Monday, November 27, 2017

A Scratch and Dental Meditation


A good picture framer always strives to send out finished framing jobs as close to perfection as is humanly possible.  The frame must be flawless, the glass must be sparkling, and the matting must be free of any stray specks or cat hairs (heh heh heh).  With a shop cat in residence, my frames always leave in pristine condition, even if I have to take them apart several times and redo them.  My shop may be an unholy mess but my frame jobs are always impeccable in the end.

Several years ago I framed a show for one of my very favorite photographers.  It hung at the Burchfield-Penney so the smooth black frames with their brilliant white matting arrived at the gallery in mint condition.  Some of the pieces were sold but most of the frames were stored until she brought them back to me to be re-used for her upcoming exhibition at Nichols School.

At first glance, it appeared as though we had fifteen good used frames and needed only five new ones for the new show.  Upon closer examination, however, most of the original frames had suffered due to moving, jostling, and storage.  There were many scratches and dents which could not be repaired.

I messaged her: 
 
Good news versus bad news. Of the 15 frames you brought in, I can really only reuse 3 - the rest are scratched and gouged all to pieces - and as picky as you are about your printing, so am I picky about your frames. The good news is all 15 mats/glass/backings are OK.

She pondered this over the weekend and phoned me the following Tuesday.  We decided that if it were possible, I would make the frames even more scratched and dented—all of them.  All twenty of them.

Backstory:  the photographer is Missy Kennedy Cleary, known far and wide for her amazing photographs of children, women, families, horses and dogs.  Dogs are her special passion—she is surely a dog whisperer; and she has long been associated with the Erie County SPCA.  Every animal she has photographed for them finds forever homes as soon as the portraits go up on their website.
 
In the shelter world, animals who have been longtime residents of the system (through the fault of their own horrid or unknowable backstories) become harder and harder to place the longer they are in residence.  They lose hope, hang back, hiding from potential adopters—they have given up on ever finding their own humans to love.  Some shelters call these dejected creatures the “scratch and dents”—they are perfectly good on the inside but maybe not be “show ring” perfect on the outside.  They need a little work and a lot of patience and love.  And that’s when Missy steps in and brings out the best in them.  Missy sees beneath the sadness and fear and soon enough hopeful eyes and uppy ears and even the hesitant wag of the tail appear and, as if by magic, their lingering suspicions are completely erased.  Her unconditional love and photographic expertise bring out the best in any creature she has ever photographed (well, except for my parents—but that is another story for another day).

For this show Missy collected all of her favorites and had way too much fun playing with them in Photoshop—going into full Lichtenstein/Warhol mode with a riot of color and texture—or echoing vintage etchings with just a hint of line and shape and tone.
 
It took me a while to find the perfect tool for the "scratch and dental" procedure.  I consulted my framer friends from around the world, and one homemade tool worked especially well on my sample of moulding.  After all these years of producing perfection, I must admit I had fun beating up these frames.  And they turned out great. 

Mama Lucy, Shop Cat, tried to help with the scratching part.
Framing wire strung with every bolt in my collection did the trick.


I adore all of these photographs, but here are some of my very favorites.  I wonder if one day my kitties would  allow me to adopt a dog.



All ready for the show!
Missy and her daughter picked up all twenty of the frames and loaded them into the back of her SUV.  The next day she was to deliver them to the school for the show.  Unfortunately, the next morning is when I received this message from her:
 
Had a complete catastrophe
6 came flying out of the car and broke

I want to jump off a cliff

Oh noes!
 Luckily for all, back when I was still seeking absolute perfection, I had ordered extra of these smooth black frames and as it turns out, I had exactly six, all ready to be beaten up and fitted.  Only one mat was lost, two pieces of glass were shattered, and none of the prints were damaged at all.  Whew!  MarGyver triumphs again!