We have been watching these hay bales all winter. They are located just north of County 16, on the east side of Hwy 58, between Goodhue and Zumbrota. This is part of our regular commute between Red Wing and Rochester.

These bales have been our seasonal metric this winter. The snow began disappearing in mid-February and it looks like it will be another early spring.

Happy New Year!

This year started with beautifully clear skies.

Let's hope that bodes well for the rest of the year.

Wow. Just wow.

One of the products we have been working on is a 'nested' Red Wing Digital Acrylic Print.

We have learned over the past two years is that a naked Acrylic Print seemed to be too contemporary for most Midwestern tastes. So we modified it by 'nesting' it in a framed box. It still has some striking high gloss effects, but the more traditional framing design makes the product more attractive to a broader audience.

Next month we are taking the Boxed Acrylic Prints on a West Coast road show to drum up some interest from the client base.

Wish us luck!

Happy spring!

We hope this year provides health and happiness for yourself, your family and your lovd ones.

2014 was tough. We lost many friends and we think about them every day.

2015 is a fresh year and we are pumped about what that means. The Rochester location is plowing forward and the local economy is growing stronger.

We are working on some new products and we are very busy.

This is the beginning of our 13th year in business and we feel we are just getting started.

Every year we take this photo because every year we like to be involved in the Flyway Film Festival.

This year the Festival will continue to grow and we are delighted to be a small part of it.

We knew this was going to be a challenging year. And the biggest challenge is getting everything done.

There are have been many late nights at both the Rochester and Red Wing locations. This won't change any time soon.

Thank you for your patience. It isn't the destination, it is the journey.

Valerie Becker was recognized as a Master Certified Picture Framer this month by the Professional Picture Framing Association.

This is a significant accomplishment in the picture framing industry and demonstrates a skill and knowledge set of picture framing at the highest professional standard.

Valerie was the first in the state of Minnesota to accomplish this accreditation and one of only 60 Master Certified Picture Framers in the world.

Congratulations Val!

You can read more about it at the press release.

Rochester Framing & Fine Art Printing is officially open for business. We are taking in new orders and we have already begun delivering of completed orders.

We are quietly sliding into opening the business. No inflatable gorillas and no balloons and hot dogs for the kids. We will figure something out later.

This is just a consequence of time. It took longer than planned to build out the new space and several projects of significance are in the shop and they have tight deadlines.

And then there was this little matter of qualifying and passing the Master Certified Picture Framer examination and becoming the first MCPF in Minnesota. That was a big deal for us and we will have an annoucement soon.

We first started working with Matt eight years ago when he was a senior in high school. He only needed mats cut because he was building his own frames.

But he wasn't just building his own frames. He was milling his own frame profiles and staining and waxing the wood. His attention to detail was remarkable and his skill as a carpenter was undeniable.

Matt has since graduated from college, gotten married and has two children. But he still maintains a very complete wood shop. As Matt puts it, "shop time is good time".

And when it came time to have custom cabinetry built for the new Rochester location, it was an easy decision.

Sorry for the very slow updates to this blog.

But judging by the complete lack of complaints, it probably doesn't matter.

We announced on April 1st that we are adding a second location in Rochester, Minnesota.

400 South Broadway, Rochester, MN 55904 to be exact.

507-280-4949.

This will be a custom build out situation and it will showcase some of the more interesting projects we have worked on and some of the projects that we are most proud of. It should be pretty cool.

This new business will be called Rochester Framing & Fine Art Printing.

Early June is the target open.

That is all.

Happy holidays!

Since the topic is big plans, it just seemed fitting to show an example of one of the smallest projects we have worked on.

2013 was a challenging year. There were several things that did not materialize as planned and there were several large projects that we were proud to participate in.

We have several exciting plans for 2014. It is a bit premature to announce anything yet, but the wheels are in motion already and we are very optimistic and excited for the new year.

We have been using a Gunnar computerized mat cutter since the shop opened in 2002. This equipment has easily paid for itself both in terms of productivity and quality. The Gunnar is a Swiss-made piece of equipment and it has never failed us.

But the dependency this has created is not a good business practice. If this equipment were to fail, we would have to resort to hand-cutting the mats. We've done this before and it works, but it is slow and manually cutting a mat is an easy thing to screw up.

That being said, a computerized mat cutter is an expensive piece of equipment. It doesn't pay to purchase cheap equipment if it is going to fail or become inaccurate.

We opted for a Valiani. The Valiani is a substantial piece of equipment. It is larger and more rugged than the Gunnar is and it is of Italian origin.

Italian engineering is much different than Swiss engineering. The Swiss like minimalist design and the Italians like over-engineered designs.

We intend to keep the Gunnar and use the Valiani for larger projects.

Two years ago we tried LED holiday lights and we were very disappointed. The white lights had an odd blue-ish hue and the lights really did not have very much 'throw'.

Last year we went back to traditional incandescent lamps and the building looked terrific. But, because the lamps are not energy efficient, we had to minimize the amount of time they were illuminated.

This year we went back to LED lights. The lights need to be replaced every year because the squirrels like to chew through the insulation. We opted for a longer icecicles and we are very pleased with the advances of LED technology.

Downtown Red Wing looks spectacular in the fall. The colors absolutely pop and the well preserved buildings look fantastic.

The Flyway Film Festival is still one of our favorite events each year. Each year it continues to improve and this year will be no exception.

We love to participate because we love films.

Acrylic Prints have unique optical properties because of the underlying physics of visible light traveling through the acrylic layer.



A property of visible light (or white light) is that the light waves are slightly bent as the light passes from one medium (air) to another medium (in the above example; water). This bending of the light is called light refraction.



Light refraction has two impacts on the observed image:



1) Because of the bent light, the observed object appears slightly magnified, which gives the image added clarity. Light refraction is the underlying principle of optical lens technology you would find in a camera or a microscope.



2) The bent light will also experience a slight shift in the visible light spectrum, which adds vibrancy to the observed colors (explained below the prism image).

A simplified example of what is happening with the Acrylic Print can be see above. 

Incident light (the ambient light all around us) is slightly bent as it enterers the acrylic layer. 

The altered and shortened light path continues to travel until the opaque barrier on the backside reflects the light back up and out the acrylic layer.

The light is bent once again and travels to the eye of the observer.

Because the light is traveling a miniscule shorter distance, the image has a miniscule amount of magnification.  This is why the pencils in the water appear slightly larger.

This slight magnification provides an enhanced clarity to the image, which is subconciously perceptible to the human eye. 

It essence, the acrylic layer is behaving like a lens.

This example also points out the importance of the opaque barrier. If light is allowed to 'leak' out through the back of the print, the clarity impact is lost because the light is not reflected back to the eye.

A profile view of the Acrylic Print points out how the construction of the Acrylic Print both traps light within the acrylic layer and reflects light back to the observer.

Another consequence of bending the light is a slight shift of the visible color spectrum.

