Life with Art

The universe seems to be sending a message lately … one that I’m not sure we’re all receiving.  Losing Prince so soon after the also untimely passing of David Bowie is a cruel reminder that no matter our level of cultural impact or creative endeavor, we all pass on from this life at sometime, either sooner or later.  At the same time, I find myself all too easily sucked into the world happening inside my phone rather than present in this physical place.  And so, in light of the omnipresent reality that life is indeed fleeting, and that I shouldn’t worry what others may think of my attempt at modern art, here is our latest foray.

Plus, we needed something for these big blank walls.

Pardon the dog fort in the corner, Shenanigan had managed to get every one of his blankets and pillows and “things” all piled up in one princess and the pea sort of pile.

So JT and I made these big canvases from scratch – we bought and cut the lumber, screwed together a frame, stretched canvas over it (cut from a dropcloth from Home Depot), gessoed it until it resembled a store-bought artist canvas and then watched some YouTube tutorials (especially the Peter Dranitsin tutorials like this one) and set up a paint workshop in the garage.

JT and I picked out the paint colors together and then set to work.  He did one of the canvases and I did the other – can you guess which of us did which one?  (We’ve been keeping it a secret.)  Without meaning it, they came out with some elements that remind me of South Mountain in our backyard.

You might remember from one of my last posts that we originally intended to hang the art on the wall that has the new giant TV on it.  And we had the Danish daybeds downstairs.  But in true Living Analog form, we shook it all up, moved the daybeds to the music room and ordered a new sofa from Gus Modern.  And once the new sofa arrived, our 32″ TV looked so sad, so we brought in the 55″ monster.

The new sofa, the Margot, has been great.  It came with a set of both brass and black legs so we can change those out later if we want.  In our original ideas for the first floor layout, we thought we would wall off the wet bar and turn it into a pantry.  The TV would then have hung on that new infill.  However one day a new kitchen remodel idea came to me and it involves mostly demolishing this thing and so we went ahead and hung the TV to account for the new floor plan and future (very future) kitchen reno. I’ll share more in a blog post about the great floor plan switcheroo.

Here’s another view of the room.  I’m still debating on what else to hang/do to the TV wall and also I eventually want to switch out the record storage.  We need to find a bench for the dining room table too but it’s a weird dimension (it has to be 42″ long to sit inside the table legs) so we might end up making that as well.

So, to conclude a strange and rambling post, remember to stop and smell the roses.  Or paint yourself some art.  Or switch around your whole living room plan when a better idea comes your way.  Life’s too short to get hung up on the comparisons and worries.  At least that is what I am telling myself.  Cheers – CT