Like appliances around the house, works of art have their job to do. The painting over the mantel doesn’t just hide bare wall, it changes the character of the room. If it’s a sailing ship first painted in the eighteen nineties, scanned from a reproduction and printed in thousands, it won’t have much to contribute. Mute little bird prints down the hall and florals in the bathroom that merge with the wallpaper won’t be noticed either. This is low wattage art.
Over the mantel let’s put up a piece of real art about the same size, and real only means actually made by somebody. Could be by a professional or maybe by Bill the janitor at the high school who painted on weekends. Everyone who enters the room will notice it, and if it’s any good at all, you’ll notice it every time. If you look at it very long it will start reminding you about where you were when you bought it and how old your kids were -- art absorbs stuff like that. If it’s a really good painting people tend not to notice the worn carpet in traffic areas or rings on the coffee table. A little pastel landscape bought at a craft fair will add a enough charm to a bathroom to make old water stains seem like character. Art changes everything around it.
If you step up and buy significant art you can cut way back on household keeping up. A throw over a couch and a good painting is a much better choice, especially when you move and the couch stays and the painting goes with you. Artwork is so much easier to carry and the new place is so much more like home when it gets hung again. It’s a real thing, this art, and it contributes to the comfort of the thoughtful and nurturing refuge we call home.
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