Let There Be Art!

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When you think about what makes a house a home, you think of the feeling you get when you step across the threshold.  

I think of my home as a wonderful constellation of color, hardscape, architectural detail and texture. This environment and the artifacts inside create a psychological moat, between my world and the outside world.

A minimalist by nature, if I'm not careful, I run the risk of my home looking like a generic Pottery Barn catalog. The challenge with this orientation, is to surround myself with a few things that make me smile when I see them, day in and day out.  I want my home to communicate to others what I value and who I am. If I do a good job, my home should reach out and welcome people, inviting them to unwind and leave their NY City guard — at the door.

In my home, my art is one of the ways I create mood, surprise and smiles.  I'm not a rich woman or a famous collector, but over the years I have carefully curated prints,  illustrations and photography that embodies the different ways I see light and the world. In the end — you could say that my art makes my heart sing.

Over the past four months, there has been no art while we moved and repaired walls throughout the house. This week as I finished painting the stairwell, we reached a turning point. We are far from done with this renovation, but it was time to break out a little joy in white frames.

I have used the stairwell as my primary gallery for my prints by Sam Nhlengethwa. These prints were made from the illustrations that Sam created for John Hunt's book on creativity, The Art of The Idea — and How It Can Change Your Life. 

As you arrive on the third floor you see the bath and are greeted by a photo of my son and daughter-in-law on their wedding day and a photo that Jessica Edelstein and her husband Andrew game me for Christmas one year, commemorating my bi-coastal lifestyle at the time — depicting the palm trees of California, the clouds from the airplane and the big city on the right — of which I am now a full time citizen.

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Framing and hanging purists will say these prints are hung too high, but I didn't like the look of them from the third floor when they were placed in the middle of the upper level.

The view as you begin to walk down the stairs from the third floor. It's almost as if the art beckons you down the stairs.

Today, the  Parlor floor is a complete mess as it awaits transformation into a temporary kitchen and the living room looks like a storage unit. However, today I can now walk to the center of the house, look up my magic, winding staircase to the skylight and celebrate the progress we have made.

—Laurie