Baer Charlton’s creative take on the Tru Vue® Framing Competition theme “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary” earned him the Best In Show Judges’ Choice Award this year at WCAF.

 

 

Baer won this category through the unique way he was able to tells his customer story through custom framing. His entry, titled “War Over“, investigates the sense of time, place, and character that can be revealed by a person’s ordinary objects, in this case, those that fill a woman’s purse.

 

 

“What’s more ordinary that what’s in a woman’s purse?” said Baer. “But the contents of a woman’s purse are also very unique to her. They tell her story.”

 

 

His portrait of a woman at the end of World War II is revealed in an imaginative package that features the purse itself as part of the frame. Vintage items such as gloves, a handkerchief, sugar ration tickets and a brochure for an insurance company appear to spill from it under Optium Museum Acrylic®.

 

 

 

An experienced woodworker, Baer hand-crafted the frame and the real wood mat that evokes the image of a classic hardwood floor. He used four pieces of glazing to add depth to the piece, mounting items from the purse directly on different layers of acrylic. The entire piece is covered with a layer of Musem Glass®.

 

 

Having spent many years in the custom framing industry, Baer believes that the role of the framer is to support how customers tell their stories through the art and objects that matter to them. He has won numerous awards and entered the Tru Vue Competition for the first time this year.

 

 

“What inspires people to frame is they have a story to tell,” said Baer, who also is a published author, picture framing is about how you tell their stories.”

 

 

As the Best In Show, Judges’ Choice Award winner, Baer will win a year supply of Museum Glass.