Every time the light is bent, the ultraviolet (UV) portion of the light spectrum becomes slightly more dominant and the infrared (IR) portion of the light spectrum becomes less dominant.

IR light has a longer wavelength than UV light and UV light has more energy.  When white light is bent, the UV portion of the light spectrum is more impacted.

Human eyes are especially sensitive to the UV portion of the white light spectrum and colors under a UV-dominant spectrum appear to be especially vibrant.

This is exactly why diamonds have a sense of luster. The light is bent multiple times within the diamond and the the spectrum shift becomes even more exaggerated and pronounced each time it is bent.

The net result of the these two principles of light is an Acrylic Print image that has both exceptional clarity and luminance.

It is really striking to see firsthand.

Wow. It has rained nearly every day for the past two months.

We had a very heavy and wet snowstorm in early May and it has been raining almost every day in June.

But this is farm country and this is the growing season, so nobody is complaining.

We are very fortunate to have a steady source of dependable and reliable workers by virtue of the local vocational college.

Minnesota Sate College Southeast Technical has a unique guitar and mandolin building program. These students typically have an uncommon attention to detail and are always mechanically inclined.

We came to know Devin and his girlfriend Hailey this past year while Devin attended the guitar program. Devin is holding his final electric guitar project and Hailey is holding his mandolin project.

We hired Devin last year and he was a terrific employee. He finished his program and immediately landed a job in St. Paul in a guitar shop.

We are delighted to have gotten to know both of them and wish them good luck!

For the past six months we have been quietly, but diligently working on a new family of products that we call the Acrylic Print.

The idea was to have a premium family of products that would compliment the Panel Prints.

It took several iterations, but we are delighted to introduce the Acrylic Print. We are very excited about the sharp and vivid details this presentation package provides.

More details can be found at Red Wing Digital.

1) I will enjoy the buffet.
2) I will come back again. Thank you as well.
3) I will not smoke and be younger than the age of 16 as I dispense fuel.
4) I will floss twice a day, every day, the entire week before my next dental exam.

That's all I got.

=============

Actually, 2013 is ramping up to be a very ambitious year for several reasons.

Life is not simple, but it should be enjoyed. Creativity is a uniquely human delight that drives this enjoyment.

"Your Dog" by Yoshitomo Nara is a personal favorite. It is in one of the rotunda galleries of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

It completely captures how the world must look from a child's perspective. You cannot help but enjoy this and feel the wonderment of it all.

Happy new year!

As mentioned below, much of the year has been taken up with the generation of the Red Wing Creative Economy report.

Related, and even more of a time sink, has been the initiation of the Red Wing Innovation Incubator.

This is a physical space dedicated to help grow and mentor new businesses in the Red Wing Community.

This activity is being driven by Red Wing Downtown Main Street and our involvement is because of a firm belief that the stronger the local economy is, the stronger our business can become.

Visit the web site and see what the hub-bub is all about. Red Wing Innovation Incubator.

It has been busier here than it might appear.

Earlier this year, we became involved in a project to try and measure the local Creative Economy and contrast it to other communities. Armed with this information, the goal becomes to make defensible recommendations going forward.

This is important to our business for obvious reasons, but it is also important to the community because this is where the economy is growing very rapidly.

We couldn't (or even shouldn't) do a significant project like this alone. We partnered with the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, Red Wing Downtown Main Street, Inc., Anderson Center at Tower View, Red Wing Arts Association, ArtReach and the Sheldon Theatre of Performing Arts.

This is good company to keep and adds credibility to the final report.

We are proud of the final report and encourage you to download your own copy.

We have been very busy re-inventing here at the shop.

To begin with, we have been very focused on slowly unveiling Red Wing Digital. Red Wing Digital is a print-on-demand product that provides unique large-format presentation products, namely the Panel Print and the Acrylic Print. The Acrylic Print is slowly getting ready for production, but it has taken longer than hoped.

Secondly, we have a new business partner. Fine Art Prints on Demand is a United Kingdom company. This is a side of the business (printing and framing fulfillment) we have been quietly working and growing for a number of years. FAPoD is our third customer for this side of the business.

These two developments have driven our third initiative. We are moving our production to a larger facility. We have narrowed our options down and expect to be able to make some final decisions shortly.

It has almost been six months to the day that this blog has been updated. This is inexcusable and consequently here are the excuses;

1) It has been very, very busy at the shop. The crush began in August (the last blog posting) and has been unrelenting ever since. The simple solution would be to hire additional help to manage the workload and to some degree that was the solution. But as a business survivor of 2008 (remember Lehman Brothers?), you learn not to trust short term business trends. So you suck it up, put in long hours and satisfy each and every customer.

2) Contributing to this work crush has been the success of the new products at RedWingDigital.com. This is a new business model for us and it takes time to hammer out a smooth workflow. But if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. Look for new products soon.

3) It is supposed to be quiet in January so we closed the shop for ten days and took a long road trip to the most remote part of the United States that we could find. However, this January was the busiest January ever even with ten days removed from the calendar. It isn't fair to have a customer wait for my vacation, so it meant even longer days once we returned.

4) This stuff doesn't write itself, especially when you are tired and have convinced yourself you have writer's block.

That being said, I promise not to allow that kind of break in the blog pattern to ever occur again.

This business is only as good as the customers and we have the best customers.

Case in point; the busier we get, the less attention web administration seems to get. But it is too important to ignore for very long. This morning I was determined to bring the Video/News section of this web site current (go check it out). This involves the painful task of writing press releases, proofing them and then re-writing them. I know it isn't as bad as breaking rocks for a living, but it is still a job that I do not look forward to.

At some point you need to include testimonials to add some credibility to the releases. And this is when I am reminded how good my customers are.

Thank you Jeff Marcus. You have been a steadfast supporter for many years and we appreciate it. Now go support Jeff at his web site White Light Photography. This is good stuff.

The Flyway Film Festival is one of our favorite events each year. It is an uninhibited creative endeavor over three days in October. Each year it has grown in size and scale and this year promises to be especially exciting.

First, the Flyway Film folks received a generous grant from the Wisconsin Department of Tourism that will really boost marketing efforts. This extra money will be used to widen the circle of marketing.

Second, the festival graphic is noteworthy for the artist. Gaylord Shanilec created the original etching of the three pelicans that are used in the poster. Gaylord is unquestionably talented, pelicans are indigenous to this area and it is just an exceptional image of this region. Totally appropriate.

And finally, a very limited edition of signed fine-art are available for purchase, which will be used to help fund the festival. We printed the limited edition prints on a Hahnemuehle textured 100% cotton paper that should last for hundreds of years.

October 23-25. Can't wait.

The end of June signals the end of the first half of the year. Last year was a good year and so far this year is ahead of last year. The business mix has changed over the years and we have been fortunate to be well positioned to leverage the change.

