What's on your wall?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I did some nesting this weekend. Now in the living room I’ve got -

[ul]An oil pastel sketch of a dreary windmill, done by a distant relative in a symphony of browns. It’s pretty ugly but I like it. It hung on my grandparents’ wall since the Cretaceous period, I think it’s dated 1918 or something ridiculous.
[/ul]
[ul]A little sketch of Boston market hall dated seventy-something, which I found in a charity shop in Chorley. I wish I knew the story of that getting from Massachusetts to an Oxfam in West Lancashire. I like it a lot.[/ul]
[ul]My grandad’s certificate of incorporation for his demolition company, dated 1963. In the 60s certificates of incorporation were a lot nicer.[/ul]
[ul]This amazing photograph of a pilgrimage to Lourdes; hundreds of pilgrims and nurses and people on stretchers and whatnot, all lined up outside the cathedral. I don’t know when it’s from exactly, but it’s black and white and everyone’s in those round, black-framed glasses from before they invented spectacle fashions. Again, this is from a charity shop, which is just absurd - it probably hung on someone’s wall for decades and then they died and someone chucked it out. It’s amazing; every time I look at it I see something new.[/ul]

And in the kitchen I’ve got -

[ul]Two Zaka masks from our honeymoon in St Lucia.[/ul]
[ul]The tasting menu from Viajante, where we went for our anniversary this year (Has stuff like “Tomato, water, strawberry” and “Thai explosion II”).[/ul]
[ul]The comparatively sensible tasting menu from Northcote Manor, where we went when Matt proposed.[/ul]
[ul]This Lightning Bolt poster. [/ul]
[ul]A Deerhoof poster I can’t find online, from a gig in 2007. Matt surprised me with tickets, which was nice.[/ul]
[ul]A page from a Dutch 1983 calendar featuring a 1920s tennis advert. It’s in Dutch because my mum got it from Pijnacker when she visited my aunt, who was living there at the time. History![/ul]
[ul]Matt’s electronic barometer device. [/ul]

There’s nothing upstairs at the moment because all the walls there are being painted / stripped / knocked down / etc.

I like that everything on my wall means something to me. How about you?

2

Nothing on any of the walls in my place.

3

My mom was a pretty decent amateur painter 30 years ago. I left hints for years that the greatest gift ever would be if she got back into painting and made something I could hang in my house. I really did think it would be cool but I also thought it’d be great for her to have a hobby. She needs a lot of encouraging.

So eventually I gave up and asked if I could have a couple old paintings she wasn`t hanging. Then my grandmother gave me a couple my mom had done that she wasn’t displaying. Then my aunt got into painting and has given me three of hers.

Now about half my wall decorations and 3/4s of my paintings are done by my mom or her sister. I’m sorry to say my aunt’s in particular are not that nice. Nobody has been blown away by my mom’s stuff but people seem to like it sincerely even without knowing the connection.

Luckily there’s room on the walls that I can add more stuff and spread out the family art better rather than actually taking it down… but I hope I don`t get anymore of it.

4

A North Korean propaganda poster, a photo of the Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashad, Iran, several African masks, an abacus, framed collages of banknotes from about 70 different countries.

5

Computer room: an antique water color landscape that my mother passed on to me; a coat of arms from one branch of the family, painted on tile and dated 1911 (also from my mother via her grandfather); bunches of ancestor photos; a mirror.

Living room: a Fred Machetanz print called “Change of Direction”; a 1981 Byron Birdsall print called “Stormbird”; a set of coat hooks.

Dining: two George Ahgupuk original ink on sealskin drawings (one of a caribou migration, the other of an Inuit man preparing for winter); a Fred Machetanz lithograph called “Glow of the Lamp”; an original woodcut of the legend of “Loon Woman”, artist unknown; a wall-mounted wine rack.

Kitchen: four small papayrus pieces; a plate made by a Native American artist.

Bedroom: a print by Jon Van Zyle called “There’s One in Every Crowd” and a large papyrus.

6

In the living room, we have a large print which is about a hundred tiny labeled pictures such as you might see in a dictionary. Odd but interesting.

In the bedroom, two boring abstracts. Looks like hotel art to me.

In the bathroom, this Escher print.

7

A calendar in the living room, and in the bathroom, The Shadow Government poster from Jon Stewart’s “America: The Book,” so that I can laugh while I poop.

8

Dust. Cracked plaster. Smudges. A light switch. A thermostat. A cheesy roses-in-wine-glasses framed clock that doesn’t work.

9

I have a lot of stuff on my walls - it’s a decent-size house, so I have a lot of walls. I’ll just cover the living room and entry.

Living room:
-Watercolor of flowers, purchased at a gallery in Calabash, NC, near where we vacation every year.
-Watercolor of a sailboat, the first original art I ever purchased, about 25 years ago.
-Watercolor of a street in Paris, with Notre Dame in the distance. I bought this from a street vendor a few years ago.
-Watercolor of the house we live in, painted by a friend just after we moved in.
-Two photos of the Chesapeake Bay taken, framed, and given to me by my sister.
-An oil painting of an egret in a tree, also purchased in Calabash.
-An oil painting of a lake in Sweden, purchased at a fair here at home.
-A photo my father took of the sailboat we had 30-some years ago. I’m in the photo.

In the entry:
-A large, wooden mask my parents bought in Tonga.
-A large, detailed map of West Virginia.
-An aboriginal painting my parents gave me from Australia.
-An oil painting done by my cousin, Colin Madgwick.
-A small watercolor of some flowers purchased in Calabash
-A watercolor of a Roman street, bought in a Roman gallery a couple years ago.

