INSPIRATIONAL ART DECOR

The art of hanging inspirational posters as reminder notes: Ok, here’s why I believe in inspirational art decor, if you look in my home studio, you will see teeny, tiny notes, stuck on the wall just above my desk containing inspiring thoughts, like this one by Albert Einstein, “There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle,” or this one by Charles H. Spurgeon, “By perseverance the snail reached the ark.“ Isn’t that last famous quote great? Now, these little pieces of paper work perfectly, but I get antsy when things don’t look stylish in my home, and I’ll bet you feel the same way, sooooo, as an artist, I felt inspired to create some larger reminder notes that can be hung as inspiring wall art―like my Perseverance Poster (see below). Plus, since I have the opportunity to offer you other artist’s inspirational posters and prints, containing gorgeous photography and inspiring quotes, I hand-picked some I think would look great on any wall in a home or office. There will always be more added down the road, so feel free to come back anytime. Maybe put it on a sticky as a reminder―just kidding. My only intentions are to inspire! Peace be with you.

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness." John Keats

To design a poster with a subject like compassion was not an easy task for me. You see, for years I thought the the idea of compassion had the same meaning as sympathy. Now as you know, sympathy means to share the feelings of others, which can be good, but for me I would often take the concept too far. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean I would become so in sync for the other person's sorrow or anguish that I would become as depressed as they were. Pretty soon there was a pity party with nobody providing emotional guidance for anyone. However, over the years, with much reflection and openness to new insights on this topic, I've come to a personal motto that states: I will do my best, even under the saddest of circumstances, to show support to others by remaining in a positive and centered state of being-ness. Surely the concept of a being a positive example is far more encouraging to others than if I joined in their depression or told them to just cheer up. With this, I decided to go ahead with creating the following artwork as a reminder of this concept. It contains a vivid photograph of Black-eyed Susan flowers and an accompanying inspirational saying.

Happiness is one of the key components that creates the concept we know as well-being–happy and healthy and prosperous. I think the trick to having happiness is understanding that you already