the art at luminhaus

One of the things that immediately struck me as soon as we entered Luminhaus was the art. Art was everywhere - big, bold, eye-catching pieces - it was like walking into a museum of modern art. I loved it. And I immediately felt ashamed of the unadorned, artless walls in my own home. It's amazing how much artwork can change a space. (Yes, I'm an artist, I know this...and yet, I can't seem to make a decision as to what should hang on my own empty walls! I have plenty of art in my home, it's just stacked up in my studio waiting to be shipped out to my Etsy customers.)

I wish I knew who the artists were for the pieces below. I'd love to give them credit (and maybe buy some of their pieces for my own blank walls!).

We spent a good portion of our evenings discussing this painting. What is it? What do you see? It was such a large piece that you couldn't help but stare at it. The fact that our modern art interpretations were fueled by wine made our discussions all the more interesting...


We both agreed that the shape at the bottom left was a watermelon. The yellow outline to the right looks like thighs wearing underwear to me. Larry also saw trains and I saw helicopters and architectural sections through buildings. What's above the watermelon? A bone? A barbell?

Edited to add: The painting above is by artist Brad Birchett. He describes it as "a stream of consciousness piece centered around bits and pieces, memories and simple abstract form (inspired by torsos and French train stations, etc.!)" Love it!

Another piece we discussed a lot:

Him: It's a lamp or a light.

Me: It's a pint of beer.

(As you can see, I eventually swayed him to agree with my interpretation!)

We couldn't agree on these:

Him: It's exploding skulls!

Me: It's ice cream cones! With sprinkles!

(Ahh, the differences between the male and female brain!)

Case Study Houses - these spoke to my love of pop art and architecture:


Music-inspired art in the kitchen:


I seriously LOVED these clay tiles that were hanging in the bathroom. I also loved how they were secured to the wall with exposed nails. I've always wanted to take a ceramics class so I could make clay tiles like these. I actually have some similar tiles on display in my own bathroom that my dear friend Sarah brought me back from New Zealand, but now I want more!



Another inspiring favorite from the bathroom. I've always wanted to learn encaustic painting and I'm now obsessed with it. This was one of my favorite pieces in the house.


One of the coolest things was a collection of miniature art. I totally want to start a collection like this of my own:


Hugs and kisses and dentures??? (The teeth had a pin on the back so you could wear it on your...lapel???)


Love these mini houses!


A silver cracker:


And don't you love discovering that other bloggers have been somewhere before you? The incredibly cool and creative Shauna and Stephen of Something's Hiding in Here were at Luminhaus last year and they left behind a little wooden house:


I was digging the texture of these:


And as a special touch the owners had left little bits of natural art on display - acorns, seed pods, pine cones, flowers, etc found on the grounds of Luminhaus:



Another favorite piece. (I had a lot of favorites!) I want this - or I want to create a large-scale piece inspired by this. So simple, but makes such a big impact. Love the texture, too.


On the other side of the bedroom was this piece. The colors! The shapes! Amazing!


The pillows were works of art, too:


I even left a piece of my own art behind as a contribution to their collection. I don't know if the owners will dig it, or think WTF? and throw it away...but, hey, I think every kitchen needs a little more cheese!


I left Luminhaus feeling so inspired to try new things with my art, to loosen up, to go big, to get my hands in some paint and clay and make a mess!