When buying art (any art) people often ask me, “Do you think this art is a good investment?”
And my first response is always, “Do you love it?”
That’s it. That’s all that matters.
It doesn’t matter if it “matches” your decor (art doesn’t need to match). It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a space for it waiting on the wall or the shelf (if you love it, you’ll find space).
Will it accrue in value? Maybe. With original art it’s always possible, though not guaranteed. But it doesn’t matter. If you love it - if it just speaks to you, for whatever reason - that’s reason enough.
The purpose of art is to enrich lives, to express beauty and feeling and struggle and triumph, to create moments of joy or calm or to spark memories or express things beyond comprehension. And if art has done that - any of those things - and you want more of it in your life... then, yes, you should buy the art.
Sure, you can buy the art because it’s an investment that will create a return over time, or it matches your living room, or it’s the perfect size for over your bed.
But you can also buy it because the title speaks to you, or it has the PERFECT shade of pink in it, or it reminds you of your favorite vacation or your grandmother’s kitchen. Does it soothe you and help you relax or enliven you and make you feel happy to be alive?
Or maybe because there’s something you can’t even express with words at all. It just has that something - that Je ne sais quoi - that makes you have a connection to it deep inside your heart. Like it just gets you.
Buy the art.
Buy from living artists (and makers).
Let them share their gifts with you: take it home, and enjoy it forever.
Photo credit: Anna Meyer Photo
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