After the hosta and before the hummingbirds
It's hard to beat a Peony. Peonies announce the heart of spring just when we need it, and you can divide them to get more for free!
We get to enjoy these lovely blooms thanks to a little help from ants. Have you ever noticed ants crawling all over peony buds? It's one of nature's symbiotic partnerships; the buds have nectar that feed the ants, and in turn the ants protect the buds from other insects that would harm them. Once the flowers bloom the ants move on to their next meal and we get to enjoy the show.
We're old school.
Pictured here is a medium format Plaubel Makina, a film camera from the 1980s that gets plenty of use here at CLYDE.
When it comes to photography, we like film. Our fashion models are photographed with cameras from generations past, and so are the photographs in our wall art series. We develop the film and scan the images ourselves, and value the analog hands-on nature of the work.
While we're on the subject
Say, could you use a book recommendation? Check out An Absorbing Errand: How Artists and Craftsmen Make Their Way to Mastery by Janna Malamud Smith.
An absorbing errand is that nourishing thing we do to keep ourselves on an even keel. As an example, the author cites her elderly mother-in-law, Edie. Though she was an accomplished gardener, Edie lived in the northeastern United States and so she couldn’t practice her craft in the hard winter months. Each winter, she would become a little groundless and irritable, but then she returned to her agreeable self when the muddy spring thaw allowed her to resume her outdoor projects.
Smith writes, “I grew up surrounded by writers, painters, potters, musicians — artists of all sorts. But it wasn’t until I observed Edie in and out of her garden that I recognized the shared patterns I had long witnessed: life is better when you have a sustaining practice that holds your desire, demands your attention, and requires effort, a plot of ground that gratifies the wish to labor and create and rule over a world of your own.”
About framing, and if you should choose it
We offer our wall art in framed and unframed versions because framing is a matter of personal style and we want you to have the look that you want for your room.
The wood frame we offer features a clean black design, and the art is protected behind clear acrylic with no decorative matting surrounding the art. We made these choices because we love the look and want our art to be affordable. So if you want a more custom design, the best choice is to start with one of our unframed prints and work with a local framer.
(But we think you'll love our framed version!)
And finally, about delivery
Printing, framing, and carefully packaging your art takes time, but not as much as you might think. Normally it takes days, rather than weeks. We think you'll agree that the short wait is worth it.