Red Wing Digital has been a significant time and money investment up until this point. There are still a few issues that need to be worked out, but the product inventory is now in place and the details regarding product design have been finalized. The orders have been increasing at a nice and realistic rate. Packaging and shipping issues are being addressed now and we are always looking for more production space.

This is our 10th year of business and we have been tracking business patterns since the very beginning. Invariable the second half is quite a bit busier than the first half, for a number of reasons.

The bottom line is that we owe everything to our loyal customers. Thanks again.

It took longer than hoped and it cost more than it should, but Red Wing Digital was finally launched today.

Red Wing Digital is a targeted business that provides products for fine-art and passionate photographers. The initial product is the Panel Print, with more products to follow. What is unique about this web site is the point-and-click selection of the products and the print-on-demand nature of the interface.

The most exciting part of the web site will be the guest contributors. Guests will contribute inside tips for their specific photography niche, with the goal that the web site will become a portal for photographers who are always trying to advance their skills. So far, this will include:

Stacy Bengs (Stacy Bengs Photographer) discussing sports photography and photojournalism,
Barbara O'Brien (Barbara O'Brien Photography), a talented animal photographer,
Clare Polencheck (Off the Cuff Photography), an especially skilled portrait photographer.

It is a privilege to work with such talented and creative individuals and this will be a lot of fun.

The above Panel Print is 'Red Wing Boathouses' by Dr. Jack Alexander and is on display at Red Wing Fairview Hospital.

Visit the new site at RedWingDigital.com.

Back in July of this year, there was a blog posting that discussed the first half of the year and what the second half of the year looked like (1st Cutting...).

Now at the end of the year, it seems overwhelming to look backwards. That being said, the point of this entry will be all about the forward.

If there is one lesson learned in this business, it is to trust your gut. If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. And if it does feel right, it probably is. 2011 feels very right.

The new web site is close (and late) to being rolled out. Products are being refined and some new projects are already in the queu. It will be very busy and a lot of work.

But it is still a labor of love and that is what really matters.

Thank for your support. We are very grateful for our customers.

It is difficult to take a bad picture of a moving train. They are just that photogenic.

Trains are big and powerful. They kick up dust wherever they go and nothing better get in the way of a moving train.

Slow your shutter speed down, find a static element in the foreground and shoot as many exposure combinations as you can, as quickly as you can.

Once again we are delighted to be a red carpet sponsor of Flyway Film Festival. This event is in its third year and is really beginning to collect some traction. The quality of the movies this year is very impressive.

The Festival begins on Thursday, October 21 with a gala event in which the sponsors, directors, actors and organizers get together, nibble on snacks, drink some wine and have creative discussions. At the end of the evening there will be an awards ceremony.

The films begin on Friday, October 22 with the screening of "Baraboo", which sounds like a very interesting film about life and the hand we are dealt. Over the course of the weekend, 21 films will be screened.

Details are at www.FlywayFilmFestival.org. See you in Stockholm in two weeks!

This week marks the final chapter of the poverty awareness photojournalism exhibit entitled "In our own backyard". This exhibit has crisscrossed the United States for the past 18 months and next week the exhibit finishes in Washington DC at the annual Leadership Summit for Catholic Charities.

Since this is the final and highest profile stop of the tour, all of the large format images are being reprinted and remounted, which is close to 120 images.

It is a very moving set of images, that address all manners of poverty and everyday life. It is really hard not to stop and soak up the texture and realism of each image.

This has been a challenging and gratifying project. One of the best parts of this project has been working with Steve Liss. He is a natural-born educator and an amazing photojournalist who gets right into the thick of it. Please visit his web site at: SteveLiss.com.

July in Minnesota means the first hay cutting of the season. In a normal year, most farms will have two cuttings and then leave some winter ground cover for the critters. The first cutting will have the most yield, but it isn't until the second cutting that the break-even point is reached.

For a farmer, the first hay cutting is an opportunity to reflect on the business (year-to-date), and also project the business going forward for the rest of the year. Stretching this metaphor to a near-absurdist level, it isn't that much different in the art industry.

Business is up and the industry is cautiously optimistic. The nature of the business has changed and the types of projects have also changed. Anticipating what those changes will be and responding to those changes are some of the biggest challenges a small business owner will face.

We will continue to evolve, but we will also continue to provide the things we enjoy most about being in this business.

A new web based product is under development and should be available before the end of the year (the evolving thing). There are also discussions taking place regarding an original art exhibit in the November/December timeframe (the enjoyment thing).

And of course, thank you for your patronage. Art is good.

It was three years ago today that Charley Harper died.

Charley was a very unassuming artist from Ohio. He began his career as a book illustrator and over time migrated to a wildlife artist. But not the typical wildlife artist. Charley used his graphic art skills, his penchant for precision and his sense of humor to portray the natural world like no other artist ever has.

This piece is called "Isle Royale" and incorporates exactly what a birch tree forest feels like. You might think you are alone, but there are probably dozens of different eyes watching you at any given moment.

Goodbye Charley. You are missed.

This note is being added after the fact. May was a nearly overwhelming month between work, a mini-vacation, graduations and non-profit activity. In lieu of posting anything of substance, here is a photo that was taken in May.

Grand Marias, MN on May 24, 2010. The fog was very thick and the air was very gray. Probably not a good idea to stand in the middle of the road, but it was awesome.

It has been a full year since we became involved in the Catholic Charities American Poverty photojournalism project. It has been a rewarding and challenging year and now a certain rhythm takes place as the exhibit crisscrosses the United States. This coming week the exhibit presents itself in Nashville, Tennessee. The map above demonstrates where the exhibit has traveled (in red) and where it is yet to travel (in blue). Additional cites might still be added and no final confirmation yet if the final exhibit will take place at the White House.

Steve Liss is the Project Director and will travel to each city immediately prior to the exhibit reception and artfully and tastefully documents the slices of poverty unique to each community. Our job becomes image preparation (printing, mounting and packaging) all of the images for each exhibit and delivering them directly to the exhibit venue. Usually there isn't a single day to spare and thankfully UPS has delivered each and every package on time and in perfect condition. Ideally there would be a larger buffer of time for production, but then, what would be the challenge in that?

It is a challenge and from every challenge you hope you learn and improve from the experience. The official web site is worth a visit. It is very well done.

Over the years and after working with countless artists, it is easy to forget what an artist really goes through when they exhibit their art. They open themselves up for critical review and there is significant exposure on the part of the artist. They might be appear to be nonchalant or even over-confident about exhibiting, but inside their stomach acids are working overtime. For me, it was time to put up or shut up.

The 'Foot in the Door' exhibit is different in this regard. It is completely democratic, because if it fits in the box, it exhibits. Consequently, it becomes much less about the art and more about just being able to exhibit and have fun. I submitted a photograph I took ten years ago. it is entitled "Midnight on Mason Street". It was taken in San Francisco and the image exposure was on the neon leg. This severely underexposed the rest of the image and you are left with these two illuminated signs on opposite sides of the street. It is a gimmick photo, but I am partial to gimmicks. I was raised on comic books and my favorite part was always the Johnson-Smith page on the inside back cover (x-ray glasses and such). The clearinghouse of gimmicks.

