Living with art

Living with art. 💗

Living with art is an incredibly rewarding experience, and for many people, it can be a source of inspiration and joy every single day. More than once I wonder how the collectors who have purchased my works live with my art on a daily basis. My house is full of art, every wall is occupied. Of course, these are mostly my works. Is this a good thing? This is a practical solution, you might say. If an artist lives and creates in the house, why buy other paintings when there is an abundance of them anyway. This situation sometimes makes me tired. I look at these works of mine on the walls and notice over time that I would like to change something in them. Then I take the painting off the wall, hang another one, and the removed one goes to the studio to be improved or refreshed. Sometimes, however, it undergoes radical changes. Such returns to my own works – this is a separate topic. But back to the title question: how does one live with art? I can’t answer it from the point of view of a collector. I can only imagine what my works give them. I am helped by the statements and comments I receive.

The need of living with art

I am fascinated by the fact of the need to live with art. How does this arise? How is people’s life with art? How did they discover this need in themselves? The best proof that it exists is the fact that they sometimes spend considerable sums of money to buy art. I hear various statements from my clients. That my works bring them unique joy, trigger creative inspiration, act as a conversation starter, or simply make the space with my paintings more reflective of their personal style.

After purchase, my works are framed to later hang in selected places. Clients tell me about the reactions of their friends. The spontaneously expressed opinion of their friends and acquaintances is repeated: “When I walk into your house, I immediately know that you live here. The decor of your home and the art present on the walls says it.” Probably in these moments, the owner of my art talks about the buying process to justify his decision. Probably the details of my paintings are analyzed. They criticize and analyze, confirm their decisions. In a such way, my painting initiates conversations, and the interlocutors formulate their opinions. This is one of those valuable advantages of art: triggering communication and relationships between people.

Interior, called by its owners a “Colorful pied-a-terre” with Jolanta Johnsson’s blue painting. Publication in Weranda magazine.

The decision to buy a work of art

Some collectors describe the first moment of meeting a work of art as the striking moment when the work resonates in their soul. They buy what they like and what speaks to them. In this case, it’s my artwork.

“I won’t buy it if it doesn’t evoke emotion. I must feel a connection to it,” is what Ms Ada, now the owner of several of my blue paintings, told me.

For some customers, the decision to buy came with difficulty. Because of a wide offer. I create paintings, prints, and works on paper in cycles. The leading theme is presented in successive paintings. Rarely does one painting give me the satisfaction of full expression. Most often the first painting prompts the next. This is how series are created. They create a problem for the collector of which painting to choose. There are also situations when, during a visit to my studio, the decision is radically changed. The choice falls on paintings previously as if unnoticed.

A conversation between the artist and the collector

Then there is a moment for conversation. I tell the visitor about the painting’s history. Each of them has its own story. I explain why they are the way they are. During the conversation, the client has time to think more and verbalize his feelings. Sometimes the client doesn’t know what he wants. And yet he wants, desires to own my painting. This is fascinating to me. 

Living with art 😀

Collectors buy my works in order to stay with them. They discover new things in them. That’s what they write to me, on social media, in comments. That the world around them has been enriched in a way it wasn’t before, and that they have learned something that was hidden from them.

That the sight of my work puts them in a mood that they can’t describe or define, but that it just makes them know that it has enriched their lives by being able to see my works every day.”

These are very beautiful moments for me when I receive such reviews. Not everyone is willing or able to describe their own feelings. Nowadays we have a whole range of emoticons at our disposal. They appear in comments addressed to me. Rows of happy faces or folded hands – it’s like modern picture writing. I read the emotions of my collectors from them.

Mystery in art

I am writing about a process that is not new. For centuries, artists have created and collectors have bought. Participating in this process is exciting. I don’t fully understand the conditions of it all. Art is an area full of mysteries. It eludes definitions and reason. I use to repeat to my students – art is a realm of surprises. I will end these reflections by confessing that I don’t know why I am an artist. You could say “art chose me”, and I had no choice. Another unexplained matter. Anyway, the collectors of my works are very important to me. They support me in my artistic work. I hear them saying to me – keep doing it, living with art, your art, makes sense for us.