Getting the Concept

Some would call it, inspiration, or muse, or just simply “coming up with a good idea”; but in reality, that is neither the right term nor description of a great design of a picture frame that improves the story of the art or picture it surrounds. You may be inspired by something in the story of the art or image, you may be moved to ascend to a design you would normally be hesitant to accomplish, or even work at design ideas until one works better than another; but it all boils down to the concept, and that doesn’t just pop out of thin air.

Concept. Even the “concept” of the word itself begs for a source of definition. Concept does not survive in the ether unsupported. The six year old Michelangelo didn’t just toddle up to a 12’ block of white stone and start cracking his knuckles saying ‘there’s a David in there’; he was told the story of David guarding his sheep, he learned how to carve stone, he learned how to pose a model to draw a picture of what would become a statue that tells a story.

The same was true for the designer of the Empire State Building, as a fresh out of high school, ‘paper or plastic’ aged kid, he might have had concepts of larger buildings, but nothing new and beyond what he had experienced and lived or gone to school in. That, took time, education, and experience before he was able to even start sharpening his pencil, much less draw the plans.

Unfortunately, there is a hubris concept by the captains of industry and larger companies, that give a kid a couple of weeks pushing a broom, and nailing a few frames together and they are all “TEEed up” (Time, Education, Experience) and ready to just pop out those wonderful concepts that the customers seek, deserve, and pay for. And the sad reality is that they are as TEEed up for that task as they’re ready to climb Mt Everest. And so, we get four flat sticks painted black hanging around a triple mat. (because some brainiac in corporate came up with the brilliant concept that three looks better, and sells more mat board . . . I think he’s the one driving the stretch limo Hummer for his 23 mile commute. Please, someone go over there and flatten all five tires so we can watch him cry, please.)

There is a place for a simple black frame; I just don’t remember the name of the sanitation land fill at this moment. Unfortunately for America, we not only have the reputation of being the largest consumers of illegal drugs, killing each other with guns or cars, but also 65%, by length, of all moulding sold by the picture framing industry, is either a beautifully hand carved delicate French Rococo Revival Trophy frame hand finished in a finely polished 23kt water gilded gold leaf, or, a flat black stick. Don’t look over there at your diplomas, you already know I’m talking about them.

The average graduate in a profession as cheap as a lawyer, invested $180,000 and 7-9 years in those three little pieces of paper (no, they are not on skin any more). A general practice doctor with ten years of school at a state school is well north of $300,000. And you walk into any office, and wonder if they sent their visually impaired mother out to do the shopping for the frames.

Concept; and you thought I was talking about how I might come up with an award winning concept for an exquisite little print of Northern Vancouver Island Indigenous Species art? Oh, that was easy . . . I reached down and pulled it out of . . .. Sorry, snarky, but also not true.

The story that is told in the circle of life is told with set designs, so the design of the framing needed to harmonize and echo the image, but remain subdued. (Yes, I did choose this black frame to talk about on purpose.) The pattern is rejoiced in the polished black on the satin black. There is no red or white in the design because that was left for the artist’s work and story to shine through; the frame is there only to support and call attention to the story the art tells. My TEE dates back to growing up next to, and playing on an Indian Reservation, years of being around needle crafters and sewers and understanding the powerful effect of color on color, and about forty years of hand carving mats (even as deep as this 24-ply black solid core rag mat) and woodworking since I was four and putting dents in the family furniture and walls with hammers.

But the “concept” I’m talking about here, is the “concept” of the things we frame, we frame because we have an investment in them; money, time, emotion. We are never going back to Boston College and getting a MD PhD again, USC and getting a Heisman again, or OSU and getting that LLB again. Your grandparents won’t be getting married at that little church again, your child won’t be 11lbs 3ozs again (or his twin 11lbs 5ozs . . . mom was and is a Saint), or that stupid all night ride with your best friend where you both got flat tires and ended up walking your bikes the last three miles, but you got that sunrise picture and know more about that friend than you can ever tell anyone.

And those diplomas and pictures are either 60% chance in a drawer, 25% chance in a scrap book, and 14% chance in a flat stick black frame with a white mat. Only 1% got it. That 1% still gets people stopping to look at the diploma or picture. Because, that 1% was graced with a little help telling their story, because they got help from a true Professional Picture Framer who understood the “concept” that there is no question of “wood or plastic”.

Oh, here is a 1%; a young lawyer who fully understands the “concept”.

Vertical Grain Douglas fir with trough tenons pegged with hand carved elk antler, silk double-stepped mat, school color fillet, with Lady Justice engraved in the corner; Stately for  an Assistant District Attorney, and ready when the time comes for the corner office.

Sometimes, it’s all about the details.

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