How do your friends react to your OA (framed and hung or otherwise)

[Bronty]

Doc, just noticed you have the spider kaluta HOM cover up (thumbs u

 

Great piece.

[Rune]

 

Joe,

 

What an elegant setup. I've always been a fan of simple black mats. Really makes the art pop!

 

- Phill

 

I fully agree and have also been inspired by Joe's black passe-partouts and black frames for inked pieces (I guess there's some truth to "once you go black, you'll never go back" )

 

Of course paintings in full color are different.

 

Here on the outskirts of known civilization I have 11 framed pieces up, few get comments, and unless I explain the pieces I guess some persons might just think I've framed monochrome copies of drawings to please the kids. FF, Hulk and Superman are easy to recognize for most persons, Galactus not so much - recently one of my good friends, a chief physician (we have watched a few superhero movies in the past), saw my Galactus Maquette and said knowingly "I can see you've got a nice statue of Iron Man".

 

 

[jaybuck43]

A fair bit of my art is framed and occupies the back staircases of the house,

 

example of some of the art on the back staircase going up

 

The Secret Wars and GR covers are visible from the kitchen

 

 

Then going up the stairs

 

 

and around the corner,

 

 

and down the staircase towards the basement

 

 

just a very small sampling of what I have up.

 

Universally the reaction is "this is the coolest stuff ever"; people always love it (I don't think they are just being polite!)

 

They think this just seeing it then when descriptions of the artists and what is going on and showing the different elements of how the comics were made etc they seem to really like it, kids of course have a great time.

 

(recently "this is the coolest house I have ever been in - but then I have a big video arcade in the basement and I had an in depth conversation with an 8 year old about the latest Nova comic and showed him some of the OA covers from the series which was pretty awesome!)

 

Joe

 

Doc

 

You've got some AMAZING pieces. I agree with you going the Black Matte route with published pieces. I like to go with White Matte for simpler sketches or colored pieces.

 

 

[Stalzer2002]

A fair bit of my art is framed and occupies the back staircases of the house,

 

example of some of the art on the back staircase going up

 

The Secret Wars and GR covers are visible from the kitchen

 

 

Then going up the stairs

 

 

and around the corner,

 

 

and down the staircase towards the basement

 

 

just a very small sampling of what I have up.

 

Universally the reaction is "this is the coolest stuff ever"; people always love it (I don't think they are just being polite!)

 

They think this just seeing it then when descriptions of the artists and what is going on and showing the different elements of how the comics were made etc they seem to really like it, kids of course have a great time.

 

(recently "this is the coolest house I have ever been in - but then I have a big video arcade in the basement and I had an in depth conversation with an 8 year old about the latest Nova comic and showed him some of the OA covers from the series which was pretty awesome!)

 

Joe

 

Wow! That is an amazing set-up

[Rune]

 

[...] I agree with you going the Black Matte route with published pieces. I like to go with White Matte for simpler sketches or colored pieces.

 

 

Looks great, then there's the question about mat sizes - previously I let my framing shop decide and suddenly everything grew quite a bit in size - and the cost of Museum glass too - still I'm happy with the result, although it does eat up more wall space:

 

 

Maybe easier to see the size, when compared to the book:

 

 

Size is 26.8" x 19.7". I've asked them to reduce the mat about 1" (length and width) for the next piece.

 

Of course slightly frustrating if no one recognizes and appreciates the time and effort put into collecting such pieces - and the art in itself. I have just one friend who actually knows the name George Perez. So here it's a lonely hobby - as I told my wife, only other collectors at Collector's Society and CAF understand me

[vodou]

Nobody else gets that claustrophobic feeling looking at those black mattes closing in on the b/w art? It's worse when the mattes are large, but even smaller maybe an inch or two around..I still get the same feeling. Just me, right?

[suspense39]

Most of the people I have over have little interest in it, they are more interested in the other art in the house. And if they say anything, they ask if it's Dan Clowes.......and if I tell them who it is, they say "oh" and move on to a painting or something.

[suspense39]

Nobody else gets that claustrophobic feeling looking at those black mattes closing in on the b/w art? It's worse when the mattes are large, but even smaller maybe an inch or two around..I still get the same feeling. Just me, right?

