Thursday, June 26, 2008

I'm an art collector.





So a couple months ago, Josh and I went to Mitch Hoffart's house to look at some storage units he was getting rid of. Well Mitch was nice enough to give us a little tour of his house while we were there. The firm Josh works at, Stahl Architects, designed his house, and it's really cool.


Mitch is a local artist, so we got to see a bunch of his work throughout his home, and even some works in process. As we stood in his livingroom talking, one painting really caught my eye. Josh and I basically decided that we wanted to purchase one of his paintings, and Josh inquired about that one since he knew I liked it. Mitch has some other cool pieces at Gallery 514 in downtown Fargo.


So guess what? We bought it. Last night Mitch came over and helped us hang it in our living room. We are planning to hang it in our new bedroom downstairs when it is completed... but that's not quite done yet (notice, no recent posts on basement progress). Mitch talked a little about the process that went into the painting, and also some of the meaning behind it. Now, I'm somewhat of a "l'art pour l'art" person. Art does not need to mean something beyond just being pleasing to the eye to be worth something to me.


The title of the painting is "Last." Mitch explained that the white tree is symbolic of the last tree on earth. The white birds symbolize threatened species. There is even a faint "ghost tree" painted. So then of course I completely fell in love with the painting again. (If you know me or read my blog, you know that I'm a bit of a green nut.) This painting was meant for me.


As you can tell, I am quite excited about this. For my college graduation, I saved up all of the gift money I received and bought my first painting. I am still in love with that one as well. And now my collection is growing... slowly. Mitch said last night, "Only buy art you love." And that's what I'm doing.

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