Go for it. With caveats as appropriate based on content, theme, and number of pieces of artwork. (“Minimalist” beats the “Fridge Door Belonging to the Proud Parents of a Kindergardener” all hollow).
And while you don’t neccessarily want to frame all your artworks, figuring out a way to display your artwork that looks semi-permanent rather than transient is a good idea. Even if you choose to rotate your favorite pieces seasonally, or keep the most recent six paintings up or whatever.
Having seen your art, Sunspace, I’d say go for it. Nicely framed and hung, of course; not tacked or taped. But you knew that. Your stuff is good, and the fact that it’s yours would no doubt be a great topic of conversation if a young lady was to stop by.
Hm. Two of the three (framed) posters in my bedroom have words on them – good thing I’m a girl and don’t need to worry about potential sleep-over guests judging my beddability based on decor, eh?
Okay, I’m a guy. However, I’ve picked up a thing or two since college (That was about 10 years ago). Suffice it to say, you probably lost most of the ladies at “poster”. I won’t even touch “beer girl”, or the rest of it.
A good rule of thumb: If the majority of your decor comes from either Spencer’s Gifts or The Sharper Image, you may encounter some resistance with the women-folk.
Thanks, Spoons. I haven’t done any serious art-type drawing since my sister died, and I’m thinking about doing some again. Besides, the framing shop by the gym gives a ten-percent discount if you’re framing your own art.
Re: that painting by my mom: I hated it for years, but then I realised that I hated the frame. It’s in dark colours; it needs a dark but vibrant frame colour, like a dark orange or red, not pale blue-grey!!!
I wonder whether they’d give me the discount for art done by a family member?
As for posters, I do have a beautuful antique poster from the sixties; I should get it framed as well.
SHAKES, SHAKES, SHAKES.
You got exactly what you asked for – refreshingly honest, at times witheringly honest – and thus mayn’t quibble or whinge about the responses. However, this doesn’t preclude me from doing so on your behalf.
It strikes me that there are two ways to consider a bachelor’s bedroom: a private place for sleep, or a (potentially) shared space for romance. Viewing your description through the first lens, drive on, brother – as you like it is the only touchstone for how it ought be. As a shared space, though, it would seem your decor is too assertively SHAKEsian to set the mise-en-scene for… collaboration, shall we say. But there is a place in life for the bowling trophies, the “RatFink” monster hot-rod collection, the glow-in-the-dark Creature of the Black Lagoon model, the singing bass, the Farrah poster, the KISS Army paraphenalia, the Spider-Man bobblehead, the life-size cutout of Evel Knievel, the poker-playing dogs tapestry, the rows of tiki mugs alternating with Santeria votives. What one needs is a room of one’s own.
Call it a den, a study or an office. Careful consideration should be given to lighting, color and comfortable seating. (I’ve been infatuated with only two inanimate objects in my life – a wonderfully broken orange and yellow plaid La-Z-Boy recliner and the Army cold-weather issue sleeping bag. To possess and unite the two remains a cherished dream). Fill it with your tchotchkes, bibelots and aides-memoire. A small CD ghettoblaster will supply your music. The final touch of insulation from those who would coldread your character from your (admitted Beavissian) aesthetic is simplicity itself to install. (After all, gang, we don’t know SHAKES. He may be a trashy fireman or lifeguard, a tacky AIDS hospice volunteer, an adult literacy tutor who mixes stripes and plaids and tells corny jokes). Beg, borrow or steal Subcultures by Dick Hebdige, anything at all by Pierre Bourdieu, and half-a-dozen back issues of the Journal of Popular Culture, and scatter these strategically through your new pied-a-terre. Voila! From obnoxious boor to coffeehouse sage, a connoisseur of subcultural capital and a scholar of the semiotics of the carnivalesque during the Populuxe era.
Now the bedroom is a blank canvas for the cool greyed pastels and warm browns, the row of vanilla candles, the paisley down comforter (small pattern and jewel tones only!), the Asian meets Italian minimalist design (think Vern Yip at his most austere), the grainy black- and-white studies of denuded trees in the rainy winter dusk that will certify you as A Man Of Taste, someone who deserves his oxygen ration and perhaps even to get laid now and again. Good luck, Mr. Goodbar.
A possible reason the women you’ve dated haven’t said anything, SHAKES, is that laughing in the face of one’s date Just Isn’t Done. Look at all the musings on what excuses the women here already posted. The women didn’t want to insult you and if they decided there wasn’t relationship probability happening, perhaps they just reckoned it wasn’t there job to educate you about it, and some chicks just abhor conflict and avoid it at all costs.
Any way you slice it, critiquing someone’s boudoir decor, and being brutally honest about how awful it is, just screams Awkward. Peeps like to avoid the Awkward, that’s all.
Nothing wrong with kitsch per se, but it’s better to keep most of that stuff corralled together and call it a shrine or a collection. I keep most of that stuff on top of my fridge and elsewhere in the kitchen (yes, it’s a kitsch kitchen).
SHAKES, how’s it going? Have you decided on anything in particular yet?