Having two sets of twins in a family of ten is rare. The chances are 1 in 3,000. Fort Worth artists Daniel and Dennis Blagg are a living statistic. The second sets of twins have been pursuing their passion for art since they could pick up a paintbrush.

 

The Blaggs were born in Oklahoma City and three years later moved to West Texas. Daniel said their artistic ability started as a hobby growing up while their dad slept through the day after working night shifts.

 

“You either had to stay inside and draw, or go outside and play. It became a competition between my siblings of who could do the best work,” Daniel said.

 

Their hobby did not stop once they left the house, Daniel said. The twins began drawing all day in school. They eventually became military illustrators when they graduated high school.

 

The Blaggs split up due to their military service. Daniel went to Vietnam, and Dennis went to Korea.

 

Nothing could keep them away from their Texas roots. After a year overseas they both moved to Fort Worth to begin painting for a living.

 

The life of a full-time artist was new to the brothers, Daniel said. They began painting in every room they could in their small house on the south side of Fort Worth.

 

Their small bedrooms hindered their work. The Blaggs began to rent out old warehouses to paint on a larger scale. They stayed at an old warehouse attic for four years painting as much as they could and selling to whoever would buy.

 

“It was a form of desperation at that time,” Dennis said.

 

There were lean times, Daniel said. They didn’t have a gallery to display their work in and only sold pieces through word-of-mouth.

 

One day they were forced out of their attic studio when the Bass family bought it, Daniel said.

 

“We were again out of a studio, didn’t have a gallery, and barely selling work,” Daniel said.

 

An old furniture warehouse at 111 Hampton Street was going out of business in 1980. Daniel jumped at the opportunity to check it out. He called the realtors, but they were already going to rent to a new boxing gym.

 

Daniel showed up on the day the realtors were going to sign the building to the boxing gym, and he was the only one to show up, he said.

 

“I had the money, and the building was mine. I walked in and remember thinking that this was too good to be true,” Daniel said.

 

They finally had their own studio, Dennis said. They began to paint immediately.

 

The Blaggs had never had their own studio before, Daniel said. They did not know where to even begin to turn it into a business.

 

Their friend, Cindy Holt, was the first one to suggest that they should begin to hold shows at their new studio. Daniel said he had never even thought of such a thing and was merely excited to have a space to paint.

 

Fort Worth Art Dealers Association held an annual Gallery Night every fall. All the galleries in town opened to display their artists’ works. The Blaggs were barely ready to show their new studio to anyone, let alone the whole Fort Worth community.

 

The Blaggs passed on the opportunity to open their doors for the Fall Gallery Night, and decided to work on the logistics of their gallery.

 

They decided to name the building Artspace111 because of its location on 111 Hampton Street, Dennis said.

 

They cleaned out the building and created enough works to display. Holt helped the brothers send out invitations to their first show in the mid 1980s.

 

“We pioneered the first Spring Gallery Night in Fort Worth,” Daniel said.

 

Dennis said they hoped to get at least one or two people to show up. The outpouring of people astonished them. The brothers estimated hundreds of people came through the doors of Artspace111 that day.

 

“We would get huge crowds in here; you couldn’t move. Each year we would do Spring Gallery Night the crowds would just multiply, and it got to the point where people could not even get in the door,” Daniel said.

 

Their success with Spring Gallery Night was so great that the rest of the Fort Worth galleries followed their path. To this day, Fort Worth Art Dealers Association holds two Gallery Nights each year.

 

“When times were good, they were good. We only had to hold one or two shows a year to maintain success,” Daniel said.

 

For 17 years, Artspace111 doubled as a studio and a gallery for the artists, Dennis said. Each day they would all paint and create works.

 

The Blaggs invited the artists that displayed at the gallery to also use it as a studio.

 

“The place back then was really funky and really beat up; it did not look anything what it looks like today, but that is what made it unique,” Daniel said.

 

The business continued on a steady pace, and in 1990 the Blaggs decided to buy the building instead of rent it.

 

Daniel said he wanted to expand the business even further and bought the lot next to Artspace111 where a 99-year-old lady named Katie Wright lived.

 

When the city demolished Wright’s house, the brothers made that lot into a sculpture garden. They named it Katie F Wright Sculpture Garden in her honor. Daniel said one of his favorite paintings he has done is of her old white house.

 

Michael Grella was a regular client at Artspace111. He would come in often to explore Daniels paintings and talk about his daughter, Margery Grella Gossett, who was an art student at SMU.

 

“He seemed to always buy the toughest paintings, the ones I thought would never sell. That kind of impressed me. I always wanted to know what he would want next,” Daniel said.

 

Gossett began coming to Artspace111 to volunteer and be around a gallery setting. She learned from Daniel and Dennis through the years and started to become intrigued with the workings of the art business.

 

“Off hand one day, I told Margery that Dennis and I always talked about making Artspace more of a business, rather than just winging it everyday,” Daniel said.

 

Margery told Daniel that if he were serious, she would call her dad immediately and have him fly down to help out.

 

“So he did, we cut a deal and started renovations on the building immediately,” Daniel said.

 

The entire building was gutted. All of the artists moved out while construction took place during the summer of 2007.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Margery knew more about business than the brothers did, Daniel said.

 

“I knew some of the tricks of the trade. I would get someone to buy a piece of artwork and make them think it was their idea. That was my business strategy,” Daniel said.

 

Once the renovations were finished, a recession hit the country. It was one of the hardest economic downturns that the country has experienced since the depression, Dennis said.

 

“I called it the miniature depression. It was a hard two or three years once she got going,” Daniel said.

 

Art is a luxury item, Daniel said. When money is tight buying art is the first thing that gets trimmed from budgets.

 

“The art scene has yet to recover from 2008 and the economic downfall,” Daniel said. “Our art sales are finally picking up now, but it was a difficult few years to watch.”

 

During the Artspace111 remodel Dennis moved into his own studio in Fort Worth. Since his move in 2007 he has not moved back.

 

“I work every day; seven days a week I am in the studio painting. I am driven to do so. There is something about painting; it builds a momentum and it is a calling in a way. The more you do, the more momentum it picks up, so by now I have a lot,”

 

Daniel said. Daniel said he has a drawer filled with ideas for future paintings.

 

“This beats a real job; it’s not a bad gig each day,” Daniel said.