4 Ideas For Finding More Meaningful Art
We often share ideas about how to make sure your art complements your decor. Or talk about where to find affordable art to fill up your walls. Or post about DIY art projects you can do quickly, easily and within your budget. Though these are all valid ways to add a little color to your rooms, there’s another aspect to consider when on the hunt for art.
Not everything you hang (or lean) has to be filled with meaning, but when you do take the time to investigate and implement a few pieces of art that have a special significance to you, it really enriches a room. It adds details to the story you’re weaving about your home with all your decor. It allows you to take even more pleasure in your home. And again, while it’s not necessary to have for a home you love, bringing in art that has meaning to you is a way to ensure your home feels like you. So where to start? Here are four routes to consider:
1. Connect an art piece to a memory
Did you get married on the beach? Seek out artists or photographers who created art based on that location, or even just art that gives you the same peace as standing on the sand. Do you have great memories from your childhood? Find prints that give you that same feeling. Consider some of your favorite memories — a trip, a place, a person, an event — and use those ideas as starting points when you seek out affordable art options.
2. See more art in person
Buying from galleries isn’t quite the budget option, but you should visit more art galleries in your area to look at art anyway, getting to know more artists in the process. You never know what kind of affordable art options you might come across. Or visit arts and crafts markets and peruse art there. The point is getting to know more people who create art will give you more opportunity to find art that you love, made even more special because you like the person who made it.
3. Get it in trade
Do you make something or offer a service? Consider finding an artist willing to make a trade (perhaps by seeing more art in person and meeting more creators?). Knowing that you’ve earned art by helping an artist out with their website, repurposing an old furniture piece you no longer want or any other trade-able reason you can think of will immediately create a story around whatever art piece you receive. The sort of story you’ll want to share with visitors to your space when they remark on your varied art collection.
4. Convert objects that are already meaningful into art
This idea is as wide open as your imagination. Perhaps it’s framing your wedding decorations. Making a tapestry out of old T-shirts. Creating shadow boxes out of favorite figurines. The list could on. We’ve certainly shared tons of inspiring ideas on how folks have made everything from dollar store army men painted and glued onto a canvas to a collection of dinner plates into art. What objects do you have (even if you already display them!) that could be given the hanging art treatment to really imbue your home with even more meaning?
We want to hear the story behind the most meaningful piece of art in your home! Or how and where you go to find art for your home that is special to you.