Weekly Photo Challenge: Work of Art
We have tons of art in the house. I like to think we also have a fair bit of truth, but if no one seems able to define truth, how in the world do you define “art?”
Is that the stuff which is just pretty but serves no “useful” purpose … or is it anything that has a certain eye-appeal, no matter what you might want to call it.
Monochrome with red dress
I collected dolls for years and antique Chinese porcelain … and for a long time, teapots and other oddities. Some people find the dolls creepy. I love them. We have paintings and photographic prints and small items that really are pretty, but currently (in this world) useless.
Is anything that makes you feel better about life not serving a useful purpose? If it makes you feel good, isn’t that enough?
I don’t know how people manage to live in houses without any art or pictures or prints. Don’t they need the color and the motion? Something to tickle their fancy?
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Categories: #Photography, Arts, Dolls
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
We have similar tastes—at least in the doll and tea department. I just got two dolls back from being repaired. My next post is going to be about the “big reveal” on one of them. Now, to get started writing them!
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I used to be the doll fixer. I probably still could — if I could find my materials.
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I wish my husband would get around to painting the living room so I could finally put up my artwork. I have some really nice prints and oil paintings that I don’t want to hang on the smoke-encrusted old dirty walls. But since he still works full-time and his job is extremely stressful, I won’t push him, and he’d get upset if I did it myself. We definitely can’t afford to hire anyone to do it. Oh, well, what’s another year or two?
PS – I thought I was the only person who ever collected teapots!
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I had dozens of them. To be fair, I collected like three or four. The rest were gifts. No one ever knew what to give me, so they said “Oh, look, teapots” and they just kept giving me more and more of them. It was like my mother and little creamers. She collected half a dozen, then everyone gave her dozens more.
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Ha, ha! My mother-in-law used to collect pig figurines and stuff with pigs on them. Everyone gave her everything pigs because it was so easy to find gifts with pigs themes. One year, just before Christmas, mother-in-law confided to me that she was sooo tired of pigs! I don’t think she told anyone else though, because to this day she still gets pig gifts, just not from me.
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I finally had to tell everyone to PLEASE not get me anything that needs a wall to hang on, a shelf to stand on … or takes up any space at all. And PLEASE no more books.
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I love your tea/coffee pot in the first photo. I also have so many knick knacks- not real art, but pieces that mean something to me, and paintings too.
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Real art is whatever YOU think it is. It has taken me a lifetime to decide that art isn’t a thing. It’s a concept. It’s a feeling. It’s YOU and whatever you feel it is. I suspect that IS what Marchall Macluhan (sp?) was trying to say with his soup cans. Art just IS. Enjoy your knick-knacks. If you find them to be art, then that is what they are.
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That one belonged to Garry’s parents. I had one very much like it which was a gift — that I passed on as a wedding present. It was absolutely GORGEOUS … but Garry isn’t fond of tea and it would just gather dust. This one, it’s an heirloom and it’s dragons. I do love the dragons.
Whatever means something to you IS art and I don’t care what it looks like. It’s how YOU feel about it that matters.
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Naomi and I are collectors and we both love our stuff. I think that although it may not be valuable it makes us feel good and I like that our ornaments, pictures, collections and books express our personalities. I’d rather have dust than live in some of the bare empty homes I’ve seen pictures of online.
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I always think of my house as my “stage.” It’s not just where I live, it says a lot about who I am, what I like, what makes me happy. Naked houses make me twitch.
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I accumulate stuff without wanting to. I don’t like to because it makes housework time consuming and the house-scape visually cluttered, so I’m constantly trying to keep it under control and the stuff limited to its place, but…
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Marilyn, maybe it’s because you find so much beauty that you don’t want to get rid of, and you keep seeing beauty around you! I know I feel that way about my collection of animal miniatures, and I always seem to end up with more!
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Being poor has definitely cut down on treasure hunts … and I have learned to say NO to many gifts, especially pottery! Also, taking pictures helps. I get my fill of beautiful without having to buy, frame, and hang it!
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I think you are a collector or you aren’t. I definitely AM better, although that’s as much a matter of money as willingness. And I give a lot of stuff away and hope they don’t do the same to me when WE come by. Everyone our age is trying to declutter, but there’s just so much of it and people give you things, too. I try not to think about all the undusted areas in this house. Garry and I just cleaned and we did a pretty good job — about half of what really needed doing. I don’t think it will ever get done, but at least most of the places we really live (not counting the basement) is (relatively) clean and (more or less ) orderly. We ARE neat, but the dogs and the trees and the dust and the pollen and all those dolls and dresses and little statues and picture frames …
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“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
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Thank you!
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Rich, I love that little piece. I think Robert Nathan used it in one of his “Portrait of Jennie” prologues.
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Ah, Keats.
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What a wonderful collection of art work Marilyn! I like the idea of years of collecting and the history behind each item.
You probably wouldn’t like my minimalist bedroom, apart from an ornate headboard, a couple of pictures and a couple of ornaments and a coffee maker at the other side of the bed that’s it., but each to his (or her) own.
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And that is why I still have so much stuff. Some of it was gifts and some of it has so much history. I may not remember everything, but I remember each of those little things we bought. Where we were, what we were thinking.
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A few months after my husband died I took a long look at our possessions and decided to downsize. I saved only the items that were of real importance. The youngest daughter pounced on the rest. Her siblings say walking into her home is like walking into an extension of mine! Best thing about it is that the dusting is now a doddle! 😀
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My kids don’t want the stuff mostly because they have nowhere to put it!
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Your stuff is lovely and you still want it anyway. Only one of my kids wanted our stuff, the others weren’t interested. I enjoy seeing our old possessions when I go to her house.
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My son lives with two other guys and it isn’t his house. Not only that, it’s a pretty small house and it’s pretty full already. I’m hoping to try to get him to take some of the paintings. They ARE worth something, but they would need to be evaluated by the people who do that stuff.
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I would find it fascinating looking around all your paintings and ornaments. I always appreciate other people’s possessions more than my own! If your son ever gets a place of his own he’ll probably be glad to have artwork.
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