Investing In Art For Your Walls
Art is definitely the icing on the cake when it comes to decorating your home. You can choose fabrics in patterns you love, pick your favourite paint colours to cover your walls, and lay cozy rugs in a variety of different textures that appeal to you across your floors. But nothing makes your home feel like your own more than the art you hang up on your walls. It speaks to the story you want your space to tell and the connection you feel to the people that share that space with you.
Which is exactly why I love investing in art.
I am the first to admit that I am obsessed with browsing online print shops like Society6, Juniper Print Shop, and Etsy. I love how readily available these sites make it for you to choose the art you surround yourself with. They connect you with artists around the world who have a story to tell and allow you to support those beautiful creative people by purchasing their work. The selection is endless and the cost is minimal compared to more traditional forms of art. It’s a great way to invest in art.
But I’m also a firm believer that your art shouldn’t just tell other people’s stories, but your own too, and sometimes that means that you need to invest a little bit more. Like by finding an artist you love who offers commissioned work. It’s a collaborative effort – they bring their expertise and style and you bring your story and together you create something that is so deeply personal to you and your family. That’s exactly what happened with this beautiful diptych.
I first connected with Mercedes Papalia through Instagram and was blown away by the beautiful line drawing she created to express the interconnection between the women within her own family. It stopped me in my scrolling tracks. When she started offering commissioned pieces, I immediately knew it was something I wanted to invest in for our home.
This is why – line drawings are traditionally done using one connected line. This line captures the contours of the subject(s) and expresses shape, movement, and connection. This style spoke so strongly to the purpose of the images I chose to be rendered.
I wanted the pieces to represent the relationships that both my husband and I have established with our daughter. The first photo was taken by Curtis a week or two into us becoming parents. I had just finished an early morning feeding with Mabel and we both completely crashed in exhaustion. Those first few weeks were some of the hardest I have ever experienced. Unlike how you expect to feel after becoming a mom, I felt so disconnected to this new little person. But when I came across this photo on Curt’s phone, I shed a tear because this captured moment solidified to me that we were in this together, even though I felt like I didn’t even know her. It was truly the turning point in my confidence as a new mom. I took the second photo of Curtis with Mabel on our bed one weekend morning. I think it perfectly represents how smitten he is with her and I can honestly say that feeling is completely reciprocated. He repeatedly talks about the wonder that our sweet little girl is and I think you can see that on his face in this photo, which fills my heart with so much love.
Both of these photos mean so much to me. They feel intimate though, and I couldn’t picture myself hanging them on our wall as a “display.” I wanted a way to represent these feelings in a meaningful and impactful way.
The finished pair hang perfectly in a sliver of wall beside our bed – my side. I wake up every morning to see them looking at me and I lay my head on the pillow every night only to be reminded of what truly matters the most in my day. Beautiful reminders of our deep, intimate connection as individuals and as a family. And that is why it’s worth it to invest in art for your walls.
