Back
	Area artists selected for Trump art collection  BY JOHN LOVETT The Sentinel-Record  Donald Trump has said "you’re hired" to Art-Exchange. com, and  three local artists are among the 40 chosen to be represented in the  Donald Trump Art Collection Gallery.  Lisa and D. Arthur Wilson and Carole Katchen were selected from  thousands of artists this summer for inclusion in the collection.  "The Donald has always been a fan of art and wants to offer good  art to his clients," said Richard Gipe, president of Art-Exchange.com.  "I really don’t know where this will lead, but we’re excited about  it." What this means for the Wilsons, Katchen and the other  selected artists with Art-Exchange is a major connection to big-time  art buyers in Trump’s residential real estate markets and his  Lexington Furniture line. Art-Exchange also recently bought Timothy’s  Fine Art and Custom Frame in San Clemente, Calif., which will add 40  jobs to the Hot Springs area. The 24-year-old company’s name will be  kept, and for Gipe, hopefully all of its 3,000 designer contacts.  Almost all of the artists Gipe suggested for the Trump Collection  were accepted. Katchen’s piece "The Eyes Have It" is expected to be  used as illustration on the Trump Art Collection Web site at  http://www. trumpartcollection.com. The site will be "unveiled" during  the holiday season.  Katchen’s "The Eyes Have It" is one of the illustrations she  created for the Trump Art Collection promotional catalogue. "I  felt like I was on ‘The Apprentice’ waiting to find out if they were  going to say ‘You’re Fired’ or ‘You’re Hired,’" Katchen jokes. "It  turned out that they loved the illustrations and chose two of them. In  addition, they will be including several of my paintings in the Trump  Collection."  The Trump connection was set in motion last March at Art Expo in  New York City when Gipe first met the representatives from the Trump  organization and Holoma Inc. Richard and Beth Gipe have attended the  large exposition every year since 2000.  After a tedious selection process this year, all four of the  Wilsons’ definitive styles of art were selected: The "wild  expressionism" of D. Arthur; Lisa’s abstract expressionism; their  figurative collaborations such as the portrait of Louis Moreau  Gottschalk used by Naxos Records for the recent Hot Springs Music  Festival release; and D. Arthur’s whimsical "Rhupert" the ostrich  character, which he has used in a series of children’s books.  One of Lisa’s pieces, "Sonatina," was used in Trump’s inaugural  premier along with his furniture line last June in Dallas.  "It was so exciting but we couldn’t tell anyone," Lisa said. "A ll  the contracts hadn’t been signed yet."  The couple signed with Trump to produce limited edition prints of  almost 40 pieces and will have four separate galleries within the  online gallery.