large scale art

Hello and happy "Day Before You Officially Start Your First Work Week in 2021"! At least that's how I feel. Although, with the new work from home model, more people are working past the regular 9-5 M-F. What else are we going to do?

Well, if you're me, you're going to obsess about LARGE SCALE ART and where to get my damn hands on it for not a lot of moolah (moola? mula?). I am pretty lucky already since I have **ahem** plenty of film posters. But I have now been blessed with some pretty HUGE walls with vaulted ceilings and not all of my posters will do.

I don't know about you, but big white walls make me nervous. I'm one of those people that walk into a room and turn the TV on. And I don't want to fill the space with a bunch of little things. I need something to really make an impression.

But impressions cost money and I also feel terrible spending $5,000 on a large scale painting. It has to be pretty special to cost that much, and the large scale art I was finding on Etsy was nice but getting very... Manhattan bachelor pad.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing! I sometimes can imagine myself wearing only black or white, carrying around my own environmentally friendly Starbucks mug, living in a very minimalist, modern, sleek showroom.

And I could possibly make this work, too, and I am sure you could, too, if I really REALLY tried. Who says that art does not always have to be garish or attention-seeking. I am looking at it again and think... maybe?

Nah, there's just something about it that doesn't feel "me." So I have to get creative.

MAPS

A long, long time ago in a galaxy that never even heard of COVID, I visited the @HDButtercup Culver City showroom and was floored by the Timothy Oulton section (I could spend hours there, and then a few hours more at Father's Office next door eating my weight in their French Onion Burger). You may be surprised for such a fancy schmancy store with really cringe-worthy price tags, I came upon this:

Timothy oulton - madrid map

They no longer sell the 85” version, which is a shame, but they do sell other city maps in that size.

This sucker is 80+" across and even more vibrant in person. And BONUS, it's a map of Madrid, where my husband's family is from. I was fully expecting $8000 on the sticker but was shocked to see it was only $2000. FRAMED.

Now, that might not sound like a deal to you, but let's just break it down. It's HUGE, it's FRAMED, it's GRAPHIC, it's COLORFUL, and it has sentimental value. my husband’s family is from madrid and we like to stare at it and imagine that we live there with them. That knocks out my wishlist.

vintage FILM POSTERS

I know I was knocking film posters for being too small but I will make some caveats. Number 1, I love love LOVE polish film posters. "Polish film posters?" you say. To which I say, "Feast your eyes upon the wacko, wizarding world of Polish film posters. Enjoie."

Like Oh my Gah. And typically these are not very expensive (save for the last one, Midnight Cowboy, which can go for $5K+ in auction). I own the first two and I have such fun asking people to guess the film. I mean it's pretty obvious, but once you see it you are amazed at the cleverness.

A little back story on why these posters are so rad. Like many communist government artists back in the pre-Cold-War era, the Polish had a particular knack for graphics. They needed to communicate messages as simply as possible for the communist propaganda machine. (Sorry if I get a little communism-y). When the "iron curtain" fell, there was a huge demand for American culture, and more importantly AMERICAN MOVIES. These artists were commissioned to make posters for their newly dubbed foreign films, many of which they never even saw before designing the posters. So these images were their interpretations of the film based on what little summary they got.

Ok, enough of the history lesson. These posters typically come in A1 size. And I have plenty of them. But I wanted to share with you because I love them so very much and they're large-scaleish.

If we need something bigger, which I do, you can go for the French 1 size, which is 63" tall. That's pretty darn big.

The reason why I might gravitate more toward a film than the beautiful Etsy painting is because my husband and I self-proclaimed film nerds. We actually love these films and they have a special meaning to us. So why not decorate our house with them?

gETTY images

Let's say you want something NO ONE else might have because you searched the worldwide internet and came upon a picture that resonates with no one else but you. In comes GETTY IMAGES.

I chose black and white photography because that's my preference, but Getty Images has everything. But how does this become large scale art?

Well, for a very expensive license, you can purchase images over 20 mega pixels which is large enough to support a 44" blowup. You might want to consult with your printer (the person who will be printing, not the machine), though, before you plop down all that money. And you would definitely want to use "platinum palladium" for black and white prints. Just trust me.

I have ONE more suggestion for large scale art, but I would be giving my secret away before the big bedroom reveal. Keep on following to get the one true sure fire way to make a major impact. Stay tuned!!