Finding meaning.

There’s a phrase among some art critics that is often applied to the modern world of art: Art without meaning is decoration. While it might not be applicable to all art, there is certainly some truth in it from the perspective of wall-art.

We are obsessive about what artwork we put on the walls in our own home. Seriously, our planned gallery wall for our kitchen has resulted in over a year of deliberation, and we’ve still only hung one thing. It’s an investment of both time and money, so we want to get it right.

You’re probably imagining that we are biased towards photo prints for our walls, but that’s really not the case. There are posters from gigs, old framed comic books, movie posters, vinyl records postcards and artwork we’ve found and connected with… and, yeah, photos too. The one criteria we have is to find meaning in art.

To have something on our wall that is pretty is not enough. That’s merely decoration. We want something that evokes a feeling in us whenever we see it: A gig poster that takes us back to Primavera in 2014; an art print that was on the subway car on a long trip to Coney Island; a postcard of an old painting that looked like weirdly like us; a landscape shot of Dettifoss waterfall that we took on a trip to Iceland… These things are like a warm blanket of feelings that just make us feel better.

So fill your home with comfort art. Beautiful things, ugly things, serious things, silly things… art that gives you happiness and joy. Art that makes you daydream. Art that is meaningful.