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| Christine after a recent half marathon |
Christine Keim Vandeberg is a Vermont native who relocated to Montana in 1994. She is the business-minded one here, handling all of the books and making sure we're on the right track financially. She is also the genius behind the artwork displays and layout in the gallery. She had zero framing experience prior to our opening Frame of Reference, and for the first several months she would hide in the back of the shop when Derek was pricing orders for a client! Much has changed since those days; Christine is the principal designer now, and her eye for color and proportion has translated into a budding painting career. We're showing her work in the gallery (where it's selling quite well), and she's been accepted into the 2011 Bigfork Festival of the Arts. Christine generally does assembly and finishing in the frame shop and seldom builds frames; as a result, she has come up with many of our most innovative designs because she's not stuck in Derek's "that can't be done" mindset.
Derek Vandeberg began his framing career in Missoula 19 years ago; his prior experience came from building custom bicycles. With the ability to use tools and make things firmly in his grasp, Derek learned how to design and build picture frames, and he and Christine decided to strike out on their own with the creation of Frame of Reference in 1998. Derek has taught gallery management and picture framing at both the regional and national levels, and he is responsible for the scheduling and production of framing, making sure work is done when it's been promised. He does most of the actual framing at this point, and attempts to fabricate Chrstine's crazy ideas whenever possible. Derek still loves bicycles, though he doesn't ride nearly enough, and he is currently attempting to use his education by writing the Great American Novel.
Roxie is the newest addition to the team, and the most loveable by far. Roxie was a rescue dog; she was abandoned in Woodland Park in Kalispell in February 2010 at the tender age of ten weeks! Christine adopted her at 12 weeks old after meeting her at Crossfit one day, and she's been charming our clients ever since. We think Roxie is a Boxer/APBT cross with just a splash of Greyhound thrown in for speed. She's fast and sleek and shiny, and many people stop in here at Frame of Reference just to see her even when they don't have any framing to do. She is the Best Dog in the Universe!
