Wanted: A marketing event that pays for itself, generates positive, free publicity for a business, and builds name recognition, all while supporting the local arts community. Great news – I’ve found it! Each year, Finer Frames hosts a juried art competition in the spring to build name recognition and highlight the work of many talented local artists. Fifty area artists…
Ordering my usual grande non-fat, no whip mocha at Starbucks this morning got me thinking. Starbucks has built a powerful brand selling a very familiar product, not too far removed from framers selling picture frames. If framing entrepreneurs can model themselves after one of the most successful brands in business, we could strengthen our own companies in the toughest marketplace…
How many times have we heard the most famous phrase in business “The customer is always right”? Knowing it is one thing, but believing it is much more difficult when the customer is (dare I say it?) is actually wrong. Recently, I had an unhappy customer that tested my beliefs. Fortunately this doesn’t happen often, but being properly prepared to…
A frameshop owner relates advice from a best-selling self-help book to our industry.
By Akash Mehra, Web Design Temple Have you recently completed designing a website for your company or business? O have you just redesigned your existing website? If the answer is “yes,” are you sure that your site is going to achieve all the goals it has been created for? Are you sure your site is going to be successful? Are…
Abigail Vancannon’s oil paintings capture the beauty in the everyday, suggesting the nostalgia of the 1950s. The inspirations for her Americana portraits and scenes are classic car shows and antique stores, and she creates art that “evokes emotions, challenges thinking and thoughts, contemplates beauty and has great power to reach people in a nontraditional way,” she says. Vancannon received her…
With marker and ink, Minjae Lee, a self-taught artist, layers bright, intricate patterns over female portraits. The images call to mind his South Korean heritage and push a contemporary aesthetic. Although a fresh face in the art world, Lee has already been commissioned internationally. Nature plays a dominant role in Lee’s images, and this focus stems from his early interest…
Marcus Payzant’s soft yet texturally rich images transform the mundane and the random into the complex. “I’m inspired by setting boundaries and then trying to figure out how I can break those boundaries to take a piece to a different level,” says Payzant. “The limitless possibilities associated with making art are enticing and inspiration enough to keep working.” Payzant received…
Karen Lederer saturates her paintings in colors and dynamic patterns, and they “revel in excess,” she says. “I create work that rejects the rigid aesthetic directive of formalism in favor of bold color and pattern,” says Lederer. “I am interested in how these elements change how one sees.” Lederer received her master’s degree in fine arts in printmaking from the Rhode…
