Our apartment is 900 square feet of white walls. White kitchen. White bedroom. White living room. White white white. We’re prohibited from painting. I bitch and whine about this, but in all honesty, it’s fine. I’ve watched my mother agonize for weeks over selecting a wall color. Just like her, I’d carry paint chips in my purse, tape them on the walls, order sample pints, and interrogate a husband who just wanted me to make a decision. My mother once cried for an entire afternoon when she saw the color she’d chosen up on the entryway wall (only to love it later). So perhaps it’s good that I’ve been spared from this emotional rollercoaster.
To combat the wide blank expanses, we’ve been accumulating wall decorations: the obligatory arrangement of travel and wedding photos, enlarged pet portraits, prints from parents’ basements…and some honest to goodness art.
The most recent addition is a painting from Bethany (creator of this most awesome mixed media piece that was our wedding present).
It’s a little watercolor, my half of a swap that started with me sending Bethany a cherry red kami hat. What color frame and mat do you picture with it?
The other artwork in our apartment was painted by my dad. After a long career managing my hometown’s city parks, he retired and started to paint. He joined a local art guild, took classes at a nearby college, then started to sell his work. I think it’s so cool.
When I was home for Christmas, I helped him photograph his work so that I can build him a website. We followed the instructions in this youtube video for photographing work on the cheap. There were a few glares that try as we might, would not go away, but all in all we got what we needed. I’m going to use wix.com, which is free and offers some readymade portfolio templates.
If you’re wanting something new for your walls, may I suggest an 8 x 10 photo of Samson? No? FINE. Okay then, perhaps the contact information for one of these super talented artists I’m lucky to know and love?