It's Never Just a Frame

Let’s talk about framing.

First, you have to find a patsy. You can go about this a number of ways.

Wait. Ohhhh, the other kind of framing. The kind we do around here at Lovetts Gallery. In the year I’ve been writing the blogs, we’ve never really discussed framing, which is odd because that's a huge part of what we do. With all the fantastic art we get from our talented corps of painters, potters, glass blowers and shapers, and sculptors, it’s easy to overlook the fact that we began life as a frameshop that featured some original art and prints.

I’m not telling you anything you can’t find on the Lovetts Gallery website, but we feature more than 9,000 picture frame mouldings, which is the largest and most diverse selection in this region of the country. You should drop by the gallery sometime, eschew all the original art, walk up the wooden ramp and take a gander at our “collection.”

The other day, after helping one of our collectors select a four-layer frame for his new Brett Lethbridge, Jack had me put some of the moulding samples back on the wall. After standing there and looking around for 10 minutes, I might’ve started whimpering. I definitely started laughing. Jack, of course, can just walk to the correct panel and put it right back on the wall. But then, he has 35 years of experience ...

Anyway, we’ve framed everything you can possibly imagine over the years. Works of art, family photos, family heirlooms, swords, toys, jerseys, tickets, medals ... Often, when people come in, they are bringing things that are dear to them, and expecting us to give it a proper display.

Seeing has how this is Memorial Day weekend, we thought we’d share the story behind one of our latest projects. I have been glib up until this point, but that comes to an end right now. There are certain kinds of stories that require appropriate amounts of respect, and the following is one of them.

The Shadow Box

Denise (and that’s all we’re calling her because, as you’ll hear later in the story, this is sort of a surprise for her husband) brought in a collection of memorabilia from World War II. There was a picture of a young solider in uniform, a unit patch, a handful of medals and commendations, and two corporal collar devices.

She laid all this on the counter in front of Jack, and then began to tell him the tale of Cpl. Wilbur Richard Jackson.

In late 1944, Jackson and his unit – the 811^th Tank Destroyer battalion – were sent to Belgium where they participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Jackson and other members of the 811^th were captured by the Germans on Christmas Eve. They remained captives until April 13, 1945.

“They were marched from camp to camp during the winter," says Denise. "A lot of them froze to death. They weren’t kept in a particular stalag because the Germans were using them as human shields for their troops. 

“Every morning before the sun would come up, the Germans would come and pull one of the men out and would either beat him or shoot him.  That would keep them submissive.

“One morning, he woke up because the sun was hitting him in the eyes, which never happened. By then, they’d usually already gone through the ritual. He and his fellow prisoners looked around and their captors were not there, and they heard tanks coming. The Germans had gone in the night.

“He was very, very sick. He almost died. He was 6’2”, and was right at about 100 pounds when they found him. He had tuberculosis,” she says.

Jackson recovered and lived to be 74 years old. He had a family, and Denise says a very happy life. But that’s not the whole story. While Cpl. Jackson was in the service, he wrote letters  to a girl he had grown up with back home. The girl kept the letters in an album, and that album was eventually sold in an estate sale and bought by another woman in Illinois.

A few years ago, Denise joined ancestry.com and began researching her family tree and that of her husband. Not long after that …

“A lady contacted me, and asked me if I knew of a Wilbur R. Jackson who lived in Illinois during this particular time. She then told me, ‘I have something you’d be interested in.’”

It was the album of letters. There were 63 in total, and the woman shipped it to Denise for free.

“She said, ‘I would just love you to have these.’ I just burst into tears. I thought she was scamming me. It was too wild and wonderful to be true. But she shipped it to me. She boxed them up so carefully. Oh my gosh, they’ll break your heart to read. There’s this young boy who was excited. He kept talking about how he wanted to ‘go over.’ He talked about being on a ship, and how long it took them to reach Europe. He talked about how excited he was to see Germany at Christmas time … It just kills you to read it.”

It was the album that inspired Denise to have the shadow box created for her husband. Her plan is to give him the shadow box and the album for Father’s Day this year, and she means it to be a surprise. That’s been challenging because she and her husband spend all their time together, having retired a while ago. And it’s taken her some time to collect the specific commendations, medals and patches.

“It took me longer than I thought it would because I wanted it to be right,” she says. “I wanted it to be exactly what he would’ve gotten.”

She brought the memorabilia to Jack because she wants it to have a certain effect. She says Wilbur died when her husband was just 34 years old.

“You think you’re an adult at 34, but when you hit 61, you realize how young you really were to have lost a parent,” she says. “His father was very important to him, and he has no clue this stuff exists. Every year we have a big Father’s Day cookout. The girls told me that we have to give it to him in front of everyone because they want to see his reaction.

“I want it to be perfect,” she says. “I want it to take his breath away.”

