The average price of a home selling around here is close to a quarter mil, a lot of money. How the money is spent, landscaping, pool, multi-car garage, isn’t difficult to understand, it adds up, but what about the walls? Who doesn’t like granite counter tops, programable showers, surround sound, all that stuff, but there’s no general consensus on art, and putting up any is taking a chance. Designers won’t touch it, preferring catalogue simulations that compliment the decor, blend with the drapes, and which won’t disrupt the flow. Real art can be so unpredictable and assertive.
They have a point. Original art can seem a little harsh at first, an odd presence in a room of mass-marketed furnishings, an immigrant still in native dress standing in the mall. It’s difficult not to notice it every time, always the same yet it always draws attention. Why is that? First of all there’s a difference of kind. The unique, made-by-hand object is qualitatively different in the same way a live performance is superior to an impeccable recording, perpetually invoking a more direct experience, a more intimate connection. Starting from there, a well-made and thoughtful piece of art can come to dominate an interior, subordinate all that designer stuff, and even influence what goes on there.
If you buy art and hang it yourself, you’re making your own statement, revealing what you like, maybe even how you think and the sort of person you are. There’s always the make of the car you drive and the team you root for, but art expresses as much about the person who buys it as the person who made it, and it takes some getting used to, down at the deep end of the pool. Funny thing happens when the toes no longer touch bottom, when the safety and anonymity of our brand-name reality is left behind. Turns out swimming is easy, buying and owning art is fun, and finding yourself through art has a way of feeding back, of verifying and reinforcing who you are, reminders on the wall, and there’s more comfort and self assurance when adding more.
They have a point. Original art can seem a little harsh at first, an odd presence in a room of mass-marketed furnishings, an immigrant still in native dress standing in the mall. It’s difficult not to notice it every time, always the same yet it always draws attention. Why is that? First of all there’s a difference of kind. The unique, made-by-hand object is qualitatively different in the same way a live performance is superior to an impeccable recording, perpetually invoking a more direct experience, a more intimate connection. Starting from there, a well-made and thoughtful piece of art can come to dominate an interior, subordinate all that designer stuff, and even influence what goes on there.
If you buy art and hang it yourself, you’re making your own statement, revealing what you like, maybe even how you think and the sort of person you are. There’s always the make of the car you drive and the team you root for, but art expresses as much about the person who buys it as the person who made it, and it takes some getting used to, down at the deep end of the pool. Funny thing happens when the toes no longer touch bottom, when the safety and anonymity of our brand-name reality is left behind. Turns out swimming is easy, buying and owning art is fun, and finding yourself through art has a way of feeding back, of verifying and reinforcing who you are, reminders on the wall, and there’s more comfort and self assurance when adding more.
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