Cartooning…

Exciting Upcoming Art Exhibit: Contemporary Cartoon Artists

We are thrilled to announce tentative arrangements for an art exhibit later this year featuring the work of contemporary cartoon artists. Our friend Britt Aamodt will be releasing her book around the same time, driving this exhibit forward. Her book will be available at the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

The plan is to invite several talented artists, showcase large format cartoons, hold a cartooning Q&A session, and host a book signing event spread across three venues: Best of Times Bookstore, The Sheldon Theatre mezzanine gallery, and our gallery.

You might wonder if cartooning is a legitimate art medium. It absolutely is! And I would suggest keeping any doubts to yourself, lest you become the target of a parodied cartoon.

The beauty of cartooning lies in its versatility. It can lampoon or glamorize its subjects, be humorous or brutally frank, address real life or create an entirely new universe with its own rules. In other words, cartoon art defies definition.

This exhibit promises to be a lot of fun. I grew up reading the comics, and I still enjoy them today. I love the comics.

This event aligns perfectly with our past exhibits, including the Brown & Bigelow Pin-up exhibit in 2007, the Cream of Wheat original advertising art in 2008, and the original pulp magazine cover art in 2009. Stay tuned for more details as they unfold.

A busy gig

January Surprises and Exciting Projects

January is usually a quiet month in the art and framing industry. There might be a small bump in business due to 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 on 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 (the 4th), and it will move across the United States every month until September, where hopefully it will exhibit at the White House. I love working on this project because it leverages the power of photography, and it is an absolute adrenaline rush to meet the tight deadlines. In this business, this is known as a 'good gig'.

We also had our first order from Turkmenistan, specifically 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's always fun to have too much to do.

And finally, if nothing else, I learned a long time ago to surround myself 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.

Sheldon Theatre - Holiday Stroll photo booth follow-up

Sheldon Theatre Fundraiser: Exhausting and Fun

This year's fundraiser for the Sheldon Theatre was just like last year's—exhausting and fun at the same time. The small army of diligent photography volunteers formed a well-oiled machine, and the clients were steady all evening. We raised about $500, which is a 30% increase over last year.

The theme was a bit different this time: early morning Christmas in the 1950s. The best images were those where clients fully engaged in the fun. For example, above, Matt (my carpenter in real life) re-creates his proposal to his fiancée.

See? Fun.

Old is still the new new

Retro-Christmas Family Photo Event at The Sheldon Theatre

Last year marked the first year we held a fundraiser for The Sheldon Theatre the Friday after Thanksgiving. We opened the doors of The Sheldon to the public during the Downtown Red Wing Holiday Stroll and used their set and costume departments to re-create a family photo at a 1950's Macy's department store.

This year, we are excited to work with The Sheldon again on another retro-Christmas family photo event. We will re-create the excitement of Christmas morning, circa 1955. To put it in proper perspective, think of the set of The Honeymooners—a Brooklyn apartment with a table, chairs, and a table-top tree. Throw on an old-fashioned robe (maybe with a nightcap or hair curlers) and a few slippers. The photos will be printed using a very dated look (black and white, complete with creases).

This will be way too cool for school. And all for $5.00!

New Red Wing Shoe Store and Museum

Red Wing Shoe Company: A Pillar of the Community

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.

Panorama-rama

The Beauty of Panorama Photography

This time of year creates beautiful opportunities for panorama photography. The light is becoming longer, and the trees are just beginning to turn color. The Mississippi River, in particular, is a good panorama subject in this area because there are plenty of river bluffs to capture the wide expanse of the river.

The photo above was captured at Buena Vista Park above Alma, Wisconsin. It is a spectacular overlook. The weather was borderline inclement, which creates wonderful atmospheres for the camera lens.

This is a 4:1 print. Large format printing is ideal for a very narrow print like this. To really appreciate a print like this, it requires some height to the image, which means it will grow very wide, very fast. A 12" high print becomes a 48" wide print. Add some mat (typically 3" all around) and some moulding, and the overall image is nearly 5 feet wide. This is a 'high drama' image that demands attention as soon as you walk into the room.

New name - new web site - new challenges

Evolving with the Times: Our Business and Website Update

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. It’s best to simply say that a business must constantly ask itself what it does for a living, and whether it's where it wants to be in doing that thing it does.

The name change is more about acknowledging how this business has evolved. We frame, we print, and we do anything in between. It was also time to freshen up the logo—to shine our shoes, so to speak. This was harder than you might think because the fonts used are fabricated for our needs. They aren’t off-the-shelf fonts, but they do have a basis in the history of this business. It’s too difficult to explain without hand gestures.

The new website is another matter. The changes appear 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 available.

With any new website, it’s 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.