My favorite image from the exhibit has to be the seed art tribute to wrestler Baron von Raschke. Classic.

Just to refresh...a customer had rescued this original Marc Chagall linoleum lithograph from slowly being destroyed by the mounting and the framing (please see: "How to commit art murder", or, "I ruined a masterpiece, but saved on the framing"...). The mats were leeching acid into the art paper, the non-UV glass was allowing the sun to fade the art and the mdf frame was slowly dissolving the art with formaldehyde out-gassing.

The rescued piece will be picked up by the customer today and some type of ceremony will take place to present the art back to the public library. I thought I would share the design details of this project:

It is a double rag mat design (100% acid free) with a filet. The bottom mat is a 1" reveal (this is a museum standard for a design with a filet) and the top mat is a 3.25" reveal. The art paper had some waviness and it is loosely held in place with archival corners on the backside. This allows the art to breathe and respond to the ambient temperature. The outside moulding is called an Amante design and is a classic moulding style. The glazing is a museum quality UV glass, which is almost imperceptible. It was decided not to conceal the staining from the previous mats and try to work the flawed feature into the overall design.

It looks very classy and is totally reversible for future framers in the event of a re-design.

Respect the art. Protect, preserve and present the art.

I love the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I know that is not a profound observation for anybody who has ever visited the MIA, because anybody who has ever visited it, also falls in love with it. It is a friendly and welcoming arts atmosphere (which isn't as common as you would hope), the art is terrific and it is free. What's not to love?

Be that as it may, the 'Foot in the Door 4' is shaping up nicely. I had the chance to visit a second time before the public unveiling. The total submissions were beyond all estimates and the lines were long for nearly the entire four day submission period. The final number is a closely guarded secret until the public reception, but sources close to the count have provided a range of between 4,700 and 5,000 entries (compared to 1,700 submissions ten years ago, the last time this exhibit took place). Three large gallery rooms will be filled and the raw expression of creativity is almost overwhelming.

I managed to find my piece and two of the three pieces I had submitted on behalf of friends and offspring. It looked as if about half the art was up and I did hear that all of the art had been photographed for the online gallery.

This job provides for a couple of perks, one of which is being involved in interesting art exhibit projects from a 'behind the scenes' perspective. In other words, friends in the art world ask you to volunteer to help them with an event. Yesterday was a perfect example.

Every 10 years (this being the fourth time), The Minneapolis Institute of Arts hosts an event called the "Foot in the Door" exhibit. Essentially, any Minnesota resident, at no expense to themselves, can submit one original piece of art they have created to be exhibited at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The art cannot be larger than 12"x12" for wall art or larger than 12"x12"x12" for three dimensional art. It is a terrific opportunity to exhibit in one of the most prestigious museums in the world for four months.

Art check-in takes place over four days. As a volunteer for the art check-in, my responsibilities were 1) insure the art did not violate the size rule, 2) collect the paperwork for each piece, 3) assign a wall location, 4) provide a receipt for the art and then 5) deliver the art to the staging area. In other words, the first point of contact for the artists. The art itself was impressive and the range was amazing. Each piece was cradled by the artists as if it were a newborn.

After the art is received, it is staged in an exhibit room and waits to be registered in the computer and photographed for the on-line catalogue. Over 1,000 artists checked in art the first day and over 3,000 submissions are expected. At the peak crowd size, the wait was 2.5 hours, but everybody was extremely patient and in a very good mood.

One of the other perks in volunteering is checking in your own art (and your friend's art) without the complication of waiting in line. Those will be posted later.

Today my back is killing me (marble floors) and I am exhausted. It cost me a day's pay to be there and the tuna sandwich was stale when I finally had a chance to eat. But I made many new friends and saw many familiar friends and would do it again in a New York minute. I can't wait for the exhibit reception which is on February 18, 2010.

January is usually a quiet month in the art and framing industry. There might be a small bump in business because of some Christmas follow-up framing, but that trickles away pretty quickly.

This January was an exception. Several projects came in the door because of fiscal calendar years that started January 1st. Another major Catholic Charities project was delivered, this time for a Centennial Leadership Summit in San Jose, CA. This was the largest venue so far (this being the 4th) and it will move across the United States every month until September, where hopefully it will exhibit at the White House. Go to www.AmericanPoverty.org to get the most current updates. I love working on this project because it leverages the power of photography and it is an absolute adrenaline rush in meeting the tight deadlines. In this business, this is known as a 'good gig'.

We also had our first order from Turkmenistan. To be more precise; Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. This is a former Soviet Union republic that declared independence in 1991. It was a nice sized order of 10 large format mounted images and one extremely large canvas print. There is a sense of satisfaction in knowing your handiwork is on the job in some remote part of the world.

On an unrelated note; Downtown Mainstreet agreed to co-sponsor a photography competition with Red Wing Framing & Fine Art Printing. It is always fun to have too much to do.

And finally, if nothing else I learned a long time ago to surround yourself with very smart people. Or at least stand close to them.

I am uber-excited about a new project that some very smart people I have come to know are advising me on. This is on a six-month timetable, so the details will roll out over time.

This is very tragic, but thank God a good samaritan rescued the art.

This original Marc Chagall lithograph had been donated to the local library. Many years ago, somebody made the decision to frame this irreplaceable art with the cheapest framing solution available. This included a cheap mdf frame with standard glass and paper mats. To further insult the art, the art was glued to the back of the mat.

So, let's summarize how this art was nearly ruined;

1) The frame was made from a cheap mdf material which out-gasses formaldehyde (an effective way to dissolve art),
2) The glass provided no UV radiation protection from the sun so fading is inevitable,
3) The mat was a cheap paper mat with acids that leeched into the art and foxing (bacteria) is growing on the paper,
4) The glue. Sigh, don't even get me started about the glue.

A biological, chemical and radioactive attack on the art. A true WMD from an art standpoint.

Friends don't let friends frame drunk.

Be that as it may, it is an amazing piece of creativity. Chagall was a Jewish Russian-French artist who lived from 1887 until 1985. He was a giant in the art world and an early innovator of Modernism. It really is inspiring to examine.

We are working on a new and completely archival frame design. I will post it when the project is finished.

Admittedly it might seem odd to write a haiku to a vehicle, but I feel I owe it at least that, especially since I am about 2,000 miles behind my scheduled oil change.

The 2006 Honda Element has been a beast for me (in a good way). It is the perfect art transport vehicle. Once the rear seats are removed, there is almost 73 cubic feet of very rectangular space, which is perfect for hauling art upright. It is very dependable and practical. On the downside, it is a bit cold blooded and the passenger ride is somewhat upright.

So, in lieu of an oil change (maybe next week) and in the tradition of 5-7-5 haiku rhythm:

Ode to Element
A square can roll round
Even in Winter

Happy new year!

