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5/26/10

Art as Ethos

i want to decorate because a few months ago i started reading home decor blogs and now i have an inferiority complex about my house. if your house is a reflection of your personality, mine screams:

BORING.

since committing to a particular decorating scheme freaks me out, i decided i should just buy art. it is portable. you can make it work with almost any colour scheme. of course the problem with this is that my taste in art outstrips my budget for art by about 100%.

so i have been looking for posters from sites like etsy and allposters. today i looked at like 100 different versions of the "keep calm and carry on" poster (which incidentally has an interesting history).


i like it, but i can't make myself buy it. for whatever reason i have this idea that art should be a representation of who you are. people who know me know that "keeping calm" and "carrying on" doesn't exactly sum up my approach to coping. a more appropriate poster would read:

freak out and cry about it.

so anyway, long story short, this one is out.

but i like these two:



so friends if you know of anything beautiful, lovely or of good report (or cheeky) (and cheap) please send me your links. help me at least keep up the appearance of having a personality.

please? por favor? s'il vous plait?

9 comments:

Bonnie White said...

I love your posts Mercedes. They are fresh and cheeky and real. And I love this art: http://www.lesliegraff.com/default.asp?theIF=%2Fcontent%2Easp%3FWebsiteID%3D16693%26PageID%3D52494%26FFS%3D1%26pageName%3DARTIST

especially the domestic art cards.

mom/Janet said...

Mercedes,
That poster "Keep Calm and Carry On" is one the wall on the video "My New Life" You can find it on the churches web site about Stephanie Neilson who was in the plane crash a few years ago. You might even get some decorating ideas from videos in her house. A different style but I like it. Good luck with your decorating.
Janet Smith

Mercedes said...

Janet,

I watched that video and just BAWLED (surprise surprise). What spirit she has! I love the history of the poster and I love the way it represents a particularly British way of seeing the world. Maybe for those reasons alone I should get one (a small one).

Thanks for your comments Janet!

Katie McCue said...

Mercedes you should check out artmecca.com for some up and coming artists. Some of the pieces are outstanding, others are expensive - point is theres alot to look at and choose from. Also, if you have favorite photographs (maybe of the east coast) you can have them enlarged and printed on canvas at walmart for cheap (relatively speaking). Check it out! Happy shopping!
love Katie

Mercedes said...

KATIE! woman i am thrilled to hear from you. I will check out artmecca and I am in love with the idea of having my own photos put on canvas....that is brilliant!

we are going to be in town for stampede. i hope you will be too!

so great to hear from you!

Katie McCue said...

We will be in town - fresh from Mexico! Mom's watch Darius so Carl and I can celebrate our 5th anniversary with a trip to an all inclusive, sans wee man. So excited! Let me know when you're in town, long walks/runs, clean eatting yummyness, and Darius cuteness await!

Unknown said...

merc, i love your art choices. i also posted the "keep calm and carry on" poster on a blog post once... but i think i can join you in concluding that that isn't generally my personality... but it is a good reminder i suppose.

one thing i got from a friend in terms of art and decor is to collect pieces of art from places you have traveled. so right now i have two pieces from italy, one from nyc and a few from boston. a fun thought. i also love these posters... http://www.orkposters.com/nyc.html

Anonymous said...

Hi Mercedes,

You should check out the New York Public Library's digital collection. You can buy prints. If your cheap like me you can print them yourself. I got some nice botanical illustrations for my bathroom.

Sunny Adaska (Jason's wife :) )

leah jane said...

ooh, i love both fern lady & russian doll! and as far as your home decor style, i don't believe it's boring for a second!!

some of my favorite pieces of "art" are just things that are meaningful to me. seriously random stuff. i have some old romanian money framed upstairs. some notes or letters have made it into frames. and i have even mounted doilies, scarves, and silhouettes of memory & ancestral items. just sayin'!

art is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder.