Monday, April 19, 2010

The Crossing Calling

In 1973 we established Saltiel Originals to make reproductions of my art. Now isn't that an oxymoron? The first prints were in black and white of these pencil drawings ...


Over time we added colour images of landscapes and flowers and expanded our line to include cards, limited edition prints and recently mousepads.
http://www.artbysaltiel.com/Reprod/reproductions.htm

Living right next to Banff National Park and it's guaranteed continuous flow of ever changing, international tourists saw us do exceptionally well wholesaling thousands of framing prints and cards. The downturn in tourism began with September 11th, 2001 and it's weak comeback has been dashed by the "new economy". As well, Internet communication and digital photography has changed the demand for cards causing this market to all but evaporate.

While we welcome retiring from the business, the excessive inventory we still have concerns me. So, when The Crossing Resort calls each spring we respond. They are a seasonal operation (April to October) and their gift shop (affectionately known as the gold mine) is the largest in the Canadian Rockies. http://www.thecrossingresort.com/tourist.html Since 1992 I have had the honour of being exclusively their only print artist ...


During the high times we farmed out all the collating and packaging but these days, with primarily only The Crossing to outfit, we do that ourselves. Painting is on hold for a spell while I do "dungeon duty" assembling what merchandise we need in preparation for the road trip. Soon, we'll travel past Lake Louise up one of the most scenic of all drives on Alberta's #93 north, The Banff - Japser Highway, and my heart will sing.

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