We circled back with a local collector who purchased a
Kevin Brent Morris
beetle and we asked her why she was drawn to the piece. Meet Lily C. from Des Moines! Within the last few months, she's also purchased an
Elisa Sheehan
and
Karin Olah. Her original art collection is growing and lovely!
I have three main reasons why it is important for me to have art in my space. First, my parents’ house is filled with art, so I’ve been surrounded by art since I was born. It never occurred to me to live somewhere without art all over the walls. Second, I live in an apartment where I can’t paint the walls, if I didn’t have art I’d live in a blank white box. That would be awful. Third, the art in my apartment makes my apartment feel like my home. The first thing I did when I moved here was hang things on the wall. I didn’t feel truly at home until the pictures of my friends and family, the pieces of art I had found or been gifted, and the hundreds of postcards I’ve collected were on the walls.
There are a few things that appealed to me about my Kevin Brent Morris’ piece. The first was the frame. I love ornate frames; they are one of my favorite things about art museums. Next, I really liked the idea that something I would find so horrifying in real life (I am generally not a fan of bugs) could be transformed into something so beautiful in a painting. And, I think the yellow magnolias in the background provide such an interesting contrast to the beetle.
The first piece of original art I ever purchased was in college. I spent the summer of 2016 interning at an art gallery in Cape Cod and one night we were hanging up a show for an artist based out of Boston named Brigid Watson. The pieces were all 6 x 6” canvases inspired by song lyrics. My piece is called “Send Me Photos and Souvenirs,” and the moment I saw it I fell in love with the colors and the texture. I still remember how exciting it was to put the little red sticker on the wall next to my painting and the painting will always be a great memory of a truly wonderful summer.
My completely unrealistic ideal collection would include a seascape by J.M.W. Turner and a poppy by Georgia O’Keeffe. More realistically, I’d really love to start adding some larger pieces to my collection. Most of the pieces I have now are pretty small, which is fun because I can be creative and move them around every few months, but I’d love to have one (or two or three) big stand out piece.
