Live Artfully

My business motto is “Live Artfully”. What does that mean?

I think it means many things to different people, so i can only speak for myself and its’ meaning to me personally.  To live artfully, for me, means to live with a balance in my life. To appreciate all that i have. To be thankful for my relationships and my health. I am a homebody. I like to be in our home and to share it with other people. Our home is my refuge. It is where I recharge. 

I have lived in the same house for over 25 years. In our home i have surrounded myself with works of art of all kinds: paintings, drawings, prints and glass and bronze sculptures I’ve been collecting since I was a teenager. Art is the thing i like the most about our home. I like the architecture and high ceilings, but it’s the art which gives it warmth and interest. Some pieces give me a sense of tranquility, others of the sublime. Some pieces still make me laugh and others remind me of a special place or person.

But there is more to what makes a home a place for artful living. I have a very small garden but it is always filled with flowers and lush plantings. And a few sculptures. I like to have flowers spread out over the interior of our home as well. For me, orchids are always beautiful and bring a sense of beauty to any room. And they are easy to maintain and last a long time.

I am a very tactile person, so i like my fabrics to feel good. I’m partial to mohair and linen velvet. And I like to be surrounded by rich colors. But i don’t like a lot of pattern in the fabrics with which i live. I like the art in every room to bring the room to life, not the fabrics.

I like to be surrounded by beauty. They can be simple things. The tile on our kitchen backsplash is glass. The kind of glass used to make stained glass windows. They are honey colored tiles about 2”x6”. Each tile is unique and all of the tiles play off of each other. Every time i look at that backsplash, it makes my happy that i chose it.

Another things that helps me to live artfully is music. I try to have it playing whenever i am home. Just as i see beauty in my art, i seek to find beauty in music.

Living artfully is really about appreciation. And surrounding yourself with the people and the things you love.