A picture is worth a thousand words

My mother was a commercial artist with a degree in fine art, and so our home was filled with art--paintings she'd done, paintings and prints she picked up  on her travels, pieces of sculpture, objects she prized for their intrinsic beauty (shells and rocks and pretty pieces of crockery). When I first started fournishing my own apartment, I did what every 20-something did and bought posters. (One of which, a stunning 1978 poster for AIDA is now out of print.  YOu can buy it for $1200 on Instadibs.  I sooo wish I still had that poster, which went missing during one of my moves.)

But one day I stumbled across an arts fair in a park near my apartment and discovered I could buy ORIGINAL ART for the same price (or even less) than a copy of the Picasso Don Quixote print (you know the one) or the reproduction of Ansel Adams "Moonrise over Hernandez, New Mexico (you also know that one, and did you know the bidding started at more than half a million when a print was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2006).
Then eBay came along and suddenly you could buy art from all over the world. It wasn't necessarily cheap--I paid $500 for a painting by a Vermont artist who signed her paintings VERTE--but the works were original and I wasn't going to see them in every corporate waiting room and low-end motel in the city.
Then I discovered Red Bubble. And Etsy. And well, let's just say that I now choose my living quarters by how much available wall space there is.

Art is a great gift to give people but it's so very, very personal that unless you know someone REALLY well, the best thing to do is buy a greeting card that's an art piece you like and then enclose a gift card for a site your friend might enjoy browsing.

On Redbubble, posters begin in the $12 range and go up, depending on size. You can get something like one of Tanyashatseva's dreamy, spacetime inspired glitter-infused acrylic paintings called "Nahdezhda Nebula") as everything from a sticker to a phone case to a t-shirt to a greeting card if you don't have room for a poster.)  You can even get the image on leggings!

Other sites with original art for sale are:

Artfinder
Artshow
Etsy
Minted
UGallery

Root Division (a gallery in San Francisco) also has terrific art in the $200-$500 range, but it's only available for local pickup. That's a shame because there's a piece by Eva Enriquez that calls to me.

Life needs to be beautiful. Do your part. (And remember, no matter how awesome Georgia O'Keefe is, friends don't let friends hang posters of her bones and flowers.

Another great place to buy original art...Society6

Photo by "Steelback"

I was searching for images to help kick-start a story I'm writing and I ran across Society6.  I am, as you know, all about the Etsy and I'm also fond of Red Bubble and Zazzle too, but Society6 was new to me. I spent a very happy hour (or so) browsing their selection of photographs and art and by the end of that time I had a dozen (well,, really, a few dozen) items on my wish list. If you're still shopping for Christmas, and you know someone who appreciates art, this is a place to look. The only thing I don't like is that the item listings don't include information on the art beyond the basics. The works are priced to sell.

Blatant Brother Promotion

I come from a family of artists and lawyers and my brother Robert is both. He's always "done art" but a few years ago he got a digital camera and now he sees the world through its lens. He carries the camera everywhere and gets some great shots.

I created a Red Bubble account for him because I really like his work and think others might like it too. There are only three pictures up right now--one of his best, a portrait of two owls from his backyard--is currently hiding somewhere in my files, but there will be more to come. Check him out here if you like pretty pictures...