One of our managers opened his fortune cookie the other day, only to read what every framer already knows. We won’t get into the age-old and infamous Fortune Cookie Debate (this isn’t a fortune at all – it’s advice, or a clever quip at best!), but we can certainly attest to the accuracy of the text. If you scale back on the cost of your custom framing design by eliminating that second mat because it’ll cost another $12, or by choosing the frame that’s $25 less than the one you really like, you haven’t truly saved money. Instead, you’ve thrown away the money that you did spend on something that will be on display in your home every day. You’ll be glad tomorrow that you paid a little less. But in a few months, you won’t be able to remember how much you saved. You’ll just look at Mikey’s third grade art assignment and wish it had a better frame design.
For one night only on March 15, Vienna and Zagreb based architects Numen/For Use created a sculptural installation made entirely of tape at the Design Museum in London. 156 rolls of sticky tape were used to create a structure that looked a lot like those old school films would show the insides of our bodies to look like on a molecular level. Similar to their previous installations, viewers could climb inside and crawl thru the tubes of tape. These sculptures earned the architects a nomination for the Brit Insurance Design of the year award. (First place ended up going to Plumen for the Plumen 001, the world’s first designer energy saving light bulb.) These pics and the video at the bottom give you just a sense of what these installations are like.
A little tip from us framers to all the sledders out there – the phrase “keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times” is not to be taken lightly. One of our dedicated staff had to learn to frame with one hand tied behind his back this winter. We’ll have to add “we’ll get it done no matter how many separated bones in our hand” to the list of guarantees we offer.
Art shows with gimmicks are a dime a dozen. It’s fun to see how clever people can be when it comes to presenting a concept for an exhibit, but more often than not, the gimmick is just that. The idea for the show is a facade with no real art below the surface – it can’t stand on its own. But Single Fare 2 is full of real and exciting art that works within the show’s gimmick and on each piece’s merit. This is the second time that the Sloan Fine Art Gallery has put out a call to artists to submit any theme in any medium – it just has to be done on a NY subway metro card. Even not knowing this or the size of each piece, you might be tipped off by the tell-tale missing corner on each image. We asked NY artist Jonathan Allen about his work in the show –
“Using metrocards as a support was a humbling experience. For a couple of weeks I picked up used metrocards from the floors of subway stations. People looked at me with a mixture of pity and disdain in their eyes. In essence, a metrocard is a rectangle–but with one clipped corner, it betrays itself, no matter what you paint or collage or draw on it. Everyone in New York knows this shape subconsciously!
The show comes down after this Saturday afternoon, so check it out if you’re nearby. There are a huge variety of images and thousands of pieces, but here’s a sampling.
So we’ve been talking about and looking at a lot of amazing art these past weeks. But we haven’t talked about bad art. The first problem with that is, what is “bad” art? That’s almost as hard a question as when we first asked, “What is art?” And why do we even need to ask? If it’s bad, you wouldn’t want to see it anyway.
Well, often times when we’re helping a customer to design a custom frame, we’ll continue to look at a few other options even after they see something they like. That’s one way to find out for certain that the customer is indeed happy with the choice they think is best. You’re gonna have a tough time knowing what you like, if you don’t also look at stuff that stinks on ice. Someone might tell you that Michelangelo’s statue of David is one of the finest sculptures ever. But you might not truly agree OR disagree if you don’t first make a judgement call on many other sculptures. And who knows – you may find something that is more important or inspiring to you personally than ol’ Dave.
The fine folks at The Museum of Bad Art can show you what we mean. While many people would insist that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s safe to say that at least the majority of their collection is deserving of the special ranking that the MOBA has bestowed on them. There are three galleries in the Boston area. It’s the perfect way to broaden your appreciation of art. Any art.
JR owns the biggest art gallery in the world. When we found out about his work, it struck us as an amalgamation of some ideas we’ve been discussing. While he works in a style similar to Banksy, his art is on a scale that is both enormous and more intimate. His ideas strictly grow from the hope that art can change the world. He was a 2011 TED prize winner. This video is of his talk at TED – it may take about 30 seconds to load, but we encourage you to watch even the first few moments. We were inspired and intrigued enough to watch more. Thanks so much to My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses for bringing this to our attention.
This is the first image we saw of his work. At first we weren’t even sure of what we were looking at because the scale is hard to wrap one’s head around…
Whether or not it feels like it, it is officially spring. That means it’s okay to admit you spend 98% of your time thinking about that upcoming summer vacation. Well, we’re very excited for you. And not just ’cause we know it’s gonna be awesome, but also because we’re looking forward to framing the photos that’ll help you remember how awesome it was. A large portion of the items we frame are vacation-related items, so believe us when we say that there are good vacation photos and then there are really, super bad vacation photos. Fortunately, the fine people over at Fodor’s have a nifty site with everything you need to know about taking better photographs. The site is simple, but thorough and broken up into topics as specific as “Shooting from the Land and Sea”, or “Photographing your Cruise.” We encourage every traveler to give it a look-see. Those pictures will be the best way to remember the highlight of your family’s summer.
We’re familiar with paper cut art ’cause we’ve had to frame our share of it. We know how delicate and intricate it can be. But we’ve never seen anything like the work of Peter Callesen. We found out about him on Desafinada, but you can also check out his own website. Meanwhile, take a gander at what nearly broke our minds. Keep in mind: it’s all paper.
As a follow-up to our post the other day about UK street artist Banksy, here’s a video and article from the Wall Street Journal called “If You Take Street Art Off the Street, Is It Still Art?” In this situation, the question isn’t about Banksy or whether or not what he does is art or its legality. The question is bigger and it’s a good one. Who owns certain kinds of art? – can that art even be owned? As our definition of art begins to widen, it will include items, venues, and concepts that live outside of a frame or gallery. Putting them in a gallery or other conventional setting would change the identity of many art pieces. We covet with our eyes. Let’s leave it at that.
We were excited to add these metal frames to our standard collection and wanted to share them with you. Now, while we usually prefer wood frames – they offer a richer look and better construction – there’s no getting around the fact that these guys would definitely spice up a room. And with spring upon us, it was an apropos time to think about some new colors. We’ve used these on kids art and on a tropical fish illustration – in both cases they looked amazing.
What’s your favorite flavor? We’ve got (from left to right) Cyber Green, Galactic Blue, Tangerine Twist, Emerald, Amethyst, Turquoise, Tornado Red, Lemon Ice, Purple Haze, and Raspberry Fizz.
One of our managers opened his fortune cookie the other day, only to read what every framer already knows. We won’t get into the age-old and infamous Fortune Cookie Debate (this isn’t a fortune at all – it’s advice, or a clever quip at best!), but we can certainly attest to the accuracy of the text. If you scale back on the cost of your custom framing design by eliminating that second mat because it’ll cost another $12, or by choosing the frame that’s $25 less than the one you really like, you haven’t truly saved money. Instead, you’ve thrown away the money that you did spend on something that will be on display in your home every day. You’ll be glad tomorrow that you paid a little less. But in a few months, you won’t be able to remember how much you saved. You’ll just look at Mikey’s third grade art assignment and wish it had a better frame design. 
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