Art Culture and Fabric Mat Tricks

Since my last post was mainly about domestic violence with that amazing video clip, I am going to focus on art this time. I discovered that there are some artists who visit my website and blog, so this post will be particularly interesting for them.

I went to the Dean's Forum this week, sponsored by ASU's Herberger College of the Arts and it was a great experience. Dean Kwan Wu-Kim spoke with a smorgasbord of ASU people, students, corporate and art members of the community. He talked about how Phoenix could become an art mecca. Instead of people looking outside Arizona for the quality and prestige of art, rather we should be looking within and recognize the diamonds in the rough, and then figure out a way to connect these diamonds into a beautiful necklace of creativity and commerce. There was more said that I won't go into here, but it was an interesting mixed response.

Personally, I agree with Dean Kim that art is involved in EVERYTHING whether we recognize it or not. Since I've taken some traditional art classes, I've learned that art is not exempt from the sciences. There is biology (art anatomy), mathematics/physics (perspective, geometry, golden section), psychology (color science, composition), textiles (art materials), and engineering (problem solving using any of the previous). It truly is the science of light and a form of universal language that should be more respected. There is no dichotomy between art and science. For instance, all the graphics we see everyday, the architecture we live and work in, the fashions that we wear, the live performances we visit, the cars we drive, movies we watch, the music we listen to--art is everywhere and yet... What happens in the real world once the classes are over? What are the opportunities and are they desirable? Boy did I want to chatter up a storm because since I've been working on Bravery, I've learned a ton of information.

I've learned more of the business side and how important marketing and networking is in order to become a successful artist. Furthermore, it's kind of fun sharing your art with people once you learn to handle rejections. Let's face it, not everyone will like the art that I produce, but amazingly enough, so far, everyone (yes everyone) has really like the concept behind Bravery, especially the positive perspective that gives the victims dignity. I couldn't agree more.


With that said, I learned a little trick on matting. I wanted one of my pastel pieces to have a purple suede mat, but they cost $70.00 for a whole board, $50.00 to have one cut and it's not even real suede! It's some kind of polyester material. Bah! Call me frugal, call me cheap, but you can't call me naive. I found that with either some beautiful purple material or (even easier) some pretty shiny purple ribbon, I could embellish matboard to create the fabric texture of my desire. What's really cool is you can take matboard scraps and piece them together and lay the material over it to cover. Fabric glue or double sided tape for the ribbon works great. Just make sure materials are all acid free.

Now one of my art teachers said not to give away secrets, but I have to tell you...I was so frustrated trying to find information about fabric mats on the Internet that I think someone needs to share so other artists won't take out a second mortgage to pay for framing materials!

In case you are interested, I included a couple of websites that offer free info on matting and framing.

Framing for Yourself
How to Mat a Picture
Framing Ideas

Think outside the green.