It has become unseasonably cool where I live out west. Usually we get hot weather until mid-October and I get homesick for autumn in the east. This year we’ve already had more than a week of beautiful fall temperatures. It’s been lovely, but I have to admit I was finally ready for a hot September. I was going to just enjoy it and not look back.
Instead I’m nesting like a squirrel. I had someone come over this morning to help me choose colors for painting. Our walls are white. Yes, white. We’ve got colorful furniture, window coverings, etc. but this white is finally calling my name. It is thirsty for color. I’m thirsty for color. Since my husband likes to take part in the decorating decision making, and it would take us two more years to agree on paint, and then we would botch it up in the end, I decided to take the referral for a paint consultant. The consultant is a mom who works out of her home. She doesn’t charge very much at all, and the colors she had me looking at are just so exciting I can hardly contain myself. I would have never gone for green tones, but Wow! Now…..to get my husband on board. I know green toned paint sounds boring but when you put it against the colors we have it looks great.
The other reason why I am kissing this woman’s feet is this. I forgot the appointment was today and she was waiting on my doorstep when I got home from dropping Rachel at preschool. Laundry and even one or two dirty diapers (okay, two, darnit!) were on the floor upstairs. Our living room was full of boxes I was sorting for Katrina victims. The table was full of breakfast dishes. Despite this, she made me feel completely comfortable!! She’s my new best friend.
This excitement about color has me browsing online for art. Well, it actually started when we were shopping at Target, of all places, this weekend. They had a very large oil canvas reproduction of a painting. The same reproduction has been featured in Ballards catalog and I’ve had my eye on it for quite some time. The exact same oil canvas they have for one third the price. We bought it. It’s looks amazing in our living room. Now I’m really interested in these oil on canvas reproductions.
Do you find that you are loyal to one or two genres of art and shun the rest, or do you play the field and pick or shun art indiscriminately. I am one of the latter folk. Some impressionists move me, some don’t. Some realists move me, some don’t. Some Dutch paintings, some not.
Take modern art, for instance. I’m not a big Picasso fan, but I am drawn to some the work (not all) of Wassily Kandisky. This one really speaks to me. (It is not the one I bought, if you’re curious about that.)
“Composition VII,” 1913
I think Kandinksy would say that it sings to me.
“Kandinsky, himself an accomplished musician, once said Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul. The concept that color and musical harmony are linked has a long history, intriguing scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton. Kandinsky used color in a highly theoretical way associating tone with timbre (the sounds character), hue with pitch, and saturation with the volume of sound. He even claimed that when he saw color he heard music.”
WebMuseum, Paris
Is there any modern art that speaks to you? Or is it all just a bunch of scribble as far as you’re concerned? Does this piece of art sing to you or make you yawn and scratch your head?
Another of my nesting projects? Landscaping. You should see the slope in our backyard. After one and a half years in this house and hoeing the clay soil up there until my hands were blistered. And weeding the damn thing 4 or 5 times, I have finally called someone to give me guidance. He owns the neighborhood gardening store and he’s coming over tomorrow evening. I’ve been getting free advice from him FOREVER. Now he can come and see how I’ve botched it al up. But…..I am so damn excited.
Oh, one last question: Do you think decorating decisions are best left to one highly motivated, passionate, color-thirsty person (aka: me or you), or should these decisions be negotiated (translation: argued) over until a decision is made…or not made.
Kidding, honey. I told her specifically that you would vote against purple in the bedroom for ideological reasons. It was like you were there with us the whole time.