Hopefully, we’ve helped Denise accomplish just that.

Thank you to Denise for sharing this story with us and allowing it us to feature it on our blog. And thank you to Cpl. Wilbur Richard Jackson and all the other veterans and current members of our Armed Services for your sacrifices.

Happy Memorial Day.

 

Triple Crown! Hat Trick! Trifecta!

Most of you are aware we represent artists from all over the country, and that a lot of our artists are a pretty big deal. They are in international collections. They’ve shown in the Louvre. They’ve won shows. They are seen.

But you know all that, right? After all, we wouldn’t represent them if they weren’t awesome.

So, speaking of awesome, one of our artists, Robert Caldwell, just pulled off a major hat trick. He entered and was accepted into three major exhibitions. We received an email from him late last week, went a little something like this ...

“I wanted to share with you all that I did it! Three major wildlife exhibitions entered and all three have chosen my work to be included!!! All of them graphite pieces!!!”

I did not add any of the exclamation points. I gather he’s pretty excited, even if he’s currently sick as a dog and convalescing at his home.

The first work, Margin (Lioness), was selected for the Art of the Animal Kingdom XVIII exhibition at the Bennington Center for the Arts (Bennington, VT), June 15-Aug. 25, 2013.

Personally, I always like to ask the artists if there’s a story behind the work. Sometimes, they have one, sometimes they don’t.

“These were the first lions that I had seen in the wild. We were driving on the outlying area, the margin, of Silale Swamp, which doesn't look like a swamp at all, when we saw one lion off to our left and another on our right. The one on the right was sitting up looking at the other lion, and you could sense that she wanted to cross the road and go to her mother or sister down in the tall grasses under an umbrella acacia tree.

“With my camera ready, I sat back and waited for her to cross the road. What an amazing sight; she strolled out across the dirt road and into the tall grasses, and with every step, I could see every muscle flex as she glided into the tall grass. I was amazed by how well she blended into the grass, the lightness of her fur blending into the stalks. This is what I wanted to capture in my drawing, how, moving ever so silently in the grass, the lion became part of her environment.”

The second piece, Kutokua Na Hatia (Colobus Monkey) was selected for Art and the Animal, the 53^rd Annual Exhibition of the Society of Animal Arts, Bennington, VT, Aug. 31 – Oct. 31.

“Arusha National Park lies on the side of Mount Meru, an active volcano. As we made our way up the edge of the crater wall, we could see Mount Kilimanjaro through the tree canopy. As we came around a bend on the path, we spotted a grouping of colobus monkeys. The dense trees made it tricky to capture reference material. It wasn’t until we were coming back down from the top of the road that I saw a glimpse of white. My guide, Jeremy, very excitedly turned to me and said something in Swahili and pointed up at the monkeys. Even though I had been in the country for more than a week at this point and I felt like I was getting a grasp on the language, I had no idea what he said but I looked up and saw this little innocent face looking down at us. Baby colobus monkeys, I learned, are born with pure white fur but don't stay that way for long so I was extremely fortunate to have seen this little guy.”

Last, but not least, Robert’s Custodian (Ruppell’s Vulture) won a spot in Birds in Art, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s 2013 exhibition in Wausau, WI, Sept. 7 – Nov. 10, 2013.

“We had been on a game drive in Tarangire National Park that day through two heavy rains and had just broken through the rain front coming down the backside of a hill near Silale Swamp when I saw a large bird perched in a dead acacia tree.

“At this point in the day, it’s quiet. There aren’t many animals out, and trees are sparse around the swamp. But there was this Ruppell's Vulture just perched elegantly in the upper branches of the barren tree. The backend of the rain clouds gave the sky a light even tone that stretched across the backdrop of the vulture and its throne. It just seemed like such a powerful setting for what can be perceived as such an unwanted position, king or custodian.”

Congratulations to Robert on his fantastic trifecta.

While these three works aren’t in the gallery yet, we do have several of Robert’s paintings for you to come ogle. And if that’s not enough, Robert will be here June 2014 to celebrate the release of his forthcoming book, Draw Realistic Animals Wildlife, Pets & More. It will also be the first showing of the paintings from his trip to Africa, so stay tuned. (Don’t worry. I’ll remind you when we’re closer to the date.)

I’ll see you at the Gallery. No, really. I’m here now, pretty much everyday.

At the Gallery

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the blogs. I was just in Colorado enjoying the mountains for a few days (that's a pic of Hanging Rock Lake to the right). I don't officially start at Lovetts Gallery until May 13, but I've been in doing some half-days, training with Waylon. And by training with Waylon, I mean, he's been standing over my shoulder going, "No, that's not how we do it" or "I don't normally do it that way, but ... " a lot.

