The other week I mentioned that I had gone out on a limb and got my wife something different for our anniversary, but it hadn't arrived in time so I had to come up with something else on the spur of the moment. That wasn't "quite" true, as it wasn't that it hadn't arrived, it was that it hadn't been finished on time. The artist hadn't finished painting it.
For our ninth anniversary, I commissioned a painting for the first time in my life, giving nothing more than a prompt and some pictures of our loungeroom for inspiration. People keep prompting AI to get some output, but at least in my opinion, it just isn't close to an original piece of art.
And this is the original I picked up and paid for today.
Pretty cool.
This will be the first ever painting that hangs in my home, that isn't painted by my father, my mother, or by me, and I think it is a pretty great first addition. And what is interesting about it is that I would never have chosen this for us, had I seen it in a gallery.
This makes it better.
Because I wanted something original, something that doesn't quite blend in with our general style, but still fits into our lives, and I think that this image captures it. Now, I am not sure if my wife likes it for our walls or not, but this again means that it is on the mark, because it now becomes a conversation piece in the home for us too. And, it is from a local artist, which is an added bonus.
This has been a bit of a strange experience for me also, because I normally have a high degree of control over what is going to adorn my walls, but with this, I decided to take a far more standoffish approach and let the result be, what it will be. And, I said that I would hang it, no matter what it looks like. This isn't because of the cost of the work itself, but because I want to have something on the wall for a period of time that might be a little more "uncomfortable" for me to see what kinds of effects it has.
I think that what we surround ourselves with matters, and that includes the looks and feels of the spaces we create. It all influences us in some way, nudges us down a path in subtle ways that change our outcomes. It is like having clean sheets on the bed, or the kitchen cupboards in order. Something feels different.
I haven't hung it on the wall yet, so I will leave that for tomorrow. But I am glad that at least this year for our anniversary, it is something that is completely different to a normal gift I'd get, unique as there is only this one piece, and personal with meaning to us alone.
I might get another commissioned.
Just have to save up again.
Taraz
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