This Time Last Year

I was out at my grandparents' ranch outside of Breckenridge, Texas, getting hitched. I am just as happy today to be married to this wonderful woman. We spent our honeymoon in the beautiful country beach setting that is the North Shore of Hawaii (a lifetime dream of both of ours). My wife took this picture of some of the greatest Tiki's on the island (this is one of the three) on the north west side of the island.




Being that the first year is the 'paper' anniversary, I thought I would commission my good friend, Scott Krakowski to do one of his beautiful wood cuts for the occasion. Here is the woodcut in progress...




And here is the black and white version of what will eventually be colorized....





This man does amazing work. I really hope he continues to pursue this realm of art. I am so excited to get the colorized version and was totally blown away by the black and white (which will of course also be framed). I will also post pics when they are framed. Enjoy.

Otis Dozier prints

Well, I just got these done. Everything seemed to go together very nicely. Just thought I would post up some pictures of a little of the process and the final product if anyone's interested in seeing them. Here's a few shots of the framed pieces......

Indian Corn

Passage to the Sea

Walpi

And that is just a few. Here is some of the process..
All matted up and mounted (to the mat using preservation corners so there is no tape touching the art), ready to have the glass cut and put on and the frame added....

And here is the frame after it's been mitered and joined. And then the final adding of the frame and the fit up (backing and hangers applied). This is probably a serious over-simplification of the process but it might give you more of an idea of how it works. Hope y'all enjoyed it. I really enjoyed framing these.

A Passage to the Sea

I Just got these in from one of my modern dealers the other day to frame. I don't do as much framing these days as I used to. I seem to do more in the furniture realm, but I still do it and I feel especially privelaged to have these in my possession. I feel like these really deserved a good framing. They are as they say, only prints, but these are very hard to come by.

These were printed by UT Austin in the 50's. Otis Dozier is a very important Texas artist that I did'nt know of. (I feel very inept for not knowing this btw). This is definitely something I will seek out more of though. These are amazing prints. I have since seen some other works of his online, still difficult to come by and they are all very nice, but these abstracts are amazing and especially rare to find.

I think it is especially unusual for prints these old not to have been framed, and specifically not to have been framed badly, meaning they would have yellowing from being framed with acidic mats or backing materials, or tears, or bad taping jobs. This series of prints has absoloutely none of that, which makes them even more rare.

I have seen way too much bad framing from taking old pieces apart to re-do them. That is why the mere mention of a certain generic framing company makes my stomach turn and my blood begin to boil. I have opened up way too many otherwise beautiful prints only to see that they are hinged with scotch tape, or even worse, masking tape and everything under the mat has turned a dingy yellow.

It is my opinion that if you want to frame something, then it should be done right (as is pretty much the case with anything I undertake). This is why I will try and frame these with the loving care they truly deserve. I use acid free materials with everything for this very reason. I'll also use preservation corners to mount it rather than tape, so hopefully they will last another 50 years. They will be for sale at Sputnik Modern when they are done. Hopefully they will end up in good hands. I will enjoy looking at them while I have them.

(I will also post some pictures up in a few days when I get these matted/framed for anybody who wants to take a gander)