Blog: This is not Wall Art

Christine Alfery

Posted on February 10 2020

Fish in the Sky by Christine Alfery

Featured image: Fish in the Sky

What is the difference between Art and Wall Art?
I should know,  I used to sell Wall Art.  It was a chapter in my artistic journey where I learned how to paint and how to become a full time professional artist. During that time, I sold Wall Art to large department stores like JCPenneys, Sears, American TV, Steinhafels, and more. The list is too long to remember.

Wall Art is what you use to furnish a room. It is something on the wall that picks up the colors of the throw pillows and fabrics of your room. You buy it from a place that is filled with wall to wall paintings in the same style with many different colors.  You just have to pick the one that matches your room. The subject of the work, or who created it, is not important. What matters is that it matches. Wall art has no personality.

Art speaks to you on a fundamental level. Art is something you find you cannot live without  because you love it. You find art at local or national art fairs where you find endless choices with no two works of art are the same. You meet and get to know the artist, you relate to what the artist says about this thing that you love, and you simply have to have it. So, you take it home and hang it on your wall.  Nothing matches but that isn’t a problem because the things you love are always chosen this way. If you are a true art lover, it is likely everything in the room was chosen that same way.  Art is unique and one of a kind like the creator, and like the collector.

The value of a true work of art comes from the creator. Their personality shines through their artwork and they speak to the collector on a fundamental level through their art.

As an artist who no longer creates wall art, I struggled with the decision to sell my art online. How can I connect with the collector? Does this cheapen the value of my artwork? Will it be mistaken for wall art if I do not meet my collectors face-to-face? Will lovers of Art seek and buy online?
The art market is changing, so I choose to take courage from those risk takers like the Abstract Expressionists before me. I am jumping into something different and trying something new as it relates to the time I live in.  Rest assured Art Lovers,  there is only Art in my online gallery.  And I am always happy and willing to talk to you about the piece you have fallen in love with.
For more about Christine’s professional artistic journey, click here 

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