10

I’m not much for interior decoration, but I have one of George Grie’s prints, which I fell in love with the instant I saw it. Unfortunately, the print came out too dark, which has not made me anxious to get more from him.

11

We have six limited edition cougar prints, three framed cougar photographs, and a couple of general big cat prints on the walls upstairs, and framed movie posters (The Matrix, Superman, etc.) downstairs. Our cougar collection upstairs includes:
Excursion by Robert Bateman
Above the Treeline by Seerey-Lester
Powder Trails by Richard Mravik
Five O’Clock Shadow by Paul Bosman
Jewel by Darren Haley
The Predator’s Walk by Carl Brenders

12

At various points in the house, there are hanging (all framed nicely):

4 Ansel Adams posters
1 Georgia O’Keefe poster
An original of this poster
a large format photo of a moonrise over Denali
a large format photo of a broaching pod of orca
several pieces of local artwork
a number of matted and framed First Day covers of DC and Marvel superheroes (like this one)
several swords
several axes
1 Linda Ronstadt poster hanging behind the toilet
misc. Buffy stuff, includeing framed bits of costume
a dozen or so bar mirrors for Guinness, Harp, Sierra Nevada and such
a couple of RSC posters from the 60s

13

I’ve been in this house almost exactly 5 years now. I cannot make the commitment to hang stuff on the walls!

The only things I have up are…

  1. A white analog clock
  2. A 3-in-1 set of retriever (dog) paintings that I used to cover up a hole I didn’t want to fix.
  3. Three framed photographs that my friend took that represent the current season. I switch them out every 4 months to match the season.

I have a whole house to myself but I can’t manage to put shit on the walls!

14

It’s mostly wildlife prints. There’s handful by Charles Parker, a pair by Ray Harm, a print of a water color by Nita Engle, a big cat by Peter Skirka, and a couple of Betty Grahams. There’s also an origianal Leo Tanzilli landscape.

15

The only interesting one right now is the painting in this photo. It’s about two thirds done, but there’s nowhere else to store it and we have to wait till the weekend to do the next part.

16

Mostly photographs I took myself, matted and framed. Here and there small original watercolors by other people, calendars, and clocks.

17

I have some original animation cels from The Grinch, from old Raid commercials, from Dilbert.

I also have some cool things brought back from Japan.

I have some other crap that someone hung for me while I was in the hospital. They thought it would cheer me up when I got home. I didn’t care then and don’t really now, so I haven’t taken it down. (I did appreciate the thought, just not the implementation.)

18

In the room I’m in:

Two pencil drawings of eagles that my son did.

A woodcutting of Jim Morrison that my daughter did. (People sometimes ask us what the Unabomber is doing on the wall!)

My favorite quote from Albert Schweitzer decorated with colorful leaves. “No ray of sunshine is ever lost. But the green which it awakes into existence needs time to sprout, and it is not always granted to the sower to see the harvest. All work that is worth anything is done in faith.”

A needlework hanging that says “Thank you for the next time” in Norwegian.

A few cobwebs.

19

It all started with the purchase of one nice, matted, framed print - a photo by David Winston, Solitude - a lone tree with a black fence, snow on the ground. (it used to be in every frame n’ print shop in every mall, until those places went out of business). This purchase begat: Talk On The Old Fence, by Carl Brenders, a realistic print of an old white fence, autumn leaves, and two bluejays. On either side of this: two small matted framed prints of birds nests with eggs (looks old fashioned, like from an Audubon sketch(. A lovely framed print of The Young Hare, by Albrecht Durer, which he turned out in 1502 (this has always been one of my favorite art works). A cheapie framed print of a garden, a path, and black cat sitting on the path - this is mostly to cover up a hole in the wall. And…a Wind n’ Weather weather station which displays the time, temp inside and out, moon phase, humidity, etc. (There’s a battery operated thingie outside that picks up all the information. We always used to panic when daylight savings time changed and the thing went blank until the time signal reset itself.) This is just in the living room.

In the dining room are four framed Mucha prints, art nouveau ladies depicting the four seasons. (my favorite is winter, a lady in a green cloak that sort of makes her look hunchbacked. she’s holding a bird and she has a furtive look on her face…) Two antique gold leaf oval frames with more Audubon birds, bought on eBay. Two snapshots of my daughter, one at age 5, petting a lion cub and one at age 18, holding our 19 year old Himalayan cat in his final days. Framed high school graduation portrait of her, looking like a demure Mona Lisa (mainly because she discovered the joys of eyebrow plucking that year, lol!). Several framed snapshots of closeups of flowers from our garden over the years (Mr. Sali is a wonderful photographer and has won amateur prizes for his work). A square grapevine wreath that I decorated with dried flowers, knick-knacks, etc. I was going to change the decorations with the seasons, but it got shunted aside…

There are a few Lenox plates (more birds, and some cats) hanging on the wall in the kitchen. And a framed cardboard advertisement for catnip, sort of a primitive cat against
a country background, that came with a bag of catnip years ago. It’s in French and advertises ‘amusement for felines’.

There’s more. There’s much, much, much more. I’d have to go look upstairs, I forget. But at the foot of the stairs, on sky blue walls, there are our two pride and joys, framed matted antique-y Japanese prints of Mt. Fuji, I believe, and the fishing boat on the Great Wave. Those things were expensive!

We got the prints, matted and framed, from Allposters.com.

20

Carl Brenders is amazing. I like Bateman’s dreamier, softer style, but for realistic painting, you can’t beat Brenders.