Right now our pieces are completely ours. We make the paper, take the photographs, print the photographs, build the shadow boxes for the frames, paint and distress the frames, mat the pictures and put it all together keeping in mind the feel of the culture, moment in time and overall feel of the subject matter. We take great pride in our pieces being a work of art from beginning to end.
It is tempting to make some extra cash taking someone elses picture and creating a work of art out of it. It is also touching to know that someone appreciates your craft enough that they want you to take something that they hold dear and make it into a piece of art. We are honored that someone likes our style enough that they would trust us with their memories.
I guess what it comes down to for us, is that the photography is the art. The paper, the process, the framing are all a craft, one that could be taught. The eye of the photographer, the attention to the moment in time, the layout, the lighting, the colors, all of that is captured by our lens. The rest is just how we choose to represent the art.
We are willing to do commissioned work. Should someone have a subject matter that they would like to see in one of our works and we have access to photograph that subject matter or we have photographed it in the past, we would be happy to make a piece for someone with our original photograph. We are also open to taking someones photograph as the basis for a watercolor, acrylic or pencil portrait. That would still allow us to remain the artist.
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There is a part of me that would start to feel like an overpriced kinkos if we started printing other peoples photos on to our paper and that isn't what our artwork is about. We hope our patrons understand and appreciate the artistic integrity of our pieces. Hopefully this will help them maintain their value and make them an investment in the future.
