In the past, there's been a lot of discussion on Apartment Therapy about whether it's preferable to adorn the walls with art or with family photos. Many of you have argued that perhaps the two aren't at all mutually exclusive, and indeed, Oakland artist Kat Geiger has just finished a project that redefines the family portrait as art. Click through for a close-up and to learn how to try a similar treatment with your own photos...
Look! Family Photos Turned to Art
Kat was desperate to hang some group family photos, but had never been a fan of formal OlanMills-style portraits, with their often stiff smiles and poses. So she used an x-acto knife to cut her family out of some prints and chose a meaningful book, an old thesaurus that belonged to her grandmother, to complete the rest of the collage. In order to put it all together, she painted the backs of the pages with glue, arranged them on a canvas, and let them dry overnight. Then the next day she did the same with the cut-out photos. She calls the collage "Anti-OlanMills."
To check out more of Kat's work, including her gorgeous terrariums, visit her Etsy shop or her blog, Design Spunk.
Have you found a way to incorporate your family photos into larger art pieces to hang at home? Please share!
And if you're looking for other artful ways to display family photos in their original form, try these posts:
• Roundup: Stylish Ideas for Displaying Family Photos
• Inspiration: Victoria's Sepia-Toned Family Photo Display
(Images: Kat Geiger)
Comments (18)
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Oh, lovely! I really love the effect of old book pages as a background - I think that would work with other types of collages, not just family photos.
view Kaviare's profile
For someone like me...who's not into displaying photos of myself or family around my place (with the exception of the fridge and only for a select few), this is a nice idea.
http://www.modernests.com
view MODERnestS's profile
A tip for anyone thinking of doing a project like this - don't use typical white glue as it will cause the paper to wrinkle. Use rubber cement (more like a gel than cement, despite its name) or spray adhesive.
view JH4285's profile
My neighbor used CollageWall to get her family photos on the wall. It's stylish, and can change over time. See the result at http://collagewall.com/examples/84.
view Jeff Southard's profile
Decoupage! Decoupage it!
view jennatar's profile
Wow! That's the most original way of displaying family pictures I've seen in a long time and I'm mad that I didn't come up with it myself! Definitely gonna try this.
view JR in Sweden's profile
Fantastic idea!
view rainbowbright's profile
What a great idea! I want to try this.
view absea's profile
I was looking to decoupage a coffee table in my office with pages like this.... thanks for the inspiration!
view JavaJen's profile
Nice!
I desecrated a hymn book recently in the name of paper craft. Here's something I can do with what remains of it.
view tea with lucy's profile
Wow - so awesome. We're having the same dilemma right now, so this is perfect timing. Thanks!
view ednamode's profile
Am I the only one who does not like this? I mean--- it's a nice idea, but kitsch looks kitsch, regardless on which background.
view blackadderin10's profile
Am I the only one who does not like this? I mean--- it's a nice idea, but kitsch looks like kitsch, regardless on which background.
view blackadderin10's profile
Kitsch? How is this tacky or lowbrow? It's just a different way to display images of one's family. Jeeze Louise.
I think it's lovely and fresh. Well done.
view kellylc's profile
I like this idea a lot. The beauty of it is that once you've figured out that you can 'free' individual figures from family shots, you can do all kinds of interesting things with the background. Instead of book pages, you could have a simple, bold color, or patterned paper, or nothing at all ('float' the figures between two layers of glass).
You could even turn the end result into a print or poster to give out to relatives for gift.
view slowdown's profile
I want to use Rumi's words and incorporate photos to display and this porject gave me inspiration to do this,
Thnksss
view New York Muhtari's profile
Here's that novel family photo display again, with link working:
http://collagewall.com/examples/84
view Jeff Southard's profile
love it
view leadingedge's profile