at all of my photos, or analyzing my status updates.

A little creepy? Absolutely.

Norman Lerner, "Elevator Operator, 1950's", archival digital print, 13 x 19 inches

Have you ever felt like someone was looking at you? When viewing Norman Lerner's "Window People" I feel that uncomfortable tingle of watching eyes. The dilapidated windows house all sorts of people - a frowning, bulbous-nosed woman in her seventies sitting instead of standing, an old man who tunes pianos daring you to come in the front door, a bald elevator operator with sunken eyes looking out blankly...

Norman Lerner, "Resigned, 1950's", archival digital print, 13 x 19 inches

Perhaps we should feel that same unpleasant twinge when we log on to Facebook - feeling the clicks of the mouse as people visit our page.

Lerner's "Window People" are timeless. With his camera he has captured moments of connection between the observer and viewer (The original prints are silver gelatin prints that have now been converted to digital prints.) that make us want to know more about the people in the photographs. He has preserved that moment in time in which the gazer is caught looking... and now, just like Facebook, we get to look back...uninterrupted, and with all the time in the world.