In another odd episode, Ms. Therrell, who as "pogdog" is an active art seller on eBay, offered a painting about six months ago that stirred notice.
"Something special can happen when you're working with a bunch of actors who you've known since you were lads, as many of us did, and who you work with steadily for a good long time," said Christopher Connel, who plays Oliver, the pitman who is offered a painting stipend that would allow him to leave the mines.
So what's a buyer or seller to do? Suppose you are offered a painting by Monet for $20 million.
SBC will also offer a painting by Stuart Davis in the same sale and one by Mark Rothko earlier in November.
Mr. Satz's other choice, Terry Elkins, offers a painting that could serve as a pendant piece to Ms. Aller's "Oceanscapes" photographs: a long triptych with a wave creeping toward the viewer, titled "Atlantic Beach," from 1995.
A 2008 monograph on Mr. Panter features photographs of his plastic childhood lizards and his books about dinosaurs; his website home page offers a painting of a tyrannosaurus and an artist staring each other down; and, yes, Mr. Panter keeps a dinosaur fossil from Texas in his studio.
On the futuristic side, the artist-team called A Constructed World, consisting of Jacqueline Riva and Geoff Lowe, offers a painting of an extraterrestrial craft projecting a giant peace sign into the earth, while in photographs by Sarah Ciraci, contemporary buildings -- a big Frank Gehry, for example -- lift off like space ships into the beyond.
In this book, Kalman offers a painting, for instance, of her father's best friend at the nursing home where he spent his last days (sweeter than ever before, addled with Alzheimer's): "His best friend there looked like Humpty Dumpty, carried a lunchbox and listened to Brahms," Kalman writes in her wild scrawl alongside the illustration.
Finally, as if in response to the well-rehearsed New Sincerity in contemporary art -- not so different from an aspect of Abstract Expressionism Mr. Kaprow was trying to escape -- Megan Lang offers a painted self-portrait composed entirely of astrological signs, and Douglas Boatwright films himself memorizing the verses to a pop love song.
Benjamin Moore will now be the official paint supplier for the startup, which matches painting professionals with clients to offer a paint job — in a home or an office — on demand.
He also painted the background scenes for the animal exhibits at The Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science, and was offered a job painting scenery at Walt Disney Studios.
