Yes, But Is It ART?

When I moved into this house every wall in the place was beige except for the spare bedroom which the previous owners used as a home office.  THAT room they painted some sort of a weak version of a hunter green.  It’s pretty awful.  However – it IS a color, which is more than any other room in the house could boast before I painted the kitchen last summer.  It’s coming up on summer again and my thoughts are once again turning to painting.  Beige is just too bland for me.  And I need to make this house my home.  Nearly 3 years later, it’s about time, don’t you think?

Today, with painting in mind, I started wandering from room to room and thinking about different color combinations and what I want to put where.  Somewhere in the middle of all this I started pondering not only the walls, but what is hanging ON the walls.  Most of my artwork is One Of A Kind pieces and they are priceless.  Once again, let it be noted, that the artwork is a further illustration of my disconnect from what I admire in other places and what that translates out to for me.

Remember my wishing for do-me shoes?  And remember that those shoes that I admire and think are hot and sexy on other women……turn into flip-flops when it comes time to put shoes on my own feet?  My artwork is a result of that same disconnect.  I go into stores and visit people in their homes where I see flawless decorating and enviable style.  Everything goes together in some manner – right down to the pictures on the walls.  Rooms have THEMES sometimes.  And the decorative styling is held together by what is gracing the walls.  Frames, matting, lighting……..sigh.

So let me show you what hangs on MY walls – the glue for my decorator’s style.

In my living room………….

It’s a mask represntation made out of cardboard and aluminum foil.  Chickie did it in Middle School.  I used to have it just leaning against the wall.  Then I moved back home and Daddy couldn’t stand that it wasn’t framed.  SO…he took it home one day and it came back framed like this.  He mounted it on a piece of wood and then used an old cabinet door that he cut out to create a frame around that.  Uh – the dabinet door wasn’t quite wide enough – notice the little cut-out notches around the ears?  lol.  Only my dad……

The other piece in the living room is this one – again done by Chickie.  It’s an abstract self portrait.  They key word in that last sentence was ABSTRACT, in case you missed it!  Aren’t the colors just awesome?

One dining room wall is adorned by a rather sizeable piece of artwork that my daughter-in-law did for me before she was actually my daughter-in-law.  Again, the abstractness and the vibrant colors appeal to me.  Hmmmmmmm….maybe with all these colors in the pictures my walls should STAY beige!  lol

Continuing on with the Home made theme, this wood burning was done for me by the same man that tattooed me.  mmmmm.  If he and I still lived in the same town, my best guess would be that I would have several more tattoos by now.  I love his artwork and I enjoyed the payment plan we had worked out – a lot. 

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This little bit of “art” is truly irreplaceable.  When Young Stud’s soccer team won their state title, his current girlfriend took his medal, the newspaper clipping, and his goalie gloves and had them mounted.  Er,,,,,the easter bunny decal was my addition.  Don’t hold her responsible for my little brain cramp!  This thing weighs a ton…but if it ever breaks the real danger will be from the odor that is trapped inside.  I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the distinctive smell of galie gloves, but trust me – it ain’t purdy.  The better ones are made of a very light weight and porous material to give maximum flexability and grip.  The goalies often spit on the gloves.  They say it’s to give them a better grip.  I think it’s cause boys will be boys and they like to spit on stuff.  Anyway – all that porous material really absorbs the sweat and odors on the inside.  Trust me, there should be a toxic wast sticker somewhere on this frame.  (There isn’t one of those, but there is something of particular interest to my dearest Torin……)

As if the wood burning and the goalie gloves weren’t an eclectic enough collection, let me just add my full length mirror.  It was so plain…I dressed it up a little with one of my Halloween costumes.  Who could resist a dark angel?

Apparently the not-quite-traditional taste in wall decoration is an inherited rather than acquired taste.  Feast your eyes on what adorns one wall in Chickie’s room….

Yes, that is indeed a MUCH bigger-than-life-sized drawing of Tupac.  Chickie really likes his music and poetry.  Young Stud obligingly drew this face on the wall.  The picture doesn’t do it justice – but then, who COULD do Tupac-on-the-wall justice in any case?

But before you decide that I am a TOTAL waste of traditional decorating savy… LOOK!  I do have some more traditional purchased pieces….

These are pretty “normal”, right?

OK.  And Felix hangs in the kitchen along with another “normal” picture.

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And these MOLAS made by the Indians in Panama are actually Gallery material…..

And this bit of enameled metal sculpture can’t really be called ‘odd’ now, can it?

See?  The poor folks at Trading Spaces would develop terminal migraines trying to straighten this all out!  Certainly not the stuff that the Ethan Allen cataloge is made of, lol.  It’s not traditional.  Most of it isn’t even ‘usual’.  But it is my own.  My style.

And hell yes……it’s all ART that I wouldn’t part with for any amount of money.