beyond everything we do as we struggle in todays slippery economy and workplace, there are still the finer things in life. I will be the first to admit that i was never rich, nor was i really ever poor. My mother struggled and worked to give us all a life that was worthwhile no matter how hard things were. She raised me and my siblings to understand the importance of working for the things that you wanted and not to go out searching for an easy dollar. i remember getting a pair of shoes at the start of the new school year, and that they were supposed to last me through the year, and that last years pair were this years PE shoes. and the moment i started making money, the first thing i bought were shoes. and that was followed by more and more shoes. and this is still sort of happening in my life, buying a new pair of shoes is always a satisfying thing for me. i don’t often spend too much on shoes, in fact i don’t like the idea of getting really expensive shoes because i beat them up pretty badly, paint spills, sawdust, sparks from welding, general tomfoolery. But it doesn’t mean i’m cheap either. in fact it is quite the opposite. i like having nice things, i like getting quality goods. and i know that i am not mr moneybags, but i like to spend my money, and i like the things i spend my money on. and i think at the end of it all, that is what matters most, that you enjoy the things that you get.
in my younger days, and even now, i suffered often from buyers remorse. and that was more often than not from spending a bit to far out of my range. so i’m going to try and give you some insight as to how i have made do and still have been able to get the things i get. i sort of assume that this will be a multipart thing, so i’ll try to cover the things i need to cover. and again, this is not about the basic needs we all have, more about the icing on the cake, and hopefully that will make more sense as the list grows.
ART- I think that art is sort of the ultimate in luxury. i watch cribs and laugh at how bad these stars’ homes are decorated, really generically and usually centered around the TV. If there is art it is usually a movie poster or gold records or pictures of themselves, and that is all well and good for that slice of life, but what about the rest of us. Then i think about DIY home design shows like design star (which i am thinking of trying out for) or trading spaces etcetera etcetera ad nauseum. I like the idea that they can make some ‘abstract art’ to hang on the wall at their most creative, or head over to pier 1 for something. And maybe it might end up nice, but usually it doesn’t. And as for the art you get at pier 1 or at ikea or target or the poster store, i’m sure it looks nice, the only problem is that it is generic and so common that it doesn’t say anything interesting about you.
And i think that art can be that powerful, that it can describe you through your tastes and your aesthetic values. In fact good art can be as powerful an entertainment as the TV, if not more so. But maybe the idea of art sounds expensive. Maybe you think about how expensive art sounds in a museum or a gallery or in auction houses. or maybe you’ve gone to the kincaid store in the mall, or one of those stands that sells paintings at fairs or on the street, and have been put off by the price tag. a thousand dollars does seem like a lot. And in the back of magazines like dwell and ready made, there are ads for printed paintings for 300-500 dollars, and while that seems reasonable, it still is in the same vein as the art you pick up at ikea.
So here’s the trick. go to a university. go take a look at the art classes that are going on. usually there will be kids sitting around burning the midnight oil working on a project that will be due the next day. take a look at what they’re doing. if you see something you like, ask them if they’d be interested in selling it. usually undergraduates are more than happy to sell their work, or maybe they’d be a little coy about the whole thing, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Also, at the end of the year, schools usually put on shows that feature student work, and that is a great time to see lots of work.
Whatever you do, don’t ask them to paint or draw or photograph something for you. Don’t try to commission them to do work for you, i always think that that practice is a bit unfair, having been on the one end and seeing friends in the same boat. Just ask them to see their work, more often then not they have lots of work sitting around and they can easily send you pictures of it. Get interested in what they are doing, not in what they could do for you.
What about pricing? Prices are always a fuzzy thing. Be willing to spend some money. Don’t try to cheat these people out of what they are doing. Think about it like this, you are not just paying for the physical material cost of what goes into a piece of art, you are paying for their education to get to the point where they are making work that you like. It doesn’t just happen naturally, no matter how much talent anyone has, it takes lots and lots of work and effort. it is a constant struggle. so you are paying for that. These are people that will be pursuing art in a serious way, and you aren’t paying for a generic print that everyone on your street can have. This is real artwork. And while they aren’t ‘real artists’ (like in museums and stuff) they are probably better than a majority of people. As for a specific price range 200-600 is reasonable, i wouldn’t pay more unless they were in grad school receiving a degree in art. a framed print or poster can run around 200-300 dollars, so that price isn’t too crazy.
So how do you pick work? Well it’s basically this. take a look at different things and if you like it, then that’s probably the one you like. it sounds kind of dumb to say it out loud. it’s actually a very obvious and intuitive thing to choose. Don’t get caught up in art speak mumbo jumbo. you don’t need to know about the context or about what the artist thinks or about how it is historically referencing the futurist manifesto but using the visual vocabulary of mid 20th century modernist painters. you just need to like it. Also don’t think that you are discovering some hidden talent that will emerge and become so famous that you can turn around and sell your art that you bought for millions, it isn’t like buying baseball cards to try and make money. you should be enjoying it not trying to bankroll your unborn’s college tuition. and don’t let the room you have in mind dictate your choice either, just find the most compelling looking thing.
hopefully this will be useful to someone at some point, and if not that i’ll get to something that is for whatever you need.
and i’m not done with the other stuff, i’m just trying to broaden my topics that i talk about on here.
