Most of the time I blog about our art installation services near Asheville, but since I'm also the on-staff art consultant, I thought I'd show you the kind of art I make. I just finished this big commissioned piece which is called "Three Wooden Crosses." It's in three panels and is about seven feet wide. As you can see, it depicts the mountains near Asheville, as well as the French Broad River and the Buncombe Turnpike. The Turnpike follows an ancient pass through the Appalachian Mountains. It was first carved out by bison, then used as a hunting trail by Native Americans, then as a route for cattle drovers, and finally as the site of the railroad that connects Asheville to points north and south. Each panel celebrates a different aspect of North Carolina's wildlife and terrain, beginning in the first panel where we see an American eagle flying over the rapids of the French Broad River. Eagles are very common on this river; they love to fly down it in the morning and hunt for fish and small birds. The middle panel depicts a specific mountaintop near our city, with the clouds catching on it in the morning sunshine. I used old reference photos to show what the hillside would have looked like back when it was still used to pasture cattle. With the slow disappearance of the farming communities around here, more and more mountainsides are returning to forest, so it's good to honor the old ways as they pass by. The right-hand panel depicts the distant Blue Ridge Mountains, as well as a field of Burley tobacco staked out to cure in the sunshine. Burley is the variety that was traditionally grown in western North Carolina. It's a pipe tobacco and is allowed to dry outdoors before being hung up in the local tobacco barns. Many of my older neighbors have memories of the hard work it took to harvest and hang this crop. It's hard to get a sense of any painting from internet photos, so let's zoom in and look at some of the details. I really liked the way this picture took on a sunny, sparkling quality as I painted it. Since art usually hangs in your home for a long period of time, I like to add little special elements that reward contemplation through the years. In the middle panel you can see a small flock of the wild turkey that live in the area. The mountaintop also has three wooden crosses on the top, which I added at the special request of my patron. In the third panel are two white-tailed deer which we see a lot of in the area. If you're visiting Asheville in the summertime, you'll also hear the call of the mourning dove, so I hid two little doves in one of the pine trees. The whole scene takes place in the fall, when the brilliant green of summer is fading down into a warmer yellow tone. This works particularly well in homes with a lot of white, beige, or blue, or if you have wood tones in your decor. Although the original is in a private collection, prints of this piece are available, with posters starting at $39 and fine art canvas prints available as well. Just get in touch to learn more.
And if you're moving into a new home and you'd like a real art consultant to help you place your collection, please let us know. I'm always happy to help you decide where each of your cherished pieces should go. You're gonna think this one looks easy. After all, I look pretty comfortable on this scaffold, don't I? The truth is that installing these great big metal signs in a stairwell wasn't an easy job... but it sure was fun! Most of the time when we go to visit peoples' houses and see their collections, they've got a lot of variety. For example, this couple who was moving to Asheville had everything from African textiles to American folk sculpture. But today's client had one true love: vintage signs. Actually it would be more accurate to say that he collected all things related to vintage workwear, from the old advertising signs to the workwear itself. Sure, he had a few other odd signs laying around, but his true love was the workwear. I wish we could show you everything in his collection... he had an attic room that was absolutely full of this stuff. It was like a trip to a museum. In fact, that's where I got the inspiration for the headline on this post. One of the posters in the attic had "tougher than a pig's snout" as the slogan. I got a good chuckle out of that, which I suppose was the point. I also really loved this big poster advertising overalls for train engineers. Look how wide they are. (And here's a bonus picture of a sign he had hanging in his office. We didn't hang it, but he offered to let me snap a photo because I liked it so much.) I learned a lot about the history of the workwear and the signs. Did you know that Oshkosh B'Gosh had a mascot named Oshkosh B'Josh? This is him, pointing the way up the stairs. He looks like Uncle Sam, doesn't he? And notice the little "Union Made" caption. I'm really glad for the homeowner's sake that he called us in to do this, because these signs were huge and sort of awkward. I suppose they had to be big... they were made to hang up high on a wall in a crowded General store. We actually still have one of those old-timey General stores operating in our small town of Marshall, NC. It's called Penland & Son's Department Store, although it's operated by the daughters in this generation, and they still sell workwear a lot like this. They don't have as many signs nowadays, but here's a couple of pictures which I borrowed from internet, so you can imagine the kind of environment these old posters might have hung in. You can just picture them up on those walls above the shelves, can't you?
Whether you've got a focused vision for your art collection, or a comfortable hodge-podge of things you've picked up over the years, we can hang it up and help you feel at home. Yup, it's just what is sounds like - we installed a great big pair of faux moose antlers recently, in a beautiful home located between Asheville and Arden. And this is a good time for a word of warning... ...when it comes to hanging art like this, you should never trust the manufacturer's weight recommendations for the hooks you use. This is especially true for antler mounts like this which project from the wall. The further the piece projects out from the hanging point, the more strain is placed on your hooks or anchors... which means you need a much stronger anchor than you think. And this is before you take into account the fact that most manufacturers wildly overstate the strength of their hooks. (We know, because we weight-tested them. I'll have to make a post about that one day.) Fortunately our lead installer is a handyman with more than 30 years of experience, so he knows how to install things like this safely. Which is a good thing when you're hanging something this heavy right over your expensive flatscreen TV! In fact, we installed lots and lots of big art in this home, including this hilarious piece which went across the room from the faux antlers. This was a fun idea for a rec room. I really like art that doesn't take itself too seriously. By the way, there's an intriguing backstory to this piece. Apparently the artist's name, "James McQueen," is actually a pseudonym for a famous actor. What an interesting detail. I wonder if it's true... I really like his concept here - vintage "books" with humorous titles that make a funny riff on old Sixties pulp fiction. It takes me back to the long hot summer days I spent hanging out in my grandparents' library and paging through the crumbling old thrillers. Another thriller was this limited-edition David Hockney print. I've always been a fan of his famous book "Secret Knowledge," which upended my understanding of classical Western art, so it was wonderful to see his work in person. Our client was also a fan of his, and explained that Hockney is still working even now, in his eighties. He made this drawing on an iPad. I love it when someone enjoys making art so much that they keep going as long as humanly possible. He is like Matisse and Renoir in that respect: completely dedicated. As I look back over our photos from that day, I'm reminded of how many complex installations we did. Here's another example which we installed next to the homeowner's lovely stone fireplace. She said that in her last home, she had really struggled to make the pieces line up neatly in a grid, so she was very happy to have us do it instead. And we've got the experience to do it without making tons of extra holes in the walls. I could go on and on - they had a very appealing art collection - but I'll leave you with just two more delightful pieces. First comes a family portrait by Donald Robertson. This was my first experience with his art, and I just love his bright and enthusiastic style. If you peer closely you can see all sorts of animals, from a sexy ostrich to a gaggle of adorable penguins. Really a wonderful way to capture the spirit of this charming family. The family had another portrait which was sort of an in-joke. His name was George, and he's not a revered ancestor so much as a character in the house. Our client had discovered him in a thrift store back in the Seventies when pieces like this were out of style, and she bought him to liven up their home. He seems like a jolly fellow, so we made sure to place him where he could take in the beautiful view. Well that's the end of today's whirlwind tour, but we would love to see what you've got for us to install.
Whether you've got a houseful of fun and funky artwork, or just one big piece that you need help hanging safely, we're here to give you a hand. |
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