Framing delights
With frames, it is all about the work of art. The frame serves to enhance what it surrounds. Protecting and delineating the boundaries of a work of art or photograph. In times gone by, frames were often ornate, but always monochrome, to avoid upstaging the main event.
Right or Wrong?
The right frame can make or break a work. But is the frame at risk? Has it become too ubiquitous? Are too many images framed in black? On a computer monitor or through the darkness of the cinema? Have we broken with the frame or is the frame broken, obsolete? When did the frame actually make its debut? Was it for a picture? For art, this was easily as big an invention as the wheel was for… well for everything else.
Picture Perfect
A picture is still a picture without a frame. Yet we seem to need to frame it, to focus our attention. Living pictures too. In nature reserves, frames are erected so that people are directed to admire the view from the best possible perspective. Do you need one of these frames? Have you never been tempted to look through one? Does a frame add life or freeze it, capturing a moment in time? Yes, there are frameless frames, but so what? There are skinless sausages too; the world is full of anomalies.
Enhancement
And if a frame truly enhances, perhaps we should be more appreciative of the work frames do for us. Frames are everywhere and if they can focus our attention on art why not on other things? Perhaps they direct us more often than we realise. Apart from the obvious frames around doors and windows, the other things you gather around you actually frame your life. When friends visit your home, it tells them more about you than you need to put into words. If it fits, it emphasises who you are. Delightfully.
Delights
So have you chosen the right frame? Has it gathered around you like tumbleweed? Or does your frame upstage you? You can create a frame from as little or as much as you like, your interior can be minimalist or, at the other end of the scale, an overflowing cornucopia. If you are comfortable and your selection was always conscious, you will no doubt have created a perfect frame. If not, it is time to start, after all, framing delights.