functionality -- working hard for the money

What people don’t understand about art is its functionality, its purposes and its utilization. Art isn’t a passive possession like a bank note, or even a corporate stock bouncing up and down while you sleep, but lives right there with you, shares your space. Put it this way, if you buy ugly art because your dealer suggests you’ll make a killing down the road, it’s better to send that soul-sucker to storage than to struggle against its negative influence in your life. Recently a billionaire bumped on his peers by spending over a hundred million dollars for a painting so toxic it reeks of drug induced suicide, and that’s the way, incidentally, it turned out to be. Keep it in a lead-lined box and find a bigger fool, or throw it in the ocean.

For a lot less money it’s possible to acquire a piece of art that will restore your sense of autonomy, bolster self-confidence, and pry the scales from your eyes -- have you appreciating the sunset and seeing reflections after a rain. Why this works is hard to say, but original art, unique and direct, serves as an example and offers quiet testimony to simply paying attention, noticing the mundane moment and extracting everything it has to say. Better art does this better, but anything consciously made by hand exudes a raw freshness machines can’t touch, qualities that can be seen and felt. From the quaint charm of the talented family member to the dedicated professional’s best efforts, works of art on the wall are the permanently charged batteries of household furnishings, beacons of energy here and there around the house.

This isn’t a competition, gathering together a portfolio of cutting edge images on paper and canvas all going up in value, making you look so sly. It’s about using art in the home like pieces of mental exercise equipment, low impact aerobics for the mind, an incremental conditioning of perception. Sounds pretty good, sure, but how does the average citizen, such as yourself, go about finding the art with vitamins, art that lifts and delves and calls into question anything you care about? Try this -- line up ten pieces, all in a comfortable price range, and pick the one you like best, can’t go wrong. Do it ten times and you’ll have a house full of art that reflects who you are and what you care about, familiar and rejuvenating, fun to come home to.