MOUNT VERNON — Caroline Witmer’s art restoration studio is a portal into the unknown.
With carpets laid across the cement floor, Witmer’s restoration projects are scattered throughout with their own unique stories to tell at Uptown Custom Framing and Art Restoration at 316 S. Main Street.
A rare signed contact sheet of “The Jimmy Hendrix Experience” lays across the table—a piece put in Witmer’s shop in need of mold removal from a Chicago-based client. This is one of the many unique pieces that can be found.
After completing her degree in fine arts at the University of Washington, Witmer said she started a framing job right out of college, finding out she was good at it.
Witmer started her own business at 29 years old, realizing in her career the paintings she’d framed were dirty and ripped.
“I thought I better learn how to clean these ’cause it goes against me to frame something that’s filthy,” Witmer said.
Witmer learned from those she knew throughout the art industry, asking for tips and lessons until she was proficient in restoration.
After relocating from Seattle to Ohio 10 years ago, Witmer opened a restoration and framing shop in uptown Westerville, thus the name Uptown Custom Framing and Art Restoration.
Though after purchasing property in Apple Valley, Witmer wanted to continue her craft while staying in Knox County.
Restoration has taken a steep increase in popularity, Witmer said, partially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The framing industry went crazy,” Witmer said. “We were so busy. And I was so busy ’cause I’d go to clients’ homes and they’d leave their painting on the doorstep and I’d grab it.”
Witmer works alongside former Village Inn restaurant owner Margaret Lewis, who focuses on framing while Witmer centers around art restoration.
How to restore art
When restoring an art piece, Witmer stays focused on a specific section, fixating on every detail.
“And when I’m done, if you can see where I’ve repaired it, then it’s not good enough,” she said. “When I repair something or rip or restore something, I try to make it look exactly like the day it was finished being painted. I don’t want you to know where it was ripped.
“I just take my time,” she continued. “Sometimes it takes me a day and sometimes it takes me three months, but I keep going. And I don’t stop until it’s done ’cause there are times when I feel like stopping but I can’t.”
Though there’s a stressful component to restoration, Witmer says it’s also calming.
“Then there’s the emotional connection people have to a painting, where it’s just as valuable to me as the monetary value of the painting,” Witmer said.
“Whether or not it’s a $50,000 painting or if it’s the painting that your father did in Germany right there, every painting is equal to me.”
Witmer plans to stay in Knox County restoring paintings until she’s physically unable to.
“I love it here,” Witmer said. “I’ll never leave.
“I’ll be framing and restoring art in this building till the day I die.”