Old Town Editions and John Kiernan of Blue Line Studios have teamed up to donate a custom hand-embellished print for a special charity auction this Sunday, March 10, 2013 from 3 to 6 PM.  This benefit auction is for 17 year Alexandria Police veteran Peter Laboy. Laboy sustained a catastrophic gunshot to the head last week in a traffic stop just blocks from our own Old Town Alexandria print studio. He is still in critical condition. The benefit auction on Sunday is to raise money for him and his family to help as much as possible with bills and anything else they need during this tough time. Please come out to Virtue Feed & Grain this Sunday to show your support for your local law enforcement.

A hand-embellished print allows an artist to put a special unique touch on a print.  This technique can be used to offer variations of a fine art reproduction (also known as a giclee).  An embellished print is more valuable than a print that has not been embellished but less valuable than the original painting. It is important to note that just because the artist has put his/her unique touch on each print this is not to be mistaken in any way, shape or form as an original.  It is simply a hand-embellished print.  This technique allows an artist to offer a custom product for each of their clients at a lower price point from the original and a higher price point than the limited edition giclees.  This allows an artist to hit several demographics, creating a larger market for themselves.  Someone that can’t afford the original painting from an artist but still wants a custom piece of art from that artist can purchase the hand embellished print.

You can get updates on officer Laboys progress and make donations at www.caringbridge.org/visit/peterlaboy

Earlier this year we were approached about a new concept The Art League had to build a photo booth. They were looking for a sponsor to aid in the purchase of camera and software for the photo booth and we jumped at the opportunity. What a great idea! Over the years we have donated extra fine art printing materials and offered special rates to Art League members. This was a perfect match.

We started brainstorming with them on their design, offering any insight we could to create the best photo booth possible. They commissioned photographer Tom Roberts to construct the photo booth and we offered to paint the photo booth as part of our sponsorship. We decided to use an oversize version of our logo to decorate the booth.  The only catch was it had to be hand painted because we had no way to transfer a print to the booth in a high quality way.

Old Town Editions staff painting the Art League’s
photo booth