Buying Original Art 101

I am one blessed girl, I have had the privilege of growing up in a very creative family. My dad is a professional artist, and is amazingly talented, my mother is also a very talented a creative person as well, and so is my sister! We all love to paint, draw, sculpt, make crafts, I pursued a career in Art Therapy which makes complete sense to me having grown up in the midst of the creative emotional experience. One thing that has been instilled in my from the time I was a young girl growing up watching my dad pursue his dreams and passion for creating fine art, is the passion for buying and selling original art.

So here are my reasons for why YOU should consider owning pieces of original art. 

1. They are ORIGINAL, meaning that you won't go to target or Walmart to the framed art and see the same thing you have hanging on your wall. 

2. You will probably be one of the only people who own that piece, so chances are you won't go to a friends house and see the same exact thing on their wall, that's the beauty of originality. 

3. Although deciding to buy original art can be a little anxiety provoking, if you don't know anything about art, my advice is throw that anxiety out the window and just consider what you look at and love  and take that home (remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder). 

4. Sure there are many famous artists out there who are well known and you may feel like super cool to be putting a print  of this famous artists work in your home because maybe one day someone who studied art will be super impressed by it, but come on your old enough that being cool shouldn't matter but rather being original and showing off what you found at your local art walk is so much more fulfilling. 

5. Think of it this way, you are a treasure hunter on the search for something unique and incredibly beautiful to hang or to display in your house. When you find your awesome treasure it is so much more exciting to show it off than to wait for someone who recognizes a famous artist's print sitting in your home. 

6. It's really more affordable than you think, chances are you already know someone who is a really talented artists, maybe they are in art school now help them out by offering to buy a piece from them, they probably will give you a friend discount anyways, plus you are snatching up a piece of their work before they become too famous for you to afford their work. 

7. Other ways of finding affordable art is by attending art walks every city has some type of art walk google your local art walks most of the time the art at art walks are original one of kind (not prints). You could also check out your local community college, most likely they will be having a student show and sometimes you can purchase art work from students for a very affordable price. 

8. If you have cash to burn head to your local galleries there are always amazing beautiful pieces in galleries, just keep in mind that when you buy from a gallery the artist probably will only get 50% of what you paid for the piece, if you know the artist in the gallery consider contacting them to buy directly most likely they will sell the piece to you for much cheaper than the gallery considering they would get 100% of the profit. 

So there you have it support your local artists and give them a reason to continue to use their talents to give us something incredibly beautiful to look at! 

Here are a few pictures of some art that I fell in love with at the recent Art Walk here in Little Italy! (p.s. I wish I would have posted this prior to that art walk, because it is the BEST art walk I have been to ever, and the largest one in Southern California, if you get a chance to make it out to it next year I highly recommend it)