Send in a photo(s) and the details of how you've used art in your home. Instead of a contest, we thought we'd go the slightly less-competetive route by asking for submissions and sending a thank you gift (An AT T-shirt or Book) to the first 30 entries posted across the four AT city sites this month. We'd love to show off your art, so don't be shy - send us some photos! Details here.
Giselle wrote to us for the first time this week to share the art in her apartment. We are happy she did - the art is full of personal details with interesting pieces made by herself and her fiancee Mark as well as found treasures. Here's what she had to say:
"We didn't have a headboard, but decided to replace what would have been one with some of my large-scale photograph diptychs. I like how the graffiti style and bright colors in the photos are picked up in the pillows. The pillows are made from molas, which are a kind of applique/quilting done by natives in Panama and northern Colombia. They're kind of hard to find now, but I just saw that the Smithsonian Indian Museum in DC is selling some unfinished pieces."
"Among other things, my fiancee is an illustrator. We decided to make some prints of scientific illlustrations he made, and hang them salon style...you might notice a more realistic-looking spider. Yup, it was real at one point in time. I think it's a bird-eating tarantula. In any case, it's from Colombia, and happily for Mark, quite dead.
Above our windows are some old carved wooden wings I found at a little antique store in Paris, and a woodblock for printing textiles. In the middle is a little mobile/hanging arrangement of metal butterflies I found for $.25 each at Ax-Man in Mpls--one of the best and by far wierdest surplus stores around. Where else could you find an iron lung next to doll heads and ball bearings?"
"My fiancee Mark and I really like to mix and match things that we've made, collected or found, or have been given. On our landing strip, we have an old lamp made from an auger, a whaling engraving I gave Mark for his birthday, an old litho of a horse we found at a rummage sale for $2, some valentines I made ("I love your guts"), and a bronze fish piggy-bank."
Thanks to Giselle and Markfor sharing this tour of the art in their home!
I love your space. It's really personal and beautiful. I'm inspired by your individuality...
Very interesting mix of collections nicely displayed and just love the auger lamp!
Wow Sues! I am very impressed. My favorite is the spider. I can't wait to see you next month so you can decorate our apartment!
I love the Molas you are using for pillow coverings in your first photo!