Main Street Art Store Knows Its Stuff

It's All Good's

By Victoria Scott

Shaun Chinsky stands by the huge array of paints at Good's Art and Framing store.

With an inventory of some 25,000 art supplies, Good's of Evanston, 714 Main St., could content itself with being a self-help art supermart.  Instead, the store prides itself on service.  "People come to Good's for mini art lessons," says store employee Susan Fox, a mixed-media artist. 

The staff of this family-owned art materials and frame store are all professional artists, on hand to help customers decide everything from "what watercolor brush makes the most sense for their project" to how to execute an avant-garde concept, says Ms. Fox.  The fun of working there, she says, is that "we can help problem-solve."

Employees like Holly Holmes lead active artistic lives outside the store.  She, for instance, is mounting an installation in Chicago - junk-mail camouflage on an Abrams tank - and teaching encaustics at the Evanston Art Center. 

What one employee does not know, another does, says Ms. Fox.  "Ronnie is good at design work," she says.  "Lisa knows fine pens.  And Fred can look at a tiny scrap of paper [she tears off a miniscule example] and identify it.  We call him ‘the paper god.'" 

"No one else comes close to our expertise in the art supplies department," says owner Shaun Chinsky, who followed his grandfather and father into the business in 2004.  He takes equal pride in a framing department that boasts 3,500 to 4,000 moldings.

Late summer is the busiest time in the art supplies department, says Mr. Chinsky.  From August through October college kids, as well as adults getting into art later in life, flock to the store, some guided by art teachers who "mention Good's by name," he says.

"The customer is getting a nugget of wisdom, not just a tube of paint," Mr. Chinsky continues.  "There are a lot of subtleties to buying the right materials.  The wrong ones can discourage students." 

In this rambling shop, the room by the entry, known as the "first store," has shelves lined with brushes, pens, drafting supplies and paints ("just like a candy store," says Mr. Chinsky).  Along with new products like the popular Inktense pencils, whose color is said to be more vivid than that of other watercolor pencils, Good's handles the Old Holland brand of oil paints favored by Vincent Van Gogh more than a century ago.

To the right, the so-called "fourth store" is a treasure trove of paper, while to the left, the second store has crafts and stock frames.  The room farthest east is the "third store," its walls lined with materials for custom frames.  "The staff seem to know every one of the 3,500 moldings," says Mr. Chinsky. "The magic happens here."

Besides the fact that "the way something is framed dramatically affects it," he cautions, "we see the effects of not using the proper materials."  Framed without UV-protectant glass, he says, art works fade; backed with common cardboard, which is acidic, they discolor. 

Art collectors with "familiar names" are among those who trust Good's to frame their masterpieces, he says.  Employees rise to a challenge, creating a Lucite box for an 18th-century dress or working after hours in the first-floor shop to frame an Asian picture too large for the basement workroom.

Mr. Chinsky grew up in Morton Grove, working at the store during college vacations.  His grandfather, Sam Chinsky, purchased it in 1941 from the Goods, who had sold paint and wallpaper - and maybe art supplies - there since 1904.  Evanston Historical Society records trace the business back further, to the Turner Paint Co. of 1898, he says.

Originally located across the street in the current Virag Jewelry building, the company moved first to Chicago Avenue and then, under Sam Chinsky, to its present location.  Sam, says his grandson, had just a single employee and "loved being on the floor.... Our sense of good customer service came from him," says Shaun.

Sam's son, Michael, took over in the 1960s, expanding the framing department and enlarging the staff to 40 or 50.  "He created an environment where people like to work," says Shaun.  That accounts for the presence of longtime stalwarts like general manager Jim Gay, who has worked at Good's since he was 18 - for 38 years.

When Michael Chinsky died in October of 2004, his son abruptly left his job as director of marketing for Weber Grill.  Within two weeks he had taken over the Evanston business, "because it was just too important that someone from the family be here to run the store," he says.  Though he says he "came here out of a sense of obligation," he admits, "I find it more satisfying than anything I have done before."

Shaun Chinsky is one year into the project of computerizing the store's huge inventory and is transitioning from his home in Arlington Heights to an Evanston condo.  He says he enjoys being "part of a community.  People who benefit [from the store] are people I meet every day."  And he appreciates the fact that "Good's shoppers are advocates ... who have invested part of themselves" in the business....I don't know if we'd do as well 10 miles west, in suburbia," he says.