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Farming and framing

From an outside perspective, the art of picture framing and the hard work of farming may seem to have little to do with each other.

But farming and framing have made up the course of Jim Dolezilek’s life, from his childhood on a dry land wheat farm near Wolf Point, through his college years at Notre Dame studying fine arts, to his life today.

By KAYLEY MENDENHALL Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/02/09/news/aadolezilekbzbigs.txt

Framing, and especially creating signature mats for artwork, has been a life-long creative outlet for Dolezilek. And he recently opened Frame It Montana, a framing shop on Haggerty Lane in Bozeman.

But the 65-year-old has spent most of his life as a farmer.

"I grew up on a farm," Dolezilek said.

After college he joined the U.S. Army, where he met and married his wife. They lived in Indiana for seven years and Dolezilek worked as an architectural designer.

But then his mother passed away and his father asked him to come back to Montana and take over the farm.

"I enjoyed farming. I enjoyed running the machinery," he said. "I didn’t enjoy losing money all the time."

He eventually sold the family farm and moved to Townsend, where he bought another wheat farm, although this one was irrigated.

"I thought with an irrigated farm I wouldn’t have to pray for rain," he said, with a deep belly chuckle.

But there were other problems associated with farming there, and 10 years ago Dolezilek and his wife sold the Townsend farm and opened a store that specialized in antiques, but also sold artwork, complete with custom frames and mats.

That’s where he started to let his creativity fly.

He started making mats with detailed scroll work along each side, mats with various colors peeking through the dominant theme and mats that even extend the shades of the painting beyond its borders.

"I get compliments all the time on the artwork I have at my house," said Paula Gregory, Dolezilek’s daughter, who lives in California. "He does the most incredible mats that totally add to the artwork and make each piece unique."

His other daughter, Kristi Crawford, lives in Bozeman with her family. Dolezilek said he and his wife moved here to be closer to their grandchildren after his wife retired from teaching school in Townsend.

With his new shop, Dolezilek can order frames and make mats for any picture. But he also has prints for sale by other artists and a computer program where customers can choose from more than 100,000 prints.

Plus, he hopes that now that the pace of life has slowed a bit, he’ll have more time for his own art.

"I always felt I wasn’t old enough," he said. "Most of the famous artists were pretty old by then."

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