Recycled Frames 101: Trashy Tips for Artists on a Budget

Along with the paint-flinging frolics and fantastical play of creating come a handful of rather unglamorous tasks that are often a necessary part of bringing art into the world.

Things like organizing, documenting and framing work may be far less fun than the creating of it, but there's a certain satisfaction in bringing the process full circle and finding ways to add interest and inventiveness to even these more practical aspects of artistry.

Above: "Piranha." Rusty nails wrapped in wire add prickly appeal to this piece.

The Fundamental Pain of Framing
Framing work used to be number one on my blacklist of odious tasks in the art-making process. Part of what I didn't like about it was that it felt so remote from the spontaneity of my creative process. Framing seemed like it was all about making a polished product, with clean glass gleaming for gallery-goers, something expensive-looking and weighty to "contain" a piece and somehow make it more worthy of sale, or fit for display. Blehck! These connotations were enough to make my innards revolt, and I'd often just stash a canvas away in my studio rather than have to deal with this perceived unpleasantness.

Above: "The Displaced." I claimed this frame from a woman cleaning out her storage space. Score!

A Helping of Junk Art Jubilee
Enter Rodney McCoubrey, my kooky collaboration buddy, whose wizardry with recycled junk totally transformed my outlook on framing. I remember the first time I came to Rodney with one of my paintings, and a drab frame I'd salvaged from an Aaron Brother's dumpster. With a screw gun, some paint, yellow electrical wire and some odd bits of rusty junk, suddenly the frame came alive, sang with the piece, harmonizing with it like a back-up singer supports a lead vocalist.

Above: "Shaman." Rodney's and my first junk art frame co-creation.

Although the framing techniques I use now vary from piece to piece, that first junk-bejewelled frame made with Rodney changed my way of holding this formerly loathsome task, making it into an extension of the creative act. Sure, I still have to deal with mundane minutia like threading screw eyes and cutting glass now and then, but at least I no longer dread the framing process.

If you also find framing to be a pain, here are a few ways I've learned to make the process less precise and pricey, and more creative and spicy!

How to Make Your Own Recycled Frames:

1. Why pay when you can dumpster dive? (I'm only partly kidding). Frames in art stores or frame shops are ludicrously overpriced. Why break the bank when you can go to a garage sale or thrift shop, or, better yet, get it for free? I make a habit of frequenting my local art stores to see if they have any frames that have been chipped, broken or damaged and are headed for the dumpster. You'd be surprised at the handsome finds that get tossed away each day for their presumed imperfection!
2. Paint, scratch, scar, layer and prepare your own one-of-a-kind surface. Paint multiple layers of color and then sand through to reveal the shades beneath. Use a knife or other sharp object to create texture in the wet paint.
3. Garnish lovingly with rubbish. Sometimes, after the second step, a frame will feel complete. Other times, you may want to get out some old metal scraps, rusty nails, wire or other miscellaneous junk to bump your frame up to the next level.

Above: "Torero con Flor." The cowbell was the coup d'etat on this baby... A finishing touch by Rodney.

Most importantly, listen to your art. Ask it what colors it wants to be surrounded with, or what found objects would play on the themes or textures already present? What would further its aliveness?

Framing art yourself may take more time and effort than going to the pros, or buying a readymade frame, but I find that it's kind of like conferring a final blessing on a work before it goes out into the world, or onto the wall. Surrounded with a bit of love, and some creative ingenuity, it can sally forth from the studio, into a life of its own.

Above: "Death of a Unicorn." A discarded frame and a dash of electric blue paint are enough to make even a dead unicorn look lively!