I've gotten to do all kinds of things. One day, I went out for donuts, something I did not train for during graduate school. The next day, Jack and Phil were in front of the gallery planting the season's new flowers. If you did not know, the Farm shopping center allows Lovetts to decorate and plant the flower garden directly in front of the Gallery, which is why we have all those awesome sculptures out there.

As I stepped out to see what they were doing, Jack said, "You ready to plant some flowers?"

I think I probably arched an eyebrow at him, wondering if he was serious.

He  laughed and said, "We do it all around here."

Indeed.

What else? Part of the training involed entering new works into the database, which is a fairly involved process as it turns out. You have to create roughly 50 images and database files (slight hyperbole). There is a side benefit, however. Once you've done it, you have detailed knowledge of those particulare pieces. How much they are. What they were created with. How long they took. Digital carnal knowledge. Ahem.

As it turns out, I did get to add a couple of new works from Ed Natiya, whom I'd not had the pleasure of interacting with just yet. Part of adding new work to the database (and website) involves making sure we have good photos. To that end, we haul everything to the back room and set it up in Waylon's "photo studio" -- camera, giant white roll of paper, couple of high end lights. It looks official.

Waylon had me grab Natiya's Last Chief (pictured right) from the front counter to take back to shoot. I don't know what I was expecting, but I clearly didn't think the bronze would weigh as much as it did. By the time I got it back to the photo studio, my lower back was wrecked. I bet the thing weighs 40 or 50 pounds. Certainly, it weighs more than my little girl. What I'm saying is that when you decide to buy Last Chief, and I'm confident one of you will, you need to ask Phil to carry it out to your vehicle. Remember, this is important. P-h-i-l.

We also added another of Natiya's works, Hummingbird Maiden (which you can see on his artist page by clicking his name up there two paragraphs ago). It did not weigh 50 pounds. Just FYI.

It's at this point in the blog where I feel I should talk with some authority about these sculptures, as though I'm an expert. However, I am not. Not yet, anyway. I'm more or less like someone without any art background who's just walked in off the street. I know what I like when I see it, but I might not be able to give you an academic answer as to why. That's okay, however. By virtue of a piece of art's presence in the Gallery, you know it's a quality piece. Jack and Waylon would not have selected it to sell, otherwise. They've been at this awhile, after all.

We've also just received an assortment of jewelry from John Knotts, though we haven't put those up on the website just yet. You'll have to come in to see them. John, if you don't remember, was the cover story for the last issue of TheWall.

And speaking of the website ... if you happen to drop in, virtually speaking, say, Sunday, you'll be among the first to interact with the new site. We think you're going to enjoy it. It's pretty, for one, and does a fantastic job of showcasing our artists and their work.

And that's it for this week. I'll see you in the Gallery.

Things are Happening

So.

For the last 11 months or so, I’ve been the “content editor” here at the Gallery, but that was on a freelance writing mercenary basis. I’ve been writing most of the blogs and a lot of the magazine content, and doing my best to make it have Waylon and Jack’s attitude. You'll have seen my name on TheWall if you've picked up a copy (and if you haven't, go here).

Apparently, I’ve been doing an okay enough job that they’ve asked me to come aboard at the Gallery full time as … some fancy, schmancy title. Oh, right. Director of Marketing & Communications. That means, basically, I’ll still be doing all the blogs.

And other stuff.

Starting in the middle of May, you’ll have pretty good odds of having to deal with me when you drop in to ogle the latest Benjamin Cobb or Merlin Cohen. Now, I’ll not pretend to be Jack or Waylon. I wasn’t an art major (though I was one class short of my graphic design minor … wooooo). I’m not an encyclopedia on technique, but I have been talking to our artists for a year and in a lot of cases, I might have a cool story about the artist or painting.  I’ve found it fascinating to talk to these talented individuals to find out why and how they do what they do. But then, you’ve read about a lot of that here on the blog.

Ahem.

So about me. Capricorn. Married. One child (she’s five and I don’t let her visit the gallery because she wants to touch everything). I'm a sci-fi junkie, and used to be the film critic at Urban Tulsa. I have a couple of degrees from Oklahoma State, and for the past six years I’ve been the editor of POSSE, the official magazine of OSU’s athletic department. I’ve been driving back and forth between Tulsa and Stillwater the last three years, so my commute is now awesome. 

What else? I’m fairly sarcastic and I’m terrible with names, so it might take me a few visits to remember yours. If it turns out that I’m spectacularly bad at it, I’ll start taking mug shots with my phone’s camera and build a database of your heads.  Okay, not really. I probably wouldn’t do something like that. Probably.

Anyway, enough about me.

I’m excited to be an official part of Lovetts Gallery, and you can expect to see a lot more great content from us, and probably social media if you’re into that kind of thing. I’m probably going to be soliciting a lot more feedback from you guys as we try new ways of reaching out. We have a lot of great art and artists, and a lot of that art needs to find a home (cue Sally Struthers and the sad dog music). You can help.