Introducing Frank the Framer. Frank is an interesting persona. To begin with, he is very friendly and is always smiling with a warm wink. He cares about his appearance, judging by the neatly tied bow tie and perfectly parted hair and he can be both abstract and exact at the same time and is very colorful.

Over time Frank's purpose will become clear, but today seemed like a good opportunity to introduce him.

The Newseum is an interactive museum of news and journalism in Washington D.C. The mission of The Newseum (from their web site) is to "educate the public about the value of a free press in a free society and tells the stories of the world's important events in unique and engaging ways". In other words, it is all about the First Amendment. It is located just off Pennsylvania Avenue near The U.S. Capital. This is a high profile location in a high profile city.

As part of our ongoing relationship with the AmericanPoverty.org photojournalism exhibit, we produced several very large (48”x72”) mounted prints for a reception at the Newseum later this week. The images needed to be large because the reception hall is large and visual impact is important. This is an exhibit designed to create momentum for the AmericanPoverty.org campaign going forward.

These images have this beautiful platinum print finish. Platinum prints (sometimes called platinotypes) is one of the oldest photographic processing techniques and provides the greatest tonal range of any printing method using wet chemistry development. But because this is the digital age, platinum prints are ‘replicated’ in the computer, yet they do a terrific job of re-creating the original look.

2010 will see an acceleration of activity with Catholic Charities and AmericanPoverty.org.

And we can hardly wait.

Details have been finalized for our next original art exhibit. "Hard Boiled Art" presents original pulp magazine cover art from the 1930's to the 1960's. The exhibit will run from November 5th to December 6th, 2009 with a reception that is still to be determined.

This is a unique art form. Pulp magazine covers were very sensational and were considered the most important aspect in the sales of any particular pulp series. The socially acceptable boundaries were often tested and the topics reflected the then current popular culture.

The covers were typically machismo in nature with elements of evil or danger and at least one hero. The 1930's had strong detective and science-fiction followings and the 1960's were all about the 'Red Scare' of the communists.

Regardless of the threat, the damsels in distress typically had a torn blouse. :)

Come and enjoy the exhibit. This is a rare opportunity to see the original art that was used to create the published covers. It is fun and an absolute snapshot of an industry that hardly exists any longer.

This morning the Minneapolis Star-Tribune business columnist Dick Youngblood wrote a very favorable column about our business here in Red Wing. It was a lot of fun getting to know Dick over several conversations and meetings and I really didn't know what to expect. Needless to say, I was very happy and a bit embarrassed by the attention.

But it was the sub-headline on the second page of the hard-copy article that really made me smile. For many years I thought I was a "washed-up sales rep" when in fact I was only a "burned-out sales rep". Imagine my relief.

You gotta love it. :)

The article can be found here.

Thanks for the article Dick and thanks for the support Dave and Dean.

This weekend is the much anticipated 2nd annual Flyway Film Festival. The event begins on Thursday night with a meet-and-greet reception and the opening night of movies begins on Friday night with "Storm", followed by "Ink". In many cases both actors and the directors of the films will be at the film festival to answer questions and over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday over 30 independent films will be shown.

Saturday will be a bit different with a one-day, genre-specific event of classic and cutting-edge independent zombie films. And everybody loves a good movie about the undead :)

We are proud to be a red carpet sponsor of this ambitious art endeavor and to have provided the large format graphics to promote this event.

Details are at www.FlywayFilmFestival.org. See you in Stockholm this weekend!

Last week Catholic Charities USA kicked off their annual conference in Portland, Oregon with the large format photojournalism exhibit produced by the In Our Own Backyard photojournalism team. This exhibit was entitled AmericanPoverty.org and is meant to raise the awareness of people living in poverty in the United States. Catholic Charities has declared the goal to reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent by the year 2020. This is a very aggressive goal, but Catholic Charities understands that the only way to meet an aggressive goal is to set the bar very high.

In Our Own Backyard is a team of skilled and seasoned photojournalists who have witnessed first-hand the struggles of extreme poverty in the United States. This team includes, in part, Steve Liss, Jon Lowenstein, Brenda Ann Kenneally and Eli Reed. These are talented photojournalists, with strong personalities and stronger communication skills. They have crisscrossed the United States in capturing exactly what it means to be poor.

It has been a delight to be involved in this project. The deadlines were tight and God bless overnight delivery. There are a minimum of six more cities that will be hosting this exhibit over the next year, so we look forward to future involvement. Learn more about this large format photojournalism project at AmericanPoverty.org.

Think of the picnic table under the canopy tent in the parking lot as Social Networking 1.0. It is the most fundamental device for creating community networks.

World problems have been solved and judgment passed on every local politician at this very table.

Just last month under this tent Leah Nesbitt was declared the 2009 Downtown Red Wing Macaroni and Cheese Smackdown Champion (she used all Wisconsin natural ingredients).

At night the little Japanese lanterns are lit up and the table becomes more of a 'night spot' where topics are dissected, examined and reassembled, many times over fermented nectar and usually in hushed voices. In the mornings, it is a destination for coffee and a newspaper.

Warren Buffet would appreciate how effective this $70 picnic table is as a marketing tool.

We are super excited.

This year Red Wing Framing & Fine Art Printing will be a 'Red Carpet Sponsor' of the 2nd annual Flyway Film Festival in Pepin, Wisconsin from October 22 to 25, 2009. The primary venue will be the Lake Pepin Art & Design Center. Besides providing support in part for the entire event, we will be the presenting sponsor for the opening night events on Friday night, October 23rd at 7 pm.

This is a significant investment for our modest operation, but it makes sense for several reasons;

1) We like what this group is trying to accomplish and their ambitious way of going about it.
2) We love films, which should be apparent by past entries regarding the Chief Theater in Red Wing.
3) We feel it is very important to contribute to the community and we like art venues that try to be all-inclusive.

More about this as the calendar gets closer to the the film festival.

Tomorrow (August 12) the 1st annual Downtown Red Wing Mac and Cheese Smackdown takes place. We are delighted to host and look for forward to a most delicious event. Every small business in Downtown Red Wing is invited to participate.

You might be asking yourself, "What does a mac and cheese smackdown have to do with small businesses?"

Nothing and everything is the answer.

Nothing, because it has nothing to do with business, per se. And everything, because every small business feels the economic challenge these days and providing a small amount of escapism has real value.

There is always room and time to have fun. And nothing says fun like a mac and cheese smackdown.

A Certified Picture Framer (CPF) is a designation administerd by the Professional Picture Framing Association (PPFA). The PPFA adminsters the five hour CPF exam twice a year and tests in the areas of: (1) art and framing preservation, (2) framing knowledge, (3) the mechanics of framing, (4) the mathematics of framing and (5) art and image mounting.

To insure that any framer who has a CPF stays current in the professional framing field, a CPF must retake the exam and re-certifiy as a CPF every five years.

