“I’ve Been Framed” has echoed from the courtrooms of Clarence Darrow to Johnny Cochran, and from Thurgood Marshall to Abraham Lincoln. I’m sure this common exclamation has wrung out again and again as a common denominator in thousands of criminal cases. However, it’s probably very seldom that this phrase, “I’ve been framed,” has come to have any relationship to a place of comfort, or a place where art, and love, and colorful expression has meant protection and salvation.
My story today takes us to anartistic little picture frame shop in Martinez, California, where all of these phrases, passions, and expressions of love and art have collided. That place is known as the “I’ve Been Framed” frame shop at 411 Ferry Street, at the corner of Marina Vista Avenue.
This is a place where a longtime artist, Cathy Riggs, and a former troubled teenager, Rick Holcomb, became friends and completely turned around a story that could have been quite tragic, concerning a boy once bullied insufferably.
Being bullied leaves lasting pain in those upon whom it is inflicted; pain and memories that not only may last a lifetime, but may also change our values and distort the way we interact with our peers, parents, co-workers and others.
In former FBI director James Comey’s new book, A Higher Loyalty, he explained how he was bullied as a younger child when his family moved from Yonkers, New York, to Allendale New Jersey. Comey’s parents’ finances may’ve been more meager than his peer’s parents, because the clothes that his parents bought for young James did not always fit properly. His attire often included pants that were too short, and socks that were glaring white, or heavy-soled black shoes that were quite different from the other kids. Worst of all, he carried with him a distinct New York accent, and sounded different from all the kids he knew in Allendale. The next three years of his life were spent carefully avoiding the bully boys. Further, as he grew in height, so did the bullying. He went on to say that being an outsider, always being picked upon, was very painful, but in hindsight it made him a better judge of people. Surviving the bullying requires constant learning and adaptation.
Rick Holcomb’s life was never easy. Before he was two years old, the state took him away from his parents who were “found to be unfit.” Prior to high school he spent a major portion of his life living with other relatives and his grandparents, until his grandfather died. He then found himself back with his father and a new stepmother in Danville, California. Much like FBI chief James Comey’s family, his family subsisted with much less income than the typical kids in his school, who all had the nice stuff, like brand-new Levi’s 501 Jeans and Sperry Top-Sider shoes.
Wearing cheaper looking clothing set him apart from the other kids, so in order to survive the bullying, he modified a lot of what he was wearing into unique clothing styles, perhaps even a bit gothic. Rick said the often repeated comment that cut him the deepest was his stepmother’s favorite bullying tactic, “If I was a kid your age, I sure wouldn’t play with you!”
But this artistic side wanted to be and look different so that he could be his own person. Being different and not fitting in with the kids in school was difficult enough, but being stuffed headfirst into the garbage was more than enough to push him to the point that he no longer wanted to attend school under any circumstances. Rick said that around this time in his life, his love of art began to blossom, and bright colors allowed him to withdraw even further from his button-down collar peer group.
He began to display his art on his clothing where he would set himself apart with very colorful artistic designs on his jeans and shirts. In 1982, he even pierced his nose with a safety pin while in school one day. This unusual pattern of behavior immediately got him suspended. This occurred at the beginning of his rebellion period and caused him to seek out new friends who were of a similar mindset. Unfortunately, his less-than-loving stepmother started getting more and more physically abusive during the first year he lived with her and by the second year, he could hardly go to school without marks on his face. That entire year was so bad, so abusive, that he ran away repeatedly, staying at a friend’s house quite often with a mother who understood his situation, and protected him as best she could.
What started with free-hand drawing using bright colors with abstract and vibrant hues, began to draw him into a new lifestyle that was expressed by his own vision of art. A brick wall might be re-created with a totally different look, or a tree that leaned a certain way might grab his attention as a new art subject matter. He loved to color and visualize things in a different way than most people. He even took a photography class in junior high, which he enjoyed very much. It was about age 13 when everything artistic started to coalesce.
While living in Danville and attending Los Cerros Middle School, he simply couldn’t afford a new camera and fancy equipment the other kids had, so his old, half-working Petri camera had to serve his needs and it did for a while. In between the 8th grade and his freshman year in high school, he was thrown out of his father’s and stepmother’s house and was not allowed to come back, in large part because of his growing rebellion.
At this point in trying to survive and make his new personal statement as to who he was, he and some of his friends entered a life of crime in order to justify their rebel existence. His life over the next several years included more than one stint spent in the county juvenile hall. At one point, following his release again from juve, he had to find a job to survive financially and he applied for a job in a custom frame shop. The older gentleman who owned the shop was quite patient with Rick and even though Rick didn’t understand math very well, he made great effort to keep the job and learn the trade.
That job worked out pretty well and eventually, when the gentleman passed away without any family or relatives to inherit the business, Rick took it over and tried to make it work. Unfortunately, without sufficient business acumen, funds or education, that proved very difficult and caused him the eventual loss of this business. However, that did not deter him from wanting to stay in this type of business. Rick opened another frame shop in Martinez. While working in that community, Rick became friends with a very nice lady by the name of Cathy Riggs who owned a competitive frame shop that is doing business under the clever name of “I’ve Been Framed.” An unfortunate a business situation forced him out of his own shop, but, his friendship with Cathy allowed the two of them to work out an arrangement where he and Ms. Riggs found benefit in working together.
It was here in “I’ve Been Framed” that his love and appreciation of watercolor, oils, acrylics, and all kinds of art creation, finally came to full fruition. The shop’s customers could see that Rick had the eye, and a sense of color balance to fully visualize naturally appropriate combinations of color in both mating and framing material that synchronized well with their art. From what I understand from other artists in the nearby communities, this is one excellent, very reasonably priced shop. 
Now, Rick Holcomb is happily married with a wife and three children and loves what he is doing. Once again, Mr. Holcomb’s story bears concrete evidence that the love of art can help make one’s life more enjoyable and fulfilling!
Photo L-R: Customer Mark Hinds; shop owner Cathy Riggs; master framer Rick Holcomb. Photo by Charles Jarrett.
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