That’s probably enough.  I’ll see you at the Gallery. High five.

Cory

(Anything after this point is commentary by Jack and Waylon, and possibly Phil. They said something about wanting to comment on this post, so I expect some hazing.)

• Phil, Logistics Manager - I think Cory is going to be a great addition to Lovetts once he actually learns how to do something other than sit at a computer.

• Waylon, Gallery Director - I'm not sure what all the excitement's about. It's just one more person I have to constantly criticize and correct.

• Jack, Owner - Finally! Someone who actually works while at work.  The son I always wanted. 

 

This In From Down Under

So I’ve been going on and on about Brett Lethbridge’s Better Angels, and I’d promised you guys we’d talk to Brett himself soon, but up until this week, I hadn’t actually looked him up.

When I saw his picture, I thought, “Oh, great, he looks like Paul Walker. I’d better not show this to my wife.”

And then I started reading. He’s more or less a modern renaissance man. He’s Australian by way of South Africa. He lived in Europe for two years after deciding to become an artist. His wife is German. He has his own gallery. Also, he has a law degree. Wait, what?

“I come from a family that valued university education and a getting a profession,” says Brett. “I was fairly good at school and got the results to get accepted into law school, and so went ahead and did it. The study itself was interesting enough and I enjoyed university culture, but I always had an interest in art and continued to practice while doing the degree. After graduating I did one day of an internship but realized, fairly quickly in hindsight, that the profession was not for me. As I had no job, no family and nothing to lose, I thought I would give art a go and have never looked back.”

Brett was born in Cape Town, South Africa, but moved to Cairns, Australia in the mid-1980s. Then he did “university” and law school, but chose art and moved to Europe. While living in Italy, he met his wife, who is German. They now live in Brisbane, Australia, have two children, and travel a lot. The past few years, they’ve visited the U.S. a number of times, and have started to “fall in love with the country.”

“Travel, as has been noted by many, is a wonderful way to get perspective on life,” says Brett. “My favorite quote is probably T.S. Eliot. ‘We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’

“After giving away law, I had the good fortune to meet some excellent painters who very generously shared their talent and techniques with me for which I continue to be very grateful,” he says. “Once I had a few technical skills, my creativity took over and it seemed I had tapped into a creative well that expressed itself primarily in painting. Most of the time I feel like I just get out of the way and let my hand and eye produce what it must.”

Part of getting out of the way means Brett paints in a variety of styles instead of just focusing on one, and he tackles a diversity of subjects. Case in point, Better Angels looks nothing like Blue Dreamer, which in turn looks nothing like Gunmetal Getaway.

“It’s a part of the creative way, there's nothing I love more than to take an idea or a technique and develop new ways of using it or making something unique and interesting,” he says. “Once I see the potential in something I usually work on it to perfect it in some way and then need to move on to something new. You have to be true to who you are, and that's who I am.”

Waylon discovered Brett while reading reviews for some recent exhbitions.

“When I get bored with what I’m seeing through regular channels, I will cast my net more widely. Canada, Mexico, Australia,” says Waylon. “When I ran across Brett's work I immediately hollered at Jack and said, 'Take a look at this guy's work!  We have to see if we can get him to the gallery.' I contacted him that same day."

Brett’s paintings have been a hit at the Gallery. One of them sold before we could even hang it, and out of the six he sent initially, four have already been bought, including the aforementioned Blue Dreamer. In fact, we had a handful of collectors expressed interest in the work. A couple of them, when they found out it had already sold, talked to us about commissioning Brett to do another something similar. Based on the response, I thought I’d ask Brett where he came up with the idea for that particular work.

“Blue Dreamer is based on my experiences growing up in Cairns, Australia. It’s a wild frontier town in the far north of Australia right next to the Great Barrier Reef. I spent many weekends going out to the reef and diving beneath the waves and seeing these wonderful schools of fish swimming by. Something about the hypnotic, colorful patterns of the fish stayed with me and expressed itself in the painting years later. The impact of the paintings also has a lot to do with the technique that I developed with these pieces, using color in a very direct and intense way that sparkles and produces a very satisfying experience for the eye.”

While Brett is using galleries like Lovetts to get his paintings out into the world, back home, he operates his own gallery, and says it has taught him a lot about the business of being a painter.

“It’s taught me so many things really, but at its essence it’s taught me the basics; the importance of reliability and delivering on promises, a great respect for the efforts of those who run a good gallery. But most of all the value of trust. I'm of the opinion that a good relationship involves trusting the other party, and to give plenty of it, if it’s right. On the other hand, if you can’t trust someone, don't waste time with it and move on. It’s the lubricant of success and, in general, one of the best things in life.”

You can see Brett’s last two available paintings (for the time being, anyway) now hanging at Lovetts Gallery. We’ll see you soon.