Updating the Wagtime Gallery Wall on Capitol Hill

Across the street from the historic Navy Yard on Capitol Hill is Wagtime! It's a great place for all things dogs and cats. And luckily for me, I have a storefront "gallery wall" to showcase my digital art custom pet portraits. Every few months for the last few years, I've been updating and refreshing the wall with the custom portraits that I've painted for customers from all over the country. Once I have at least fifteen or more available since the last update, I print them from my iPad to the very slow HP printer in my closet studio, along with a few sheets of business cards and a few in process photos. Then they are cut to size and everything is packed up in to my carry case, including spray on and stick glue and Velcro. Since most of the new pieces replace older ones, I don't need to mount the new images on new foam board pieces, but simply stick them on over the older images. It's so nice to be able to show the portraits this way. I'd like to thank Lisa Schrieber for allowing me to use her space, and really appreciate the positive press Wagtime has provided. If you are ever in town and happen to be by the Navy Yard on M street, please stop by and take a look! 

Goeller's Office and Art Supplies in McLean

I create a lot of digital pet portraits on my IPad and get commissions from all over the country and as far away as Australia.  The reason I like it so much is that it is really cheap to mail the end product. It is a jpeg image that is sent directly over email as an attachment. But I also have a gallery wall of sorts at the Wagtime Shop on Capitol Hill. In order to display the art I need to not only print 91/2 by 11's on photo paper, but also mount each piece on foam board. I used to cut large boards down to size with a blade, but the edges were never really straight. So I found pre cut board on Amazon since I could never get it at Staples. I've been to Utrecht Art Supplies down town for mats, but found another place in McLean called Goeller's that is less of a hassle to maneuver in both traffic and parking wise. When I called to see if they carried the precut boards, they didn't. But they offered to cut the larger boards to size. Since I had about eight pieces that were ready to hang this weekend, I decided to get the foam board at Goeller's. The boards were cut and ready when I got there. I also picked up ten plastic page protection sleeves taken from a larger box and some mailers. Rather than use Velcro for hanging the portraits, I thought I might try UHU Tac... Some sticky silly putty stuff that might work better and is definitely cheaper. It's probably a little more expensive at Goeller's, but it was very convenient and the guys in the store were very nonchalantly accommodating.