This is a very arduous and rigorous process, which is why very few framers bother becoming CPF's. Red Wing Framing Gallery is one of only five CPF's actively working in Minnesota.

We are very proud of the professionalism in which we address our business and we take our industry very seriously.

This should be important to any client if their art is important to them.

Pulp cover art has a unique place in art history. It has terrific nostalgia appeal for anybody who enjoyed The Hardy Boys, comic books or even a peek at The Old Man's collection of True Detective or Stag magazines. It had the specific purposes to grab your attention on the newstand in a crowded field of competitor's and to evoke an emotion, usually with a provocative image of impending peril or suggestive sensuality. Common elements usually include a couple of 'toughs', a large breasted woman and a 'citizen' or a 'hero'. The above example (original on the left, Rudolph Zirn, 1939) has all three.

We are excited and delighted to announce a gallery exhibit of original pulp cover art. The show will open in October (date tbd) and will include both the original art and the subsequent ephemera the originals were used to produce. The colors are extremely vivid and the techniques used by the artists to project a response is fascinating.

This is the third year in a row that we have had the pleasure of working with Grapefruit Moon Gallery in presenting their collection of illustration art. In 2007 we presented original pin-up art (here and here) and in 2008 we presented original Cream of Wheat advertising art. Pulp magazine art is yet another sub-genre of illustration art that we are proud to present.

The 'pulps' were fiction magazines that were very popular from about 1930 to 1960. The term 'pulp' comes from the cheap paper typically used in production (cheap paper has a lot of wood pulp). The magazines became noteworthy for their provocative covers. The covers became so important that in many cases the covers were designed first and the text was designed around the covers. Pulp magazines were also a major employer of short story authors and the subsequent demise of the pulp industry created a vacuum for these authors that has never been filled.

Oil or gouche paintings are used to create the original cover art. The colors are intentionally vivid to compensate for the primitive printing technology at the time. Several pulp cover artists (i.e., Frank Paul and Margaret Brundage) became accomplished artists in this genre and attracted a following. Pulp art has recently experienced a renaissance in popularity and is widely sought by collectors.

More details as they evolve but I thought this teaser would have value.

Red Wing is a company town and the name of that company is the Red Wing Shoe Company.

Red Wing Shoe (or 'The Shoe' to the locals) has been manufacturing shoes and boots in Red Wing for over 100 years. The company manufactures and sells purpose-built footwear. Some of their target markets include oil and gas, construction, iron workers, agriculture, hunting and hiking. Their largest manufacturing plant is in Red Wing, Minnesota. Almost all other footwear today is manufactured and imported from low cost countries, so a work boot made in the USA is unique.

The Shoe is paternal about the City of Red Wing. When The Shoe announced last year that they were going to purchase a blighted downtown building and create a flagship shoe store and museum, it was a major announcement, especially locally.

This past week The Shoe moved their World's Largest Boot (20x a normal boot) from a warehouse to the new store. It was an exciting event that garnered a lot of attention. As exciting as that was, the energy level is even higher inside the store as employees scramble to meet an aggressive deadline in opening the new store.

Red Wing Shoe understands the value of visuals and is an image-oriented company. We are proud to have provided the graphics and framing for this exciting new venue. The store opens August 3rd and the museum later this month.

Recently this Norman Rockwell concept sketch was in the shop to be re-framed. Rockwell would rough sketch a proposed painting, present it to a potential client and solicit feedback. Hopefully he would be awarded the project, finish the piece, get paid and then move unto the next project.

Does the fact that an artist is directed what to paint diminish the art itself? Not at all. Artists who can support themselves strictly on their own creative output are rare. And it is a minor step from an artist taking on a commissioned project to a full-time commercial illustrator. The net result might not be an artist's first choice, but finding opportunity to be creative within the boundaries of a client's expectations requires both a unique skill set and maturity as an artist.

This is the segue into an upcoming exhibit that was just finalized this week. The working title (and it will change soon) is "Tough Guys and Tough Cookies" and will be a presentation of original art used for pulp magazine covers. This art typically presents scenes of over-the-top drama, usually with somebody in peril. It is a sub-genre illustration art that required efficiency and productivity on the part of the artists. The pay checks were smaller than most of their colleagues, but it paid the bills and allowed artists to create art for a living.

This is the third year in a row we have had the pleasure of working with Grapefruit Moon Gallery. The first two shows (original pin-up art and original Cream of Wheat art) were very successful. This will be a bit different, but consistent with the idea of presenting 20th century illustration art and various subsets. More details next week.

People who invent snappy metaphors to describe business principles might say something like; a small business today is like a great white shark, always on the move, never resting, never sleeping. That sounds way too contrived, so it would be best to simply say that a business must constantly ask itself what it does for a living, and is it where it wants to be in doing that thing it does.

The name change is more a matter of acknowledging how this business has evolved. We frame and we print and we do anything in between. Also it was time to freshen up the logo; shine our shoes, so to speak. This was harder than you might think because the fonts used are fabricated for our needs. It isn't an off-the-shelf font, but it does have a basis in the history of this business. But it is too difficult to explain without hand gestures.

The new web site is another matter. The changes appear to be mostly cosmetic, but under the hood it is an entirely different animal. It would take a rocket scientist to explain the differences and unfortunately, one isn't immediately availible.

With any new web site, it is very easy to be driven crazy trying to chase down every image resizing requirement or some dropped html code. This is called 'overhead' and produces no income. Overhead bad. Income good.

But, you do what you have to do, when you have to do it.

Recently a letter to the editor of the local newspaper made the argument for funding art at the elementary school level. Apparently there has been discussion about reducing the amount of art received in elementary schools because of budget pressures. The typical solution has been to increase the tax levy and ask the tax payers to pay more.

A more sustainable approach is to simply spend local. Every dollar spent locally in a community can have up to three times the multiplier tax return to the community versus buying from an out-of-state big box retailer, all without raising taxes a single cent. Let's use two simple examples:

Example 1) A citizen spends a dollar at a local big-box retailer. Taxes are exchanged for that dollar spent and the dollar is promptly deposited in an out-of-state bank account somewhere in Four Corners, Arkansas. That dollar is retired as far as the local economy is concerned.

Example 2) A citizen spends a dollar at their local custom frame shop. Again, taxes are exchanged but this time the local frame shop owner races to their local bank to cover the check they wrote to the local plumber to have their hot water heater repaired. The plumber in turn cashes that check to buy a silk suit from Josephsons Clothing Store. Tom from Josephsons then uses that money to buy himself a beer next door at The Staghead Restaurant to celebrate having finally sold that XXXL silk suit.

The same dollar has contributed to the local economy three separate times, each time participating in the overall tax exchange and actively contributes to the cash flow of four different local employers.

Red Wing Downtown Main Street is focused on exactly these types of issues. The Eat-Shop-Play-Local tag-line could include many other action verbs (Buy. Stay. Invest.), but the point is to think about where your money goes after you spend it.

