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About Us
We are Sam and Karen Dantone.
We came to live in Florence, Oregon in
the Spring of 2001 and bought our sign shop in January of 2004.
We met at Carter Sexton art
store in Los Angeles California and in each other we found our soul
mate. We
married eleven months later and decided to move from the area within 3
months
after marriage. Sam and I, along with our teenage sons Sean and Chas,
moved to
the Yreka area near Mt. Shasta. We lived there for a year and
reluctantly left
because of the dry weather but not before discovering a truly magical,
beautiful land. The mountain created it’s own weather and often,
sitting in our
5 acre “yard”, we’d watch the clouds gathering as they moved across the
sky. We
decided to look at the green on a map when trying to figure out what
climate
would best suit us. This ultimately led us to our current home in a
town called
Florence on the coast of Oregon. Sam started working for an existing
sign shop in
2002. Henderson Signs had been in business for 30 years. Within two
years, we
had purchased the shop, changed it’s name and moved it to a larger
location
just down the road. When asked why we picked the name Treehouse, our
response
is that ultimately, we love trees and our name reflects creativity and
discovery, two important aspects of making art. It is a busy, vital
shop in a
2,200 square foot space. We have made some dear friends and are happy
to have
met so many great people in town because of our profession. Florence
has offered us many
avenues. Although it is a quieter town than Los Angeles (8,600
population), we
really enjoy it. The rain is what makes this coastal town what it is.
When it
stops, all the plants and flowers know it’s time to blossom and grow.
The air
is without pollution. Hiking in the forests or on the sand dunes,
walking on
the beach, sitting along the riverbank, picking blackberries and having
an
amazing garden have been just a few of the things we’ve enjoyed since
moving
here.
I, (Karen) have been a faux
finisher for over 25 years, working in homes and businesses throughout
Los
Angeles County. I enjoyed teaching faux finishing for a few of the
community
colleges during a 7 year time span. Although this art has been around
for more
than ten centuries using oil paints, I prefer water based paints and
glazes.
These have proven to be just as colorful and long lasting as oil.
Besides, they
are much less toxic. Oil paints outgas for years and years, where water
based
products outgas within days. My favorite faux finishing projects are
copying
real pieces of wood or marble. They are always one of a kind and I
marvel at
how beautiful some of this worlds treasures are. The one thing I used
to say to
my students when someone would mention that they like “earth tones” was
that
everything on this planet is an earth
tone. The world doesn’t judge which rocks or flowers, trees or rivers
can go
together. We get stuck by color and are always trying to arrange
everything
into neat little cubbyholes. I’m not as interested in what’s “in” but
what “feels”
good to you. That’s always the place I want to find with each person.
Sam is a lifelong artist.
Since he does not like to toot his own horn,
I’ll do it for him. There is little he can not do, even if he’s never
done it before. He is a person unafraid of trying something new and
finding a
way to do it. He’s a puzzle master and because of that Sam creates
great
artwork, whatever it may be. His personal work usually reflects what
he’s
feeling, a statement he needs to make. He graduated from the University
of
Illinois with a BFA in art and has sold a number of paintings over the
years.
He is currently working on some larger canvases he wishes to put into
galleries
soon. When asked what medium he works in, it’s impossible to say. For
Sam,
there is nothing out of bounds, he commands an array of media. This is
the
beauty of his art and the reason we have such a successful sign shop.
The
knowledge gathered over the years is applied to what we create in our
business.
And lastly, we enjoy being
together. We know it’s not for everyone and many married couples say
they could
never work with their spouse. To us, it’s what makes us happy; sharing
our
lives in every way. We’re creating the life we want to live together
and making
choices based on love, mutual respect and trust. So, that’s us…there’s
more,
but if you managed to read this to the end, your eyes must hurt, so
we’ll leave
it at that….Enjoy!
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