What you don't see is just as important

I was commissioned for a painting in early 2012 and it became one of my favorite personal projects in a long time. I built the substrate, prepared the surface, executed the painting, milled the frame and finished it by hand, delivered and installed it (with a lot of help from Marc, Gary and Jake), and sat down to great Thai food and great conversation when all was said and done.

The greatest difficulty for this piece proved to be the installation. Highrise residential construction typically use metal framing and hanging large scale artwork needs extra security. I used a double French cleat (top and bottom) as the best solution to distribute weight and secure the painting against the wall. Self-tapping screws (recommended for metal studs) didn't feel secure enough so we added additional wall anchors to each cleat, crossed fingers and positioned the painting securely in the cleats. And here's to French cleats: cheers.