Visit the DTMS web site or the DTMS Facebook page and consider joining this non-profit organization.

A little over a month ago, a prototype of the 2009-2010 traveling exhibit of the 'In Our Own Backyard; U.S. Poverty in the 21st Century' was unveiled at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota. This was an opportunity to weigh the reaction and measure the effectiveness of the message. Think of this as a preseason event before the annual Catholic Charities USA convention in Portland in September, 2009.

Things have not slowed down since then. Details have been fine-tuned and the new web site can be found here. The tentative schedule for the traveling exhibit is:

September 24-29: Portland, Oregon
October 29, 2009: Sacramento, CA
January 21, 2010: San Antonio, TX
February 24, 2010: Atlanta, GA
March 8, 2010: Albany, NY
March 25, 2010: Nashville, TN
April 22, 2010: Cleveland OH
April 29, 2010: Chicago, IL

Track the updates by following it on Facebook:

Red Wing Framing Gallery scientists have been quietly and diligently working very hard since the beginning of 2009 on a number of new products. With the advent of 'digital everywhere' technologies, customers have been insisting on using their own images to decorate their environments in a fashion that mirror both their lifestyle and taste. Our challenge is to meet this expectation with innovative and unique products.

Two products are nearing introduction. The first product is a 'Gallery Panel' and is targeted to the contemporary customer who wants a unique and fresh way to present. The Gallery Panel is elegant with old-school details, but also has a very bold and progressive presentation. Very ebony and ivory (?).

The second product is a bit further behind in introduction. It is code-named the 'Image Sandwich' or I-S for short. The I-S will be a transmissive image that will allow light from behind and lay flat on a wall. The early prototypes are promising, but there may be some practical size limitations that need to be determined. I-S Version 2.0 will also be a PDA. :)

The European marketplace tends to be more aggressive in pushing image technology. The irony is that some of the best ideas come from organizations in Europe that have been in the image business since the middle ages. We are not above learning from our European brethren, but it is very important to be both unique and creative.

Product announcements as they warrant and teasers are always free and unsolicited.

And please disregard any misinformation.

Introducing the Red Wing Framing Gallery Panel Print.

It's a Panel! It's a Print!

It's a Panel Print!

It begins with any digital photo and ends with a full-print bleed, UV-protected, 1/4" thick hardboard panel print that is pool-table flat and rugged!

The Panel Print has a linen laminate finish and a 1" reverse frame mount. The mount lays flat on the wall and the print is an elevated surface that creates a modern 'drop-shadow' effect on the wall.

It can be printed at any size or aspect ratio (great for panorama photographs) and it has been especially popular with photographers who appreciate this very contemporary look. It also works great for commercial projects that are restricted from using glass or need to cover large wall surfaces, yet still need to project elegance and creativity.

Call the shop today at 1-651-385-0500 and create your own art from your own images!

Now, back to the regularly scheduled programming.

1) T-2 weeks: Once the project is defined, the supply chain of raw materials begins to fill up. This exhibit required two cases of 4'x8'x1/2" black Gatorboard.
2) T-1 week: Each image was printed on a premium luster photo paper (a wide color gamut, scratch resistant, but susceptible to fingerprints), vacuum mounted to the Gatorboard and then trimmed to size and packaged. 50 images were printed and mounted for this exhibit.

3) T-24 hours: The finished materials were delivered the day before the exhibit opening. The exhibit panels were problematic for a few reasons, but the image layout was deemed the most critical.
4) T-12 hours: The image title blocks completed the story-lines. I was delighted to see that Carlos Gonzales from the Minneapolis Star Tribune was participating. I came to know Carlos from the Max Becherer exhibit.
5) T- 4 hours: No exhibit is complete without a politician. In this case it was the Honorable Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul.
6) T- 0 hours: This exhibit generated a lot of discussion. A 'first person, photojournalistic' style was used.

7) T+x: From St. Paul, the exhibit moves to Portland, Oregon and then begins a nine city nationwide tour, with the goal of ending at the White House in 2010.

Math, art and terrorists in a single blog entry. Now that is efficient blogging.

Steve Liss is an accomplished photojournalist, as evidenced by having 43 Time Magazine cover photos to his credit.

But it isn't this professional success that Liss takes the most pride in. Steve Liss is a humanitarian who uses photo essays to communicate tough topics. His subjects have ranged from poverty in the Mississippi Delta, to runaway youth living on the streets of Hollywood, to a study of the Nuns of Mankato and Alzheimer's disease. He has been the recipient of the Soros Justice Media Fellowship for his work on juvenile justice and the Alicia Patterson Fellowship for his work on domestic poverty.

We are delighted and excited to be asked to participate in his latest project entitled; In Our Own Backyard: U.S. Poverty in the 21st Century (web site). This is a unique poverty awareness project being undertaken by 15+ preeminent American photojournalists. The project goal is to use the visual power of large-format documentary photography to elevate the discussion of making the fight against poverty a national priority.

This project is in partnership with Catholic Charities and their campaign to cut poverty in half by 2020. Nine major photographic and multi-media exhibits, each with 50 emotionally-moving large format photographs will tour throughout the United States begining in the fall of 2009.

This project will be kicked off at a leadership summit on April 20, 2009 at the College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN. Registration is here and an invitation postcard is here.

Poverty has many faces and it is impossible to ignore when seen up close and personal. It is projects like this that make work seem less like work and more like purpose.

By going backwards through telephone directories (this is known as a 'Jim Rockford') and speaking with Barb Tittle, it was possible to stitch together a more complete history of this building.

This building has a very significant photography (and real estate) lineage.

312 West Avenue chronology:

1894 - 1902 Lidberg Studio (original location)
1902 - 1920 Lidberg Studio (new location)
1920 - 1936 E. H. Lidberg Real Estate
1937 - 1947 Davison Studio
1948 - 1949 Wood's Studio
1950 - 1952 Hodge Studio
1953 - 1979 Chalet Studio
1980 - 2004 InComm Realty and Maas Realty (later Coldwell-Banker)
2005 - 2007 Gary-Donald Arts, a private art dealer
2008 - Present Red Wing Portrait Studio (and Red Wing Framing Gallery)

For 73 years, out of a total 115 years, this building has been home to 6 different photography studios. For 40 years out of this same 115 years, this building has been home to at least 3 (if not 4) real estate companies.

Draw your own conclusions.

1894 - Andrew Lidberg, an immigrant from Jarpen, Sweden builds and opens The Lidberg Studio at 443 W. 3rd Street, Downtown Red Wing, Minnesota (the corner of W. 3rd Street and East Avenue), which is immediately next door to Charlie Wah's Chinese Laundry. The Daily Republican on April 9th, 1894 writes, "Mr. Lidberg opened his gallery today, and it is a fine one. He will employ only competent workers and work at the lowest living prices."

