We’re proud to announce that our own Francine Hackerott, with her entry “Eternal Remembrance”, won Best In Show Judges’ Choice Award in the Fifth Annual Tru Vue® Framing Competition! The Frame and I is so blessed and lucky to have Francine as part of our award winning team. You can see her winning memorial frame on display “in person” in the front window at The Frame & I, 229 W. Gurley St., through February!
Here you can see the three contest entries on display at the West Coast Art and Frame show in Las Vegas, January 23rd-26th, 2017.
Meet Competition Winner Francine Hackerott
By Maureen O’Connor, Tru Vue® Marketing Manager
Francine Hackerott thinks of her fellow custom framers and others in the industry as her “extended family.” And the opportunity to share a story about her local community to her custom framing community that motivated her to enter this year’s Tru Vue® Framing Competition.
Francine was so honored and excited to win! Here she is accepting her award at the Tru Vue booth in Paris, Las Vegas.
Francine states: “My entry is something that will go back out to my community, but I like that this competition is also about technical skills and creativity,” said Francine. A long-time proponent of conservation methods when framing, Francine began taking preservation certification courses early in her 30-year career when conservation grade products were new to the industry. “I’m a stickler for conservation,” she said. “Framing is an investment. My focus is on enhancing the piece and making it timeless.” Conservation materials and the emphasis on preservation figure strongly into her design philosophy. Her favorite projects are ones that give her the opportunity to preserve a memory or history and showcase it in a beautiful way. She also impresses customers with her exceptional woodworking talents. A native of Southern California where she began custom framing after graduating after studying graphic design, Francine moved to Arizona nearly 20 years ago and joined Frame & I six years ago after working in shops around the state.
Francine had a lot of support from the Frame and I, with the owner Ida (left), and her boys Everest (middle right) and Zachary (right) in attendance.
The Tru Frameable Moment™
In 2013, 19 of the members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a firefighting team, were lost when trying to protect the environment, property, and people in the area from a rampaging forest fire at Yarnell Hill. Francine’s contest entry is an elegant homage to the courage and dedication of the entire team, and the ultimate sacrifice made by each of its members. We here at the Frame and I, and all of Prescott and Yarnell remember our Hotshots with love and miss them greatly. Not one of us was unaffected by this tragedy.
The Design
The frame was handcrafted from Juniper, significant to this group because it is an indigenous tree that they were known for saving. The ancient Juniper tree the Hotshots saved while fighting the Doce fire a week before they perished at Yarnell also serves as a backdrop in the top image showing the team in a pyramid formation. The bottom image shows the memorial fence the community made outside the group’s training facility on 6th street in Prescott. A LED strip on the inside on the frame signifies an eternal flame, and the names of each team member are highlighted and backlit through Plexiglas along both sides of the display. Photo credit for the black and white photo goes to Rhonda Snyder, and for the top photo goes to Christopher MacKenzie, one of the fallen Hotshots.
Here is a closer look at Francine’s winning frame, titled “Eternal Remembrance”. Scroll down for an even closer look…
Here is the finished frame, hand carved out of Arizona Juniper, with the Hotshots motto and flags among the thoughtful details. See how the names light up? Francine wanted them to glow, like an eternal flame. We love and miss our Hotshots.