A Salon-Style Hang
While proud to have kicked my daily Starbucks coffee habit, I do occasionally treat myself to a cup, visiting a store to pick up a mobile order. Or in the case of our recent trip to Italy, to purchase a “You Are Here” mug to add to my city collection. Recently in the shop near my art studio, I discovered a remodeled seating area, complete with an eclectic gallery wall full of art arranged salon-style. It’s admirable how the curator was able to select so many bold, unique and varied works and collage them together in a satisfying, unified whole.
I’m always drawn to these assemblies, and the store reboot has me thinking about creating my own. With a bevy of nail holes spackled and a fresh coat of paint applied on the walls outside my studio by some hard-working volunteers, I’m presented with a clean slate, an opportunity to make a new start with my personal salon wall, showcasing the breadth of my work on an unblemished canvas.
Finding the harmony in an otherwise disparate collection of pieces seems more felt than taught. We can learn about the principles of design and color from a textbook, but at the end of the day making those choices feels innate or esoteric. Many will take away a pleasant feeling from a well-designed gallery wall, and at the same time admit they wouldn’t know where to start if designing it themselves.
When I think about my own project, I’m striving for a universal layout to accommodate a variety of sizes common to my work, so I can swap fresh pieces in without marring the walls with abandoned nail holes. And I want all my different making represented; watercolor paintings, ink and charcoal drawings, and collages of all types: Ink, watercolor, hand-cut and Gridworks with an occasional anomaly or experiment thrown in.
At first blush, these works can seem very different, too different to get along together on the same wall. But it would be a mistake to believe there are no commonalities, that a beautiful and harmonious collection is impossible to achieve. In a world where differences struggle to be universally embraced or honored, we can begin to believe the misconception that it’s a zero-sum game; that it’s impossible to both fit in and stand out at the same time. The beautiful thing about a gallery wall is that it does both. It allows each individual piece to shine in its onlyness while at the same time weaving unity and cohesiveness into the overall grouping.
As I begin to select pieces for my own salon-style hang, looking to source work of different shapes, colors, patterns and materials, I’m reminded that this act of bringing together a diverse group with the goal to find common ground is a process with a broader application, way beyond artwork. It’s a practice to embrace as much as the making itself.
