FALL 2005 NEWSLETTER

In This Issue

New Stuff @ FDI
Artist Spotlight – Irwin Lightstone
Galerie Parchemine – A Framing Museum

NEW STUFF @ FDI

Check out our new CLEARANCE section on the website.
Up to a 44% discount on some items.

New Products

• Picture Frame 500– a wood frame with a natural color stain
• 4-Ply Black Mat with Black Core
• Lineco Mounting Corners and Tapes
• Non-Glare Acrylic
• Lower prices on metal frames 13x19 & up and almost all wood picture frames
• Added new sizes – 18x24, 20x24, 20x30, 24x30, 24x36

Website Update

New section with information and pictures about picture mounting techniques:
http://framedestination.com/picture_frame_info.html

Coming Soon

• Nielsen Bainbridge Ready-Made Frames
• Enhanced color selection on Picture Frame 500

New Employees

Edward Castillo and Joely Rogers have joined the FDI team. Edward has over 9 years of framing industry experience and we are utilizing his knowledge and expertise to increase our production capacity. Joely has over 15 years experience working in customer service and sales. She is helping us to help .

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Irwin Lightstone is our artist in the spotlight this fall. Irwin is the owner/artist of Radiant Images (link to webpage), a fine art photography business specializing in dreamlike images of plants (predominantly cactus and succulents) using macro-photography techniques. Originally from New York , but now happily ensconced in Dallas , Texas with his wife, two children and a greenhouse full of several thousand plants, he recently retired from practicing law to focus entirely on photography. Frame Destination caught up with Irwin to see how his transition from “wordsmith” to “photosmith” is going. Read more……..

GALERIE PARCHEMINE – A FRAMING MUSEUM

Frame Destination took a trip to Montreal , Canada in early September. While there we visited the Galerie Parchemine, a picture framing museum located in Montreal 's historic district. The Galerie Parchemine is part of the network of “Economuseums” in eastern Canada . These “living” museums are a community of artisans who preserve traditional trades and knowledge, while offering the public an innovative tourism product. The Galerie Parchemine specializes in centuries old European framing techniques, as well as highly personalized framing creations that are often as artistic as the image they are holding. Read more……

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT continued..

Radiant Images - Irwin Lightstone
214-529-7046

How long have you been a photographer?

“My Dad was a professional photographer, so I had a camera in hand from an early age. I did a lot of photography in high school, but put it on hold while I attended college and law school, and then didn't pick up the camera again until my children were born.” After attending a photography seminar by the noted Dewitt Jones www.dewittjones.com , I decided to stop “taking pictures” and become serious about using the camera to capture the beauty around me.”

Why did you choose to focus on plants; especially cactus and succulents?

“ I've always loved growing and caring for plants. Plants and photography share a common language – light. In order to grow a plant, you must understand its relationship to light; how much light and for what duration it needs, and at what intensity. In order to photograph a subject, you must also understand its relationship to light; the angle, intensity, etc. To me light is a metaphor for all life.

As a photographic subject I am especially attracted to the tenacity and somewhat absurd appearance of cactus and succulents. They are an art onto themselves and joy to photograph.”

What type of photographic process and equipment do you use?

“Because my subjects are tiny, maybe 3 inches high on average, I use macro lenses. My process involves taking multiple (sometimes up to 100) shots of the subject, with each shot having a slightly different focal point. I feed the images into HeliconFocus software for reconstruction. This creates a photograph with an incredible depth of field. I then do the finishing touches in Photoshop.”

Equipment:

• Cameras - Pentax 6x7 Medium Format; Sin-Ar 4x5 Large Format; Cannon 35mm film & digital
• Software - HeliconFocus; Adobe Photoshop
• Printer - Epson 2400 – LOVE IT!!
• Lenses - 3 dedicated Macro Lenses: Sigma 180mm, Sigma 105mm, Cannon 65mpe
• Bellows - Pentax 105mm; Rodenstock APO 50mm and Rodenstock APO 75mm

Do you have any shows/exhibitions coming up?

“Right now some of my work is on display at Kathleen's Art Café www.kathleensartcafe.com for an indefinite period. I'm teaching two classes: October 5th at the Dallas Arboretum www.dallasarboretum.org and October 15th at the annual seminar of the Texas Cactus and Succulent Societies also at the Dallas Arboretum. Classes are open to the public.

Things appear to be going quite well. Any final thoughts you'd like to share on photography?

“I guess to me the beauty and challenge of photography lies in capturing that essential component of a photograph – the character of the subject, and communicating that in a way that makes a 2D image dance off the page up into the 3 Dimension and beyond.”

GALERIE PARCHEMINE – A FRAMING MUSEUM

40 Saint-Paul Street West
Montreal , Quebec H2Y 1Y8
514-845-3368; 514-845-6425 (fax)
www.economusees.com ; email: amb@galerieparchemine.com
Hours: Daily, 11am to 6pm - French and English are spoken

Located at the center of Old Montreal , the Galerie Parchemine is a tiny gallery/museum/workshop housed in a 19th -century building along one of the district's cobble-stone streets. Every square inch of the two-story gallery is crammed with tools, frame profiles, mats and paintings. We were treated to a personal tour by Madame Anne-Marie Boullais, the museum's expert picture framer. In charmingly accented English, punctuated by rapid-fire French, Madame Boullais took us through the history of the picture frame; from musings on the “first frame” – cave paintings in Lascoux, France and Artamera, Spain surrounded by a circle; to the painted wood panels of the middle ages and the pompous, gilded picture frames of the Louis XIV style; to the eventual evolution of simpler, darker wood frames in the 1800's. Examples of frames, framing tools and materials from the Middle Ages to present day are on display in cleverly designed shadow boxes.

Judging from the number of people dropping off work during our 1 hour visit, the museum is also a thriving business utilized by Montreal 's local painters and patrons interested in the style of framing offered there. Interestingly, we were told that the bulk of the local art created in Montreal is purchased by visitors to the city or patrons outside of Quebec . Madame Boullais showed us a picture album with photos of her more creative projects designed for customers of the museum. They included some unique examples of framing such as a hockey jersey encased with within a frame made of hockey sticks, and a painted Mayan stone mask framed with pieces of the same stone painted in similar colors.

For the framing enthusiast, the museum also holds year-around picture-framing classes in the workshop upstairs. Four classes are offered. Each one is structured to be a prerequisite for the next, but depending on your skill it's possible to begin the more advanced level. During the beginner's class the student learns how to create two basic frames, and the topics of measurement, cutting and matting are covered. The more advanced classes teach how to build shadow boxes, and create frames from “found” objects. An example of a student “found” object frame was a collection of French Burgundy wine corks within a frame covered by pieces of the labels from wine bottles. The classes are given in French and English and range from $110 – $150 (Canadian) each. For more information contact the museum at amb@galerieparchemine.com .

A few recommendations on where to eat, sleep and unwind while in Montreal .