A woman asked me today "How do you look at modern art?"  She has been collecting realistic art, but finds  herself intrigued by abstract art, and in her words, "art that doesn't look like something".
My advice - don't over think it. We are all drawn instinctively to particular imagery, be it through the color, size, or energy of the piece.  Shank and Cole are two artists that come to mind; Shank paints in a very emotional, intuitive style with bold colors, lines and squiggles and circles.  Cole, on the other hand, does use bold color but her pieces are more studied, thought out - she has more control of her piece.  And it is funny to see the reactions in the gallery, because much like real life, the women tend to gravitate towards Shank's work, and men seem more interested in Cole's abstracts.  I like them both and would be hard pressed to single out a favorite.

Speaking of what 'touches' us with art - that is what I like about being able to choose the art in the gallery.  I find equal beauty and appreciation in a petite painting of a hummingbird AND the vastness and strength of a 40x60 inch encaustic work; two completely different pieces of art, and side by side I could  not choose which one meant more to me.

When I evacauated New Orleans, I had to choose, quickly, what to take with me. My daughter, my pets - those were obvious choices. But the art that I was able to actually fit in the van was another story, and ultimately I dashed with a 4x4 inch line drawing of a sparrow, and an 60x60 inch painting of a goldfish.
And my husband.  Which in hindsight was the wrong choice!

But back to looking at art, and 'how' to view art - trust yourself.  Trust your instinct, trust your taste, and just go for it.  It does not have to fit in with the rest of your house, and it sure as hell does not have to match anything.  All you have to do is love it.

Really digging a new painting by Andrea Cermanski, titled "Risen".
This piece glows, and she kept it simple.  Some artists don't know when to stop painting on a new piece, but this painting has beautiful balance and I find it to be very calming.  It only has one light on it in the gallery, and I positioned the spot on the pale green area right below the center - and it's perfect.  Harmony, simplicity, and confidence - that is what this painting tells me about where she was in her head when she painted it.

Fiddling around!

I move artwork around in the gallery. Alot. The people that work for me hate it. That same habit used to drive my ex husband crazy, because he would come home from work and try to sit on a couch that was not where it was in the morning.  He cursed at the scrape marks on our wide plank barge wood floors. "Why can't you leave stuff alone?"

Good question. I can't leave stuff alone because I am inspired to change my environment. A painting takes on a whole new life in a new spot - the way light hits it differently from a sunny window or the shadow from a tall lamp.  Once I threatened to paint the tree limb shadows on our living room wall, because it just looked so cool at a certain time in the afternoon, and I wanted to enjoy that image daily.

I get bored easily, so for me it is fun to rearrange stuff.  Furniture. Paintings. It's all the same - a creative outlet and a study in aesthetics.  For those of us that can't get enough of HGTV and shows about design, remodeling, redoing - you understand my need to fiddle with my environment.  I view my gallery as an extension of my home; nothing 'matches' but it works because each piece of art touches me in some way - the color, the line, the emotion - and I think when you really like a piece of art that it doesn't matter if it 'goes' with everything or not - it just works.