"Frog and Mantis comes from a not so small epiphany had in a car ride between jobs. Bellie and I have been artists our whole lives and since 2021 we have been making prints for our own artwork to sell at local events in Fredericksburg and the neighboring cities. During those years, we had offered print services to many artists at the events we attended, and while we got many eager responses, few actually took us up on the offer. During that car ride I realized, "What if we create and market our printing service professionally, and spend all of our excess time getting as good at printing as possible?" It turns out, that epiphany is all we needed to get the fire burning.

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We started Frog and Mantis in August of 2023 with the hope of helping the local art community as much as possible. This meant we first had to introduce ourselves to every spot in the local art community. Bellie got to work designing a three-fold pamphlet offering our services while I got to work fleshing out pricing schemes, paper providers, and all of the other logistical details of running our print business. Once the fliers were finished, we then went to every local art-adjacent place in Fredericksburg and started distributing fliers and following accounts of local art. We wanted to know everything about our local art scene that we could find out. This included meeting everyone, getting to know as many artists as possible, understanding local budjets, tracking local events, and hearing people's stories as to how they've become successful with art. In September, we got fully registered as an LLC and started using the early print profits to invest back into the quality of our product, purchasing new scanners, changing paper suppliers, etc.

As our instagram grew, so did our clientelle, and so did our love for the community.

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The coolest thing, by far, about starting Frog and Mantis has been meeting and talking with the plethora of local artists. We'd participated in events, but our circle hadn't extended to nearly as many artists as we now know today. Realizing how much we've missed out on, how many stories we haven't heard, art we haven't seen, and the shear amount of incredible artists that have been just outside of our bubble has only bolstered our deep passion for helping local artists.

 

Our goal, from the start, was to help artists get more money in their pockets from the incredible work that they're able to create. Print making is hopefully just the start of our journey in helping as many artists as possible and the dream of any occupation is to aquire one that you love. This is, without a doubt, what we love, and we will continue to be in service to you, the art community, for as long as you'll have us.

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We are Frog and Mantis."

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Kody Goudie