I have recently been organizing the basement in my wife and I's house. (We've been here three years already but writing about our basement, our house, just now; really felt good.) It took me way too long but I have finally been digging out boxes of frames I snatched and snaggle-grabbed in my years of working as a professional custom picture framer for other people/companies.
I have to kick myself for not being more motivated to do this sooner. I am trying to create a basement framing shop to frame not only my own work, but work for other people as well. Going through the frames has been a great experience, reminding me of the better moments of my framing career.
When I started in the framing biz I worked for one of those craft stores (which shall remain nameless, there is no love lost there). I still sometimes have nightmares of being on the sales counter for hours at a time with a line 10 people deep. Half of them demanding I help them because no one else knows what they are doing and the other half demanding to look at 5 shades of white even though I've told them the best combination an hour ago.
The better moments of being a framer are when you get to meet and work with all kinds of different artists and creative people, and being able to see art every single day in different ways. (And when you get first selection of the best of what we call oops frames.) Oops Frames are ones that for whatever reason, were not used by the customer, or had been made in slightly the wrong size etc.
The best moments of being a framer was when I lived in Pittsburgh, PA and framed for the guy who owned FrameDesigns. (Shoutout to Rees if you ever read this!) He had bought the shop from a lady who had owned it for 25 years or something before selling it to him. He had quite the back-stock of frames that were no longer made and that we didn't even sell. He was nice enough to once in a while let me put together a frame from some of that old, odd back-stock.
Those were great days working at that shop. It is so much more satisfying working for a small business owner then for a large company. We would listen to the Grateful Dead and just frame, frame, frame all day long. That is why I hope to have my own little shop out of the house soon. I always felt lucky to be an artist and a framer and I know that those combination of skills can do me well in the future.
Speaking of cleaning out the basement I also have been digging through a group of my large paintings on canvas from about 2005 - 2007. About 20 large paintings (40 - 60" or more) in total. None of them are stretched (because they are very big). This was a time when I was just buying rolls of canvas, hacking them up into huge chunks, taping them to the wall and painting/living with them. It's very chaotic work compared to what I do now, but they are none the less, interesting. All the work plays a critical role in understanding the whole story. I hope to preview some of these "Lost Paintings" in the next few weeks here. And someday figure out how to mount the damn things. You can see the stack of some of them below, rolled up.
I have to kick myself for not being more motivated to do this sooner. I am trying to create a basement framing shop to frame not only my own work, but work for other people as well. Going through the frames has been a great experience, reminding me of the better moments of my framing career.
When I started in the framing biz I worked for one of those craft stores (which shall remain nameless, there is no love lost there). I still sometimes have nightmares of being on the sales counter for hours at a time with a line 10 people deep. Half of them demanding I help them because no one else knows what they are doing and the other half demanding to look at 5 shades of white even though I've told them the best combination an hour ago.
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| Just some of the frames procured in my framing career. My favorite one is in front, a Spanish style frame with taupe undertones in the middle and blue-grey tones at the top and bottom with copper and gold highlights in the design. Never seen a frame like it and I have framed over 20,000 pictures. Soon my art will finally be framed in these frames saved for years. |
The better moments of being a framer are when you get to meet and work with all kinds of different artists and creative people, and being able to see art every single day in different ways. (And when you get first selection of the best of what we call oops frames.) Oops Frames are ones that for whatever reason, were not used by the customer, or had been made in slightly the wrong size etc.
The best moments of being a framer was when I lived in Pittsburgh, PA and framed for the guy who owned FrameDesigns. (Shoutout to Rees if you ever read this!) He had bought the shop from a lady who had owned it for 25 years or something before selling it to him. He had quite the back-stock of frames that were no longer made and that we didn't even sell. He was nice enough to once in a while let me put together a frame from some of that old, odd back-stock.
Those were great days working at that shop. It is so much more satisfying working for a small business owner then for a large company. We would listen to the Grateful Dead and just frame, frame, frame all day long. That is why I hope to have my own little shop out of the house soon. I always felt lucky to be an artist and a framer and I know that those combination of skills can do me well in the future.
Speaking of cleaning out the basement I also have been digging through a group of my large paintings on canvas from about 2005 - 2007. About 20 large paintings (40 - 60" or more) in total. None of them are stretched (because they are very big). This was a time when I was just buying rolls of canvas, hacking them up into huge chunks, taping them to the wall and painting/living with them. It's very chaotic work compared to what I do now, but they are none the less, interesting. All the work plays a critical role in understanding the whole story. I hope to preview some of these "Lost Paintings" in the next few weeks here. And someday figure out how to mount the damn things. You can see the stack of some of them below, rolled up.
 |
| Just some of the 40 - 60"+ size paintings I have rolled up. They are from 2006 and need to be finally mounted and seen by the world! |
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