What are your thoughts on works on paper?
As an artist, I feel it’s my personal responsibility to develop a clean and secure presentation of my work with in a reasonable budget.
Notice that? That’s a nice caveat there, “With in a reasonable budget.”
Number 1, most important, I feel we have to respect our art. I realize that many things I do have a life span. That is paper degrades, chemicals depending on the choice may oxidize, but you must respect your work and the people buying it. I feel there is a responsibility to present work in a professional manner.
For me this means framing in an acid free or pH neutral environment depending on the paper or chemical process. UV / Conservation glass, and a clean well cut frame that suits the work.
In the past I opted for a crisp gallery look with “photo white” mats and a black frame, but I’ve expanded. I now like to use a black mat with a black frame. I think it makes the work pop. There are still times, however where a clean white mat is just the answer needed.
As a photographer, mounting the work has been an interesting evolution. From the start I’ve always preferred to hinge my work. I want my work to stand free so that the owner can potentially do what they please with it. That said, I’ve learned, working as a framer, that there are times where cold press mounting or dry mounting is the option needed. There are some finicky papers out there that need some special attention. I think this should be the artist’s responsibility. Leaving it in the hands of the customer of the framer leaves opportunity for errors to happen.
Artists, if you are printing large on super glossy metallic paper, and your just selling the print, consider cold press mounting it! Otherwise it will ripple! It’s better that you should mount it, and inspect for mounting errors from dust, so that your collectors get a work that’s right! It’s easier for the artist to fix problems that arise, because they can always replace the work if there’s an error mounting it.
Direct mounting, cold press mounting, or dry mounting is not an option for paintings on paper. I used to hesitate on the idea with photographs, but there are times where it’s necessary. Which is one of the reasons I like to work small in the 8x12” photo size on water color paper. It doesn’t need dry mounting.
For hinging, I highly recommend starch paste for hinge mounting.
There’s an absolutely wonderful 2 page article with how too instructions here:
http://frametek.com/HTML/Articles/Hinging.htmlThere are also times where it’s important to understand the idea of pH neutral vs acid free.
Find a great discussion here:
http://www.danielsmith.com/content--id-120This may seem like an esoteric difference, but it is significant. pH Neutral board may measure pH7 but could have buffers to reach that pH which can be exausted over time resulting in an acidic environment. Where as the acid free boards should have no acid content which results in the neutral pH. pH neutral does not mean it’s acid free.
The next issue is signatures. Sign your work! Before you do so, think about the presentation. If you are selling the print, painting, photo, or other work of paper with out a frame, do you envision your work with a blank space of paper surrounding your subject? Most often the white space that kills the design? As a photographer, I sign the back in pencil, mat up to the image, and sign the mat.
If anyone buys my work and wants to re-frame it, I’ll sign the mat of their choice. We’ll have to figure out a meeting or shipping arrangements, but it can be done! As a framer, I see my customer’s frustrations being stuck to a mat they don’t like.
Back to the white space, if you want to force a collector to show white space, you will probably sign on the face outside of the work. I don’t like this, and personally would love other artists, collectors, and conservators thoughts on this. I prefer when artists sign inside the work. Photographers, sign the back, unless your signature is part of the work.
Artists, if your mats have the tell tale signs of a mat that contains acid, I’m probably not going to buy your work unless I absolutely love it and I’m willing to re-frame it. If you do cheap out on your mats, DON’T sign it and for your customer to have guilt about throwing it out!
Another pet peeve is art work in a cheap frame with a huge mark up in cost for your $15 Ikea frame. It shows me that you don’t value your art, and paying $150 for a $15 frame is frustrating! That said, this doesn’t mean that your frames have to be expensive! If you run your art business as a business, you can develop whole sale relationships to save your self a lot of cost. It does get expensive to frame 25 works for your solo show, but don’t cut corners. Yes there is a difference between knock off metal frames and Nielsen. They are small details, but after moving from knock off frames in my early work to real Nielsen frames, I can see the difference in quality and cuts.
So what do I do?
- Keep the art's environment Acid Free
- For photos sign the back in pencil, and the acid free mat
- For paintings consider weather the signature is part of the art (sign in the art, or in the white space)
- Decide the location of your signature on your work, and think about the resulting presentation.
- Hinge the art work so it’s removable unless you have to direct mount due to the media.
- Use name brand quality frames, it makes a difference.
- Protect your work, use a minimum of conservation / UV glass
- For paintings on paper use starch paste for your hinges
- Consider hiring a professional framer if you are unsure about techniques or learning them
- Consider the edges of your paper, if you like deckled edges, float your work to show off your great paper
This can all be done on a budget especially if you are doing things in bulk.
Remember compressed air and anti-static rags are your friend!!
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