The gallery offers a bar, and exhibits and sells artwork from local artists, hosts open mic nights for live music and poetry, and hosts painting workshops.
Meet the owner
Bramblitt, an artist before he lost his eyesight from complications with epilepsy and Lyme disease, continued to paint and now travels for speaking engagements, to teach painting to the visually impaired and consult with museums on how to make galleries more accessible to people with disabilities. Bramblitt also served as the first mentor for artists with disabilities at the Kennedy Center.
Schools for the blind are starting to integrate art classes, which can help the visually impaired improve their spatial awareness, Bramblitt said.
“Your spatial relation reasoning, your spatial relationship, your memory maps just get better and better,” he added.
Staying local
The gallery features a bar, which helps pay for the gallery’s operations and allows the artists to retain a bigger cut of the art sales, Bramblitt said. He got the idea from galleries in New York and Los Angeles where he previously worked.
“Having the drinks, whether it's coffee, whether it's cocktails, whether it's tea, whatever it is, helps pay for the space ... and then we can give the artist more than a typical gallery ever would,” Bramblitt said.
The bar offers several mocktails and cocktails, along with locally brewed Denton and Dallas-Fort Worth beers, and local musicians perform new music at the gallery’s open mic nights, Bramblitt said.
At Yellow Dog, 70% of the art sale revenue goes to the artist, while most galleries offer artists about 50%, Bramblitt said.
"Our usual thing is 70% goes to the artist ... [in other galleries] it's usually 40%-50% to the artist." Bramblitt continued. "In a normal gallery, that 50%, it sounds harsh, but it actually works out with the cost of overhead and all."
What is there to do?
In addition to open mics, the gallery hosts events most nights, including bad movie screenings, trivia and karaoke. Guests can also purchase a blank canvas for $10 and paint with paint supplies provided by the gallery. Guests can also purchase pre-sketched canvasses and add the color themselves with supplied paint for $12.
What’s in a name
Yellow Dog was partially inspired by a gallery in the French Quarter in New Orleans called the Blue Dog, run by Louisiana artist George Rodrigue, where guests and artists brought their own drinks, sat on the couch, and painted.
“You would just sit in there and you would paint, you would chat. But it was a place where you live with the art,” Bramblitt said. “It seemed very personal, and here in Denton we have so many creative people that it seemed important.”
Bramblitt’s service dog, a yellow Labrador retriever named Zuke, is the gallery’s mascot and the titular yellow dog.
- 219 E. Hickory St., Denton
- www.yellowdogartbar.com
