Where did all the hours go?

Yup, you caught us. We've already missed posts in the first full week of our blog. We've got a pretty good excuse, however. We're swamped! (Yay!) This year marks the 50th anniversary of performances at the Bigfork Summer Playhouse, with the first show opening on the 15th -- one week from today. In conjunction with this landmark date, the BCPA Foundation is just now completing a $1.1 million renovation of the theater itself, with a new sound system, new HVAC and a stunning lobby expansion. The photo here is a shot of the exterior. Earlier this week the cleaning crew finally finished up, and a couple of board members realized that many of the displays that used to hang on the walls looked a little...um...tired in comparison to the rest of the space. So, they contacted us for designs to display 50 years of programs, head shots of the performers and directors, and a few other select pieces -- all to be completed by next Thursday! As a result, everything else came to a full stop while we created a design concept that works with the unusual hanging system and the decor -- we'll post photos after everything is installed.

Art Walk is tomorrow -- we'll post photos of the newly rehung gallery and the big party next week.

Spring Art Walk

Tuesdays are our Mondays. And since it was a madhouse here today, we didn't get a chance to write something witty for the blog. So just a quick reminder - join us this Saturday, May 9th, from 3:00 - 7:00 for the art walk! We will have good food, good friends and great art. Derek came up with a clever idea for a dessert item (mojito cupcakes, anyone?) and this week we will be tearing everything apart and putting it all back together for a fresh look in the gallery. We have several brand new pieces from Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey, and the UPS man brought a big box of new Carol Hagan giclees today. Our door prize will be a really cool sneak preview from our brand new artist, but I'm not telling who it is! Hope to see you all on Saturday. (And no, you don't have to wear brown and white polka dots....)

Where to Start?

Since our intent for this little corner of Cyberspace is to supplant our website -- at least for the time being -- there are all sorts of things we want to post here, like RIGHT NOW! Information about the artists we represent, paintings currently available in the gallery, a description and photographs of the amazing shadowbox Christine designed last month, cool new photoframes we just unpacked -- there's so much that we could both sit at a computer all day, uploading and posting until the sun goes down. But, there's always work to be done, so we have to proceed in a logical and methodical manner.

So, for today, a list of the artists whose pieces we're currently showing. It's not a big list; our philosophy is to have a large body of work from a few people, rather than one or two paintings each from a bunch of folks. We're currently showing paintings and photographs from twelve artists, all from Montana, and we're hoping to add some very unique sculpture for the upcoming summer season. Our artists are:

Nancy Dunlop Cawdrey

Brady Fisher

Mark Gibson

Carol Hagan

Scott Hale

Billy Knoll

Bruce Park

Genise Park

Brian Schweyen

Christine Vandeberg

Carole Wade

Clint Walker

As time allows, we will post a brief bio and some photos of current works from each artist, and we'll edit this post so that each name becomes a hotlink to that artist's "page." If you see something you like, we encourage you to contact us -- new pieces arrive often, so we should always have something else to show you. Stay tuned...

Happy Birthday to us!

It's been eleven years since Frame of Reference first opened its door for business here in beautiful Bigfork, and as a gift we've decided to finally have a presence on the Web. Yeah, you're right -- we should have had a website years ago, but for whatever reason, we've never really made it a priority of the business. We've got a pretty unique vibe here, as any of you who've visited will know, and we still haven't come up with a site that accurately reflects who we are and what we do. Thus, the blog -- a way of communicating with the world and giving you a little taste of what Frame of Reference is all about. This is a work in progress -- it's likely to change significantly in style and format as time passes and we become more comfortable with the medium, so please bear with us as we learn. Thanks!


So here's the plan: we're committed to posting every day, even if it's just a few words and a photo or two. We want to feature new pieces in the gallery, cool framing projects we've completed, amazing new corner samples, or maybe just a shot of the brilliant sunset that day. Our ultimate desire is to provide a window into our world, one that's more immediate and interactive than a simple website -- this will be different every day, instead of only changing when we get around to contacting our web designer with updates. Look for a slide show in the next couple of weeks, and please feel free to comment on anything you see here. Welcome -- we hope you enjoy your visit!