Cottonwood Art Festival Announces Featured Artist Mark Keller for May 5-6, 2012 Event

The Cottonwood Art Festival has selected Mark Keller as its featured artist for the annual spring event to be held May 5 and 6, 2012, in Richardson, Texas.

Now in its 44th year, the Cottonwood Art Festival is the premier fine arts event in North Texas. The twice-a-year event generates more than $2 million in art sales annually. The festival has extended its hours and is set for 10 AM – 8 PM Saturday and 10 AM -6 PM Sunday, May 5-6, 2012, at Cottonwood Park, 1321 W. Beltline Rd., in Richardson, TX 75080. Admission and parking are free. Full details are available at www.cottonwoodartfestival.com or 972-744-4581.

About Mark Keller

Mark Keller’s oil paintings have been featured in galleries around the U.S. as well as throughout the United Kingdom. Individual works have enjoyed exhibitions at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cape Cod and the Florence Biennale in Italy. Several publications have featured Mark’s work, including Art Business News, San Francisco Chronicle and Marin Magazine. Mark has fulfilled commissions for three San Francisco restaurants and painted portraits for several personal collections.

Mark participates in a select few art festivals each year and is currently developing a new video series for children called “DRAW with Uncle Arty Pants.” Pilot episodes are viewable at Loudville.tv.

By the age of 17, Mark was a working musician traveling with a rock band from one gig to the next in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. The grandson of a singer and son of an artist, he has always divided his energy between music and art. After recording contracts with two record labels failed to produce a hit, Mark scored his first TV commercial at the age of 21. Soon he was not only writing music for TV spots but art directing as well. The art direction garnered him many awards including The One Show, The Clio and a Cannes Silver Lion. It also led the way to his success as an illustrator, doing posters and magazine ads for clients such as TWA, Nocona Boots and Levis Jeans.

Mark spent many years as an Art Director in the advertising business at Ackerman & McQueen in Oklahoma City and Foote Cone & Belding in San Francisco where he designed visual campaigns for accounts such as Nocona Boots, Sheraton Hotels, Levis Jeans and Nintendo.

Jurors for the May 2012 Cottonwood Art Festival are Kenneth Craighead, Director of Craighead Green Gallery; Greg Metz, University of Texas at Dallas Senior Lecturer of Arts and artist; Gabriel Dawe, artist; and Diana Pollak, Director of the Creative Arts Center of Dallas. Approximately 800 artists submitted work for the 2012 festival. Jurors selected 250 artists to exhibit their museum-quality paintings, sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, fiber art, fine glass, woodwork, mixed media and photography. All art must be for sale.

For more information on Cottonwood Art Festival, go to its website www.cottonwoodartfestival.com or its Facebook page. Whether shopping for art, listening to music, enjoying the outdoors or making art of your own, Cottonwood has something for everyone. There’s an art to having fun!

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MEDIA CONTACTS:

Lisa Taylor

TrizCom Inc.

lisa@trizcom.com

214-914-1099

Serri Ayers

Festival Director, Cottonwood Art Festival

City of Richardson

972-744-4580

serri.ayers@cor.gov