Sorting sunday’s paper, the ‘home-seller’ section is a tabloid tucked in the middle. In the centerfold of the home-seller is a home to envy, expansive rooms, perfect lot, loaded with conveniences, and the very pinnacle of gracious living -- but there’s never any art. There’s a alternative lifestyle that’s never considered, simple functional furnishings and significant art in every room. That approach wouldn’t turn fat commissions for agents, and so will never be featured, or even considered -- as a way to live, as a house to come home to, as a sanctuary for mind and spirit instead of just a swell place to watch the game.
I’d rather see those dollars go in the pockets of creatives than the cruising sharks of property acquisition, but that’s my own self-serving bias, and doesn’t count for much. It’s the world that’s changing, and has nothing to do with me. Exhibit number one would have to be the new hotel chain invasively occupying second tier cities, using the lure of original art to rent rooms at a premium. The concept is so successful they’re being emulated throughout the industry. Only a few years back the whole idea would have sounded naive, even flaky, and wouldn’t have been successful, but society is transitioning as we speak.
Maybe that’s enough to make the case, that clever entrepreneurs are cashing in on trending public preferences, but what if it’s deeper than that? What if the mentality of the nation, and of much of the world, were bending in a new direction and choosing art as a means of spreading the word? Art would become midwife to the emergence of a new mindset regarding the environment, possibly limits on personal wealth, and on each person’s regard for themselves and others.
It would be insidious, clandestine, a subtle revolution below civil authority’s radar. One day you could find yourself looking up at an original painting in an office or waiting room, somehow a little more interesting than whatever was there before, and before long you’re seeing original art all over town, in restaurants and bank lobbies, even up on the sides of buildings. Pretty soon people will want to talk about it, express an opinion, and sooner or later, you’ll come to have an opinion, too -- probably without knowing just when it happens.
Try to imagine a tabloid in the sunday paper featuring paintings by local artists, articles about the work, and even an agency of direct exchange, a means of putting art up in houses all over town. Don’t stop there. A few years from now there might develop a public awareness and affection for local artists as well as athletes, not ‘one and done’ transients, but neighbors whose work can be seen throughout an entire career, followed closely by everyone who already owns their art, and by anyone else simply interested.
What would change if all that happened, original art going up in middle class houses? Would the hometown seem more amiable and considerate, more open to new ideas and tolerant of diversity -- probably. Would owning art help common citizens develop a new awareness of their own autonomy, and along with it an evolving sense of fair distribution and public responsibility? A case could be made. If there’s a chance you haven’t noticed, it’s already begun, and maybe someday, not so far off, original art will become coin of the realm when everything else can be copied, simulated, and falsified. Mission complete, return to earth.
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