APRIL 19: MANAGING OUR HOME ART GALLERIES

APRIL 19: MANAGING OUR HOME ART  GALLERIES

                                   

BY S.DERRICKSON MOORE

Whether we appreciate or collect art, create it ourselves or some combination thereof, we may all eventually face a dilemma once humorously expressed by internationally-renowned, Las Cruces-based artist Stephen Hansen.

“Ultimately, I’ve come to think of art as a storage problem,” he once quipped.

Stephen, whose latest works pay homage to iconic artists seem to be flying out of his studio as fast as he creates them, may not be facing storage issues these days.

I, on the other hand, am still collecting and I can’t seem to stop. (I make no apologies, but I do have a solid defense. If you got to see some of the great stuff I get to see every week, I’ll bet you couldn’t resist either.)

As a result, my home looks, as my friend Fred once diplomatically put it, as if “you’ve really moved into every room.”

Both of my bathrooms, my office, kitchen and bedrooms are festooned — very festooned — with entertaining objets d’art. So is my garage, which is currently featuring a semi-permanent show of many of my favorite kites, and a laundry room exhibit of rustic wooden sculptures and prints I have every intension of reframing some day.

At least 30 percent of my closet space is devoted to a multimedia melange of arts and crafts that I hope to someday find just the right place to showcase.

A few more file cabinets, bureau drawers and under-sink and pantry lower shelves are dedicated to art supplies for arts and crafts projects I hope to complete myself, eventually. They are everyday reminders — amidst the extra vitamins, steel-cut oatmeal and cleaning supplies — of the reasons I took up painting and sculpture many decades ago. At that time, I didn’t have access to the art I really wanted, so I decided to create a few things on my own.

A lack of access to art I love is no longer a problem. Finding places to display it, or even to store it, on the other hand, is becoming a major issue.

About a decade ago, I took a cue from my art-loving friends Sue and Tom, who decided to take a rotating exhibit approach to decorating their home.

I don’t know why that didn’t occur to me earlier. I’ve curated and hung shows in galleries, museums, shops and homes throughout the United States and even once supervised permanent and rotating exhibits at an international airport.

Actually, I’ve been managing my own little gallery most of my life.

And it’s likely that you have, too, if you’re a parent and have a refrigerator, or were ever a kid with parents and a refrigerator.

It’s a good bet that most of us have had our own solo shows before we made it out of diapers, or were part of a several thoughtfully juried group exhibitions, if we had doting parents and siblings.

I’m now on my third generation of carefully curated, rotating refrigerator exhibitions.

Not for me are those long-trendy, minimalist, modern kitchens with gleaming, sterile, stainless steel appliances.

I’ve always felt that a white, beige or even vintage gold fridge is the perfect backdrop for most refrigerator art.

I was pleased when innovative Las Crucens once presented a refrigerator art exhibition, at Rokoko Gallery. I have a few fine art magnets from that show, proudly part of my rotating collection, which includes sunflower and roseate spoonbill magnets I created.

They help display my favorite photo of son Ryan and me, taken in the Badlands when he was a baby. I was in bellbottoms, and the family was headed westward. There is also grandson Alex the Great’s sketch of a pensive eagle contemplating a tiny cloud, which has held pride of place the past decade. He’s heading this way soon and I hope he’ll appreciate his long-term popularity at the venue and contribute some new work.

There’s always room for more great art.

S. Derrickson Moore may be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com, @DerricksonMoore on Twitter and Tout, or call 575-541-5450.