 

Personally, I like the black lines to shine and not be softened by a large amount of black surrounding it.......but hey, people like different things

[AKA Rick]

Most of the people I have over have little interest in it...

 

Also, sometimes "less is more" so creating aesthetic spacing of a few pieces over an abundance with sensory overload creates a calmer less chaotic look and feel where people may take the time to glace more attentively at a piece or two rather than feel overwhelmed by a massive number all clustered together.

[Rune]

Nobody else gets that claustrophobic feeling looking at those black mattes closing in on the b/w art? It's worse when the mattes are large, but even smaller maybe an inch or two around..I still get the same feeling. Just me, right?

 

It's just you

 

Well, tried to limit the mat on the FF 556, because it's a large piece, but I'm not too happy with it - guess I just love big black mats! (strange, I get the feeling that these last words did not really sound right )

 

 

Of course it's a matter of taste, and taste is individual... But using black mats and frames on inked pieces, I believe you increase the focus on a piece as much as possible - a white mat reflects more light, may increase percieved contrast and generally seems more distracting to my eyes (some pieces do look great using a white mat too).

 

The above pieces may also illustrate why I rarely introduce the art to visitors and friends - here a strange rock monster is shown on top of a large pile of human skulls and surrounded by dead bloody and gunshot bodies - on the other piece a screaming man gets eaten alive by zombies - I've also got a man in a white dress getting a nice chainsaw treatment - such pieces may give naive bystanders the wrong impression of my gentle, caring and warm personality

[VictorH]

My friends know I'm into comics, and are aware that I collect art before they see it in person -mostly from conversations about going to cons, and what I do there. We have three walls where we hang stuff, and rotate through the pieces we have framed. Generally, people find it either interesting, or don't comment on it. Those that are interested and come by regularly like to check out what's new on the walls when they visit.

 

I'm just lucky that my wife and I are both into collecting comic art (although it's not so great on the wallet sometimes). We I felt like we're getting to much black on our walls, so we've mostly stopped framing b/w art, and are starting to round things out with colored pieces. We've experimented a bit, but lately we've been going for double mattes - a larger outer matte that a more neutral color, with a small inner one that is a complementary color to the piece. The right color scheme for a frame can really make a piece stand out.

 

We were a little concerned the mix of colors would look odd, but I think it's been ok. Here's our current set up:

 

[alxjhnsn]

Nice

[Doc Joe]

Nice

 

Part of my thinking and inspiration for my framing set up was from the gallery at Metropolis where the pictures are framed the same and displayed with a very pleasing density in the way museums used to show art and sometimes still do. I really like that look and found that the similarity of the frame allows one to focus on the art rather than be distracted by the frame itself.

 

I have about 80 covers framed and other pieces as well; I just don't have the wall space (at the moment!) to put them all up, I have my two staircases which is why I have a degree of density there. Regardless I enjoy a wall of comic art and I have enough to create one!

 

When my comic room gets finished then it will be a cheap Metropolis knock off with comics art all over the walls!

 

All the art stuff is subjective; I fawn over pieces that others could care a less about; I yawn and wonder what the point is for pieces that people lose their mind over.

 

No reason to think people won't have their own framing and displaying styles as well.

 

At the end of the day as Terry always (correctly) reminds us...are you doing this for you or to impress someone else? If its for you..it cant be wrong!

 

 

[Doc Joe]

e.g.

 

 

 

obviously some difference in the framing but these pieces have been acquired over a long period of time; the over all gestalt is the same.

[vodou]

...are you doing this for you or to impress someone else? If its for you..it cant be wrong!

 

Oh yeah, excellent point.

[mister_not_so_nice]

not mine (I WISH ) but I love THIS DISPLAY ON CAF

[vodou]

not mine (I WISH ) but I love THIS DISPLAY ON CAF

I really want to dislike that, but the white surrounds and then the quantity (somehow impressive but not overwhelming?), even though mounted with the comics (ugh)...well it sure is hard to hate guy with a Williams Black Knight

[Silver Surfer]

That is pretty awesome but I have mixed feelings about whether I would use space to frame the original comic too.