Art for Home — Beautiful Pieces That Will Brighten Up Your Self-Isolation

Now that many of us are spending most of the time in our homes, we recommend adding some visual pleasures to the four walls that sometimes feel like they’re closing in on us during these social-distancing times.

Sure, our Amazon carts and grocery-delivery orders have been full, but life is more than just the bare necessities. Why not make your home cheerful and aesthetically pleasing? Might I suggest a new piece of art.

As is customary in PaperCity‘s regular Dear Boyfriend series, I am calling on the significant others of the world to gift us unnecessary but important creations to brighten our rooms and transport us to faraway places and magical moments.

Now more than ever is the time to indulge the senses. Let’s bring the joy of an art museum onto our own walls.

Dear Boyfriend,

As I never fathomed a two-plus-week period of home containment, this is a perfect opportunity to add some awe-inspiring and moving works by talented artists to the walls to stimulate our hearts and minds. As I know you’re in constant search for gifts to bestow upon me, art is the perfect permanent memento of your love, living on my walls to entertain my visual senses forever, even in times of global uncertainty.

Since I am also selflessly providing you ways to improve your own self by giving me these treats, gifting art is also a phenomenally smart investment opportunity. Its benefits include supporting independent up-and-coming artists, putting food on the table of a member of a hard-working creative community, etc., etc.

As the Spice Girls so encouragingly sang, its time to “spice up our lives” — and our home’s walls.

The gift of mood lifting can begin with a piece by Kelly O’Conn0r. Her magical take on familiar subjects creates mythical bright worlds that prove traditional times can be catapulted out of the ordinary. The juxtaposition of sparkly and gem-colored accents to vintage paper and photographs depicts the perfect journey of turning the mundane into something of wonder and intricacy.

The San Antonio native even shows her work at David Shelton Gallery in Houston.

The recently released lips by Angela Chrusciaki Blehm lend a loving, playful touch to any art collection. The layered wood assemblages bring a more tactile experience to art, taking any humdrum wall to automatic fun. Her play with scale adds a comical perspective.

Added bonus? The lip kiss collection is a way to give me an extra smooch. The University of Houston grad is making waves with her art and designs and has been featured in several national design magazines.

It’s only a matter of time before the wacky works of Julia McLaurin make their way to my wall. The unexpected photo-manipulated masterpieces show anything is possible and subconsciously give an uplifting light of positivity and hope.

You can’t walk by these works without a smile, They are whimsical and silly in an anything-goes kind of way. McLaurin’s current and past collections of photographs are available at Houston gallery Foto Relevance.

After a glance at the unique creations of Gaspard Mitz, viewers will be transported to another world. Mitz’s intricately witty Box Stories put centimeters-tall figurines in situations that go beyond them. His intrinsic ability to transform both his subjects and his audience to another story or place is magical and just what the doctor ordered these days.

The soothing palettes and clean-flowing lines of the paintings by Linnéa Andersson will be a welcome respite from the chaos that ensues. The artist describes her process as using the form of an abstract leaf to mediate a sort of human language outside of standard expression. The emotional journey of the continuous streaming lines in her works lead the mind into a meditative state.

Let’s lean on the gift of art to help us delight our emotions in this time of global pandemic.

Sincerely Yours,

Your eccentric, slightly crazy, and oh-so-art-obsessed girlfriend

Look for new Dear Boyfriend lists every month on PaperCityMag.com.