1899 - Upon graduating from Red Wing High School, Andrew 's son Edward joins the studio full time. The Lidberg's begin producing the first series of colored souvenir post cards of Red Wing and the surrounding area. The photos were exposed on glass plates and developed at the studio. Negatives were then produced and sent to Germany to be lithographed into color post cards. These postcards are now collector items with a passionate following.

1902 - Local businessman T.B. Sheldon donates money to the City of Red Wing to build the country's first city-owned theater. To make room for the Sheldon Theatre, The Lidberg Studio is moved across the park mall to 312 West Avenue where the building is located today. A glass wall is oriented to the east to provide natural light illumination for portraiture photography.

1910? - Andrew Lidberg retires. Frank Booth, a graduate of Effingham School of Photography in Illinois, joins the studio.

1915 - Because of the war in Europe, it becomes increasingly difficult do receive color lithographs from Germany. Senator Knute Nelson has to intervene to get a production run of postcards released. Production is moved to Chicago (Acmegraph Company) and Milwaukee (E.C. Kropp Company).

1915 - Edward Lidberg begins his real estate career and the photography business begins to wind down. By 1920 the building is a full-time real estate office.

1920 - 1953 Very few building details. The best guess at this point is that from approximately 1920 to 1936 it was a real estate office and from about 1937 until 1953 it was various photography studios.

1953 - The Chalet Studio opens. This portrait studio is owned and operated by Ms. Louella Champs.

1972 - Edward Lidberg dies.

1978 - The Chalet Studio closes. The building is in very rough shape with the roof in danger of collapsing.

1979 - The building is repaired and restored by Dick Tittle. It becomes home to InComm Realty and Maas Realty

2008 - The building becomes home to Red Wing Framing Gallery and Red Wing Portrait Studio.

What goes around, comes around. Even if it takes 114 years.

Clare Baker called last November for an interview for The Big Picture magazine, which is a trade journal for the wide-format printing industry. The gist of the article is about printers who have carved out a niche business of providing wide-format, fine-art printing. Wide-format printing is anything larger than 44" and fine-art printing is usually defined as low-volume, high-mix printing with tight duplication standards.

Over a period of weeks, Clare and I would occasionally talk, but I lost track of the publication date. I was pleasantly surprised to receive the article in my mailbox this week. Clare did her homework and did a terrific job of detailing the priorities in wide-format fine-art printing:

1) Invest in capture, calibration and proofing technologies.
2) Push the envelope in new applications and learn from the failures.

An electronic version is right here.

The Hometime episode we were involved with last year is being re-broadcast over the next several weeks, beginning this past Saturday (01-24-09). Locally it will be shown on Saturday. February 14, 2009 at 5:30 pm (TPT, channel 2).

What a terrific opportunity this has been for us and I am thankful for being so fortunate. We have met many people and we had a blast being involved.

One of the more interesting aspects for me was the challenge from an operational standpoint. Extremely tight (and rigid) deadlines and having to essentially close the shop for two days to conduct filming. If I remember right, it was six, 18-hour days in a row. There was a flub or two (or three) along the way, but nothing that couldn't be fixed (or reprinted).

The web traffic has been significantly heavier this year. I think it is because Hometime has a much better schedule this year on PBS (they typically block it right before "This Old House") and the search engines have had a full year to digest and sort relevant inquiries, consequently the search listings are more favorable.

For those so inclined to see the episode, here is the segment:

A contrast in projects.

Beauty:

The first project is for the new Norton's Downtown and Lucky Cat Lounge. This restaurant-lounge-fine wine store has some very large and high walls and it needed a tasteful image that befits the atmosphere of this white linen restaurant.

The image used is The Flaming June and was selected for its gracefulness, color and image impact. It is one of the first things you see when you enter the restaurant from the parking lot and walk towards the hostess station.

The final image size is 8' x 8' and it is printed on a satin fabric with an unfinished and unweighed bottom edge. Because of the 'hand' and drape-ability of the fabric used, the entire image has a beautiful waft to it as it moves with the air circulation, almost as if it were breathing.

Beast:

Right next door to Norton's restaurant, the new Red Wing Shoe Company store is being built. This store will be a showcase for The Shoe, which has their world headquarters directly across the street. Red Wing Shoes are simply the best made boots and shoes in the world. I wear my Model 414 boots for nine months out the year and I personally vouch for the high quality and ruggedness of their products.

This project is labeled the beast because of the conditions that these images have to tolerate...beastly. The weather was -15 F with snow and high winds when they were installed. The construction wall is literally 6 inches from Highway 61 and the images have to tolerate heavy truck traffic, rocks, dirt, grime and salt. And, of course the weather extremes.

Each image (there are two) is 6' x 15'. It is a reprint of the architectural concept drawing, with an opening date and The Shoe logo. A heavy-duty scrim material was deployed and it was further re-enforced with the thickest laminate available. The edges were treated with a super glue-like adhesive and 1/2" weather resistant, re-inforced nickel grommets were used every 2.5 feet.

Too much fun.

This is on a load-bearing post in the basement of the frame shop.

W.H., July 17, 1919, Age 14.

Ode to W.H.

This week we decided to host our first major exhibit at our new location. It is an exhibit of original art from the Cream of Wheat advertising campaign from the period of 1913-1925. It begins on October 10, 2008, which doesn't leave much runway for a show of this magnitude, but it was a fairly spontaneous decision on the part of all the players involved.

The worst thing an art gallery can do is be boring, and this exhibit is anything but.

This exhibit is fascinating on many levels. To begin with, the art is amazing. The campaign director was very insistent on using the best available illustration artists and the art reflects that. The imagery is very wholesome and comforting and humor is a common element in many of the illustrations.

The exhibit also presents and discusses the use of racial stereotypes in the media. Times change and so do acceptable standards. The Cream of Wheat campaign usually used an African-American chef as a welcoming and reassuring icon. Was this naive, demeaning or enlightened on the part of Cream of Wheat?

And finally, Cream of Wheat went from a minor grain mill in North Dakota to a major worldwide cereal company in ten years because of their effective use of advertising and image branding. This alone is worthy of a Harvard business case study.

Cream of Wheat was located in Northeast Minneapolis from 1897 to 2002. The company has changed hands several times and is no longer independent. These paintings were in storage in the archives of the headquarters until the building was converted to condominiums in 2005. This might be the last opportunity to see a body of work this complete.

The best part of this exhibit is the chance to work with Dan and Sarah again. We first worked with them last year for The Dream Girl exhibit and they are a class act. Maybe next year we can do a pulp fiction or science fiction theme?

The Sales Department and Marketing Department both said it isn't. The Accounting and Operations Departments were not so sure. You be the judge.

There were no complaints. Mostly these kind of events are about meeting our downtown neighbors and learning more about them...and getting rid of some things in the process is the bonus. The first two items to go were items that I only reluctantly sold, because of sentiment more than anything else. But hey, if it has a new home and somebody else can appreciate it, so be it.