At the tail ends of a challenging winter, (tons of snow = tons of shoveling!) February and March are often travel and vacation months for folks here in the north-Midwest. Vacation photos are still relevant, but more and more being stored digitally rather than in print. Thus, more and more vacationers are celebrating their travels by bringing home art that they purchased while visiting various locales. Original artworks and canvases, fine art prints, textiles and weavings, photographs, art postcards, and even art souvenirs can be purchased in galleries, museums, art fairs, gift shops, and street bazaars. We’ve seen customers spend thousands of dollars as well as mere pennies on their special mementos!

Our customer acquired this mint condition antique mini calendar on auction for a hefty sum while visiting Red Wing, MN for the annual Red Wing Collectors Society Convention.

This Chinese palm painting was acquired on our customer’s business trip to the region. The street artist sold his work for a mere farthing of its worth. The value to the customer is far beyond monetary cost.

And at the ends of a challenging winter, we are grateful to be able to frame the beautiful works from all over the world (especially the warm places!). Each type of art has special needs, and our expert team is ready to help you both display and preserve your travel tokens.

One type of art we often see from foreign travel is original paintings on paper. These are often matted with non-archival materials for display and purchase, and we will recommend simple ways to #heartyourart such as archival and acid free matting and UV glass. Another common type of travel art is rolled canvas. We generally advise our customers to have these works stretched over an inner frame, with the options to add an outer frame and glass to further enhance the display and defend against fading, dirt, dust, and fingers.

This canvas was acquired in Cuba, and brought back rolled. We stretched it and framed it for display.

These four blocks are textile art from Hong Kong. We used archival mounting methods and framed them with museum glass.

A street scene acquired in Peru. The painting was bled to the edges of the paper, so we used matting methods to display as much of the artwork as possible.

A poster to remember a great trip to the great city of Chicago merits museum glass and class-act framing!

This tapestry from Egypt was framed with a float mount and a traditional moulding profile to suit the customer’s aesthetic.

This Humuhumunukunukuapua`a (yup, that’s what its called) is the official state fish of Hawaii. The canvas print was mounted and framed without glass.

When considering “souvenir” purchases, travelers often gravitate toward what they can carry home on a plane. But don’t let that deter you from purchasing the dream piece you find on your wanderings! Gladstone Gallery owner Barbara Gladstone says to ship what you can’t carry. “Most artwork is shipped by plane, but with heavy pieces like furniture or ceramics, you’re better off shipping by boat,” she noted in a 2016 New York Times article. Gladstone also suggests that travelers not be afraid to buy art on the spot, especially at art fairs. “Because if you don’t, it will be gone,” she says. Now, we aren’t the types to encourage unfettered purchase decisions, but travel often arouses inspirations of freedom, peace, growth, rest, joy, and awe. And if an artwork is motivating the feelings that a trip represents, perhaps the “impulse” should be acted upon…

But back to vacation photos. These special snaps and portraits are equally worthy of display. We have many solutions to show your vacation photographs. Our fine art printing and digital department can print your photos on papers for traditional framing, canvas for gallery wrap hangings, high gloss acrylic prints, and we can even engineer custom digital collages. Multiple opening mats, ready-made frames, and easels are other choices for vacay photo presentation.

We printed this customer’s safari photo in house, and framed accordingly.

Our customer captured this mama bear on her trip to Alaska. We reproduced the photograph onto an acrylic print, and framed in a fun and fierce moulding.

So come see us with your travel art, vacation photos, or anything really (we’re not fussy)! We’d love to hear about your adventures, and help you preserve your mementos and share your stories.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

Twyla Tharp