The art connection

Art can be intimidating, or some people find It so. How Ironic, then, that here is Sacramento we are blessed with a cornucopia of nne artists who produce high-quality work. So when neophytes go looking for help, art consultant Beth Jones is there to provide it. She started in 1984 working in and co-running a gallery, then spent most of the '90s as an art broker. Recently, in addition to her consulting business, she and new partner Lynda Jolley opened Gallery 8 at 2908 Franklin Blvd., which was just rechristened as Jayjay; the gallery opens Second Saturday (Feb. 10) with Studio Visit, a show featuring works by 12 artists: Mary Cole, Mark Emerson, Susan Keizer, Jane Mikacich, Thomas Monteith, Jack Nielsen, Sandy Parris, Christine Remy, Nick Steinmetz, Ellen Van Fleet, Stacey Vetter and Roger Yoges.

What does an art consultant do?
Helps people find art they need, whether it he for their home or for their commercial office space, place of business. company.. So an art consultant works as a broker.

Isn't there some kind of law that when a new building goes up, a certain percentage of the cost must be earmarked to buy art?
There's a downtown ordinance. There's a specific area, and I'm not exactly positive about all the stipulations; it has quite a few rules and regulations, and l think I has something to do with redevelopment. But when you build in the downtown area of Sacramento, 2 percent has to go toward art in public places, which would mean art that's going to be placed in the public areas of that building -- outside, inside.

Let's say a corporate client asks you to buy some art. How would you go about determining what to advise them to buy?
If st of all, you get to know your client very well. You visit the space and you know what the space looks like, what the flavor is - whether it's traditional or contemporary or generic or what it is -- which helps you decide what's going to work in a space. And then, hopefully, what you think is going to work and what the client wants are the same. Or, you can educate your client to s understand why you think this is best for them. Then you go find it for them.

How much educating do you find you have to do?
I think a large percentage of my job as a consultant is educating people. Maybe 25 or 30 percent of the people I work with are kind of knowledgeable. And 70 to 75 percent don't have a clue, but want help.

What do you tell them?
We give them all kinds of historical reasons, why art is the way il is. It's kind of a cliche‹ the "Oh, my kid could do it" type of thing. A lot of the work that is non-objective, or abstract, a lot of people find‹"Oh, you know, anybody could do that." It looks that way. And, of course, there is a lot of bad art that, probably, anybody could do. But the artists that we represent are very educated, have lots of experience and have been working on their art for a long time, so their imagery has an awful lot of foundation. And we teach the client about that. And usually, on particular pieces, I don't have to do a lot of: "Oh, this is why you must have this."