Aspire...and your art can too match your sofa...

"Aspire" work in progress...
24 x 24
acrylic and pencil on canvas

About this painting: The gold sections are Daniel Smith's gold gesso (which is addicting to use...but really hard to use 'well' I think) and will eventually be covered in gold leaf... we'll see how that goes...LOL

"Real Art Doesn't Match the Sofa"
I don't know where this phrase came from... probably from a frustrated artist.... I can almost hear the conversation as they are looking at the completed and commissioned floral painting...

patron (holding her couch arm sleeve thingie): "shouldn't that rose be a more lipsticky mauve rather than the purpley mauve you've painted?
artist: "If i change the color then that rose will not fit in with the rest of the painting."
patron: "Well, see here in the fabric...it really is a more lipsticky mauve."
artist:"But that color wouldn't look right against the greens that you provided with the paint chips."
patron:"I really thought that the rose would match this lipsticky mauve color in my sofa..."
artist:"Real art does't match the sofa."

Yup... I can imagine where the phrase came from... But, I think it puts up a barrier....
It makes the average person feel intimidated... It's as if artwork coordinating with furnishings is soooo not cool...
And I completely disagree....

Furnishing a home is an art... A room is a composition.... I would not place a piece of art in a spot that didn't look good.... If the pattern on my sofa looked awful with a fabulous painting above it... I would move the painting, or the sofa.

I know I'm being literal with this saying... and that's probably not what the author meant...
But we shouldn't be flippant and roll our eyes at someones "unsophisticated" tastes... It's never good to make someone feel dumb...

As artists need to try to educate and lead... (Especially here in the US... where art education is so sadly pushed to the bottom of our schools' curriculum.) We need to try to entice our friends and family into our artistic circles... to show them what we see and feel, with approachable language and an open and welcoming attitude.

"Real Art is for Everyone"