Twenty years ago, three popular local artists met at the kitchen table of Ana Sloan to ask one of her five daughters to sell their paintings for them. Betty Jones and Beverly McLarty were winning state and regional awards for their paintings; Carol Riley was an award-winning member of the American Watercolor Society.

According to Barbara A. Sloan, "These women were undoubtedly the best artists in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was a great way to start an art business here.

In no time, Ana's Kitchen had ballooned into a multi-service art brokerage with a stable of 33 contemporary artists from Dallas, New York, Phoenix, and Arkansas showing at the gallery. Besides art sales and rentals, the business also offered quality art instruction for children and adults, an educational outreach program, a visual arts library, a fine art and graphic design referral service, and custom framing through Picture Perfect - all from my mother's house!"

Critical acclaim followed Ana's Kitchen, and there were many positive reviews in the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Times. Steve Nichols, who was art editor for The Sentinel-Record during that time, began to use the acronym "AKAS" for the gallery's press releases. The moniker stuck, and Barbara continued to use the name when she moved back to Arizona at the end of 1985.

When the business relocated to Scottsdale, the focus of its founder began to shift from art sales and education to business consulting on tax and probate matters. In December of 1994, AKAS II began to publish the Quick-Fix TaxKits, a series of self-help guides on taxes and recordkeeping for artists of all disciplines. This project gained national attention with magazine interviews for ArtNetwork and ArtCalendar and inclusion in books such as Constance Smith's Art Marketing 101 and Caroll Michels' How To Survive and Prosper as an Artist.

Today AKAS II is back in Hot Springs, marking twenty years of service to artists throughout the United States. Its tax and business manuals have been purchased by artists in over 38 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and the author, an award-winning artist currently having her 30-year retrospective, still offers consultations for artists, dealers, and collectors on a variety of topics.

"There is definitely more to Art than meets the Eye!" Barbara adds. "Although my doctorate is in tax law, my primary field has always been art, and I find it especially rewarding to see my clients' art careers being featured in recent issues of Southwest Art, Vanity Fair and the New York Times."