Skip to main content

Help! Wanted




 In July 1965, The Beatles released a song titled “Help!” with the ever so famous lines:

“Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round”

It was the fourth of six number 1 hits in a row for the English rock band.
  

Flash forward and take a leap of faith with me in that this song was written as foreshadow for Poster Mountain.  2014 quickly has become the year that John Davis needed just that, Help!
We now have four new employees that will be working to continue the great works of those before us in restoring and taking care of your precious posters and fine art.  Let’s quickly introduce you to them and talk about our first team project.


Pete –




Pete started working in graphics and art since the age of 20 and hails from Canada, eh?  Since starting in November, Pete has quickly acclimated to California and Poster Mountain where he is an integral part of the team because of his graphic design background and eye for artistic vision. 
To meet Pete and see his personal work, check out the link below.



Shelly – 



Shelly is born and raised in California and has been illustrating since she first picked up a pencil.  She graduated from California State University of Northridge with a bachelors in Design with an emphasis in illustration.  Over the past few years, she has incorporated new techniques which she is known for using in her artwork, much of which you can find in her blog, linked below.  As of March, Shelly has quickly found her place at Poster Mountain and brings great energy and quality workmanship to the company.


Julie – 


Julie is a restoration pro and is known for restoring anything and everything, from furniture to art.  She comes to us from previously working at an Art Gallery in Orange County where she has handled stretching, touch up, display, and much more.  She has been working in art for over 30 years and in January came over to Poster Mountain.  Julie says she completely understands the serious work in which we restore precious artwork and posters but absolutely loves the simple, pure, good natured energy of Poster Mountain and everyone that works here. 


Jason – 


To wrap up the list, it’s time to introduce myself.  I will be your narrator, asking you to join me in this journey as we restore and conserve artwork that range from artists such as Miro, Picasso, and Banksy to posters as old as the early 1900s and lithographs dating back to the 15th Century, treating them as our own with the utmost care.  I started my run at Poster Mountain as of April 1st and most people that come in know me as the “New Chelsea” (feel free to use that or Jason, I go by both)

I have a background in Business Management and since being employed here, I have truly realized how untalented I am by the incredible staff we have here at Poster Mountain.  I have background work in Photoshop and as a hobby/stress relief I love to sketch.  If there is anything you ever need, please let me know as I am here to assist.  

 This week, as a team, we took on remounting a 24 Sheet poster of The Beatles film, HELP! released in 1965.

We began the process by mounting a large canvas to the warehouse wall and applied a water soluble  adhesive with paint rollers.  During this process, John shared Poster Mountain's conservation guidelines which states that all projects and/or archived work have to reversible.

























Quickly after applying the adhesive, we applied a linen backed paper to the canvas to further stabilize the poster once mounted.  




The linen paper is applied directly to the canvas and from there it becomes a race against drying.  Before the paper adheres to the canvas, we carefully push the paper from the center moving outward to remove any air bubbles and wrinkles.  This step is critical as the poster will be directly mounted to the paper and any flaws will be noticeable.


After carefully applying the linen paper we begin to treat the poster.  We will wash each sheet with a soap solution and water and remove any dirt, mold, or particles. 



In this photo, I am applying the soap solution and Robin is applying the adhesive to the back of the sheet.



I like to think that John is smiling because Help is officially here.


A difficult step in the process of mounting a 24 sheet is aligning each panel layering it with the previous.  John and Julie carefully place each sheet, one layered over the next so the artwork presents itself as one full panel.



Once this long process is completed, we let the poster dry.  This is when the communication channels open with our clients as to what further restoration work is needed and send photos of the progress


This is who we are and this is what we do.  We are very excited to be a part of the team and can not wait to get to working on your next project.  Contact us at postermount@aol.com if you need any restoration work and rest assured that it will be in the best of hands!

Comments