Welcome to ART ACTUALLY, an art column by me, Beth Krumholz of Oley, where each month I will share musings and discoveries vis-a-vis our local art scene.
How to reframe viewing art right in your very own home:
I asked myself what does an art columnist do at a time like this? I think my goal is simply to show people different ways of thinking about art.
Many of us are in the same situation right now: sheltering in place. But this does not have to curtail our wanderlust or our imaginations. In our minds we can still travel and even take delight in the things we notice at home and on our trips to the grocery store. Look at the aesthetic potential of what is right in front of you. In a sense you are repurposing your own environment. Give yourself the power to have a new spiritual understanding of your daily surroundings. Be in the here and now. Go around your house and notice what is already there. Look out the car window and see anew what you have seen a hundred times before.
So, let us focus on what to do, think and see from home, at home, and despite being home. How can the home itself be used as a model and material for art? What does it mean to be "present" and "together" in our current technological climate? How can we make connections between the objects in our homes and art in the realm of domesticity throughout art history? Let’s examine our own domestic environs. What will you rediscover?
As you look around your home you will most likely find photographs, linens, furniture, utensils, books and more. These items might trigger memories, something made, purchased, gifted or passed down. What are the socially assigned meanings? What is the personal meaning for you? From the tea kettle in your kitchen to the clothing in your closet, you are making aesthetic choices. All of these choices and objects become more than the sum of their disparate parts when you start to consider them together. Maybe there is a neglected object, or one that is spiritually up-lifting.
There are many artists, contemporary and from the past, who have mulled over these very questions. It takes a willingness to suspend sentimentality when taking a fresh view of our own belongings. I invite you to peruse some of these links and see if any of them resonate for you:
Pennsylvania quilt makers:
http://statemuseumpa.org/quilts/pages/collection.htm
Alice Neel, painter from Philadelphia:
https://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/96353.html
Beth Krumholz is a Berks County native. She is an educator, artist and poet. She has worked in the field of alternative art education for more than 20 years, from NYC to San Francisco. In her spare time, she enjoys Indian cooking, Appalachian waterfalls, tabletop herb gardening, and hanging out with her wonderful son and their mischievous cats. Photo: Jenny Schulder-Brant
