Our stores will close at 3pm on Saturday May 27th, 2023. We will reopen Tuesday morning at our regular times.
Please have a safe and Happy Holiday Weekend!!!
One of Oak Park’s Greatest
Sometime in the early 1960’s a young man from St. Louis arrived in Chicago to attend The Art Institute. He accidentally discovered that the school would lend camera’s to students to take home with them. So he grabbed a 16mm movie camera and began filming the things he saw in his neighborhood. Fortunately, for us, being a poor college student, he lived in one of the rougher neighborhoods in Chicago and was able to document early ’60’s Chicago. He was always drawn to the weird, the unusual, and the very real.
Tom signing one of his most memorable photographs.
The film that Tom Palazzolo exposed during his time in Chicago became the first of a burgeoning national movement that came to be known as Underground Films. First shown at night in coffee house’s around the city Tom’s films began to be discussed in Chicago’s underground press and Tom’s fame spread from there.
Tom's image of the world famous “tattooed lady”, Jean Carroll.
In our community of Oak Park we are lucky to have many great artist’s and Tom Palazzolo and his photographer wife Marsha are among our greatest. We were very lucky recently to purchase some of Tom and Marsha’s photograph’s. Why not stop in and see the work of two remarkable Oak Park legends.
Thank You to Our Customers
We want to take a moment to thank everyone for their patronage during these extraordinary times. Our hours are now the same in both stores: Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm.
Fabulous Metal Frame Colors
Nothing says Art or Poster like these Nielsen Metal Frame colors. A wide variety of electric colors are available and are just perfect for kids art, teenage art and modern posters!
Do you have a collectible limited signed music poster from a concert? People have been using these on New Orleans Music Festival and Grateful Dead posters to spectacular effect.
Remember Nielsen Metal frames are the highest quality made. Accept no substitutes!
What is a Gallery Wrap?
One question we get asked a lot is “what is a gallery wrap”?
Some paintings or printings on canvas, usually the larger ones, can lend themselves to a gallery wrap. This is where we use a stretcher bar that is thicker than normal and wrap the painted or printed art work around the sides of the stretcher bar. Some painters plan for this and paint the sides of the canvas that
wrap around the stretcher bars so the painting can hang without a frame or be put in to a floater frame.
See gallery wrap detail example below:
For original paintings we think about artist intent and follow the visual clues the artist has left us. Did they paint the sides when they originally painted the art? Was the canvas stapled to the back of the stretcher bars or the sides? Where has the artist placed their signature? These and other factors come into play when evaluating whether a painting or a print on canvas can be gallery wrapped.
See a complete gallery wrap example below:
Fortunately, for all involved, we have 40 years experience in stretching canvas. We can help you navigate the choices you have in stretching a painting or printed art on canvas and whether or not to frame it, floater frame it or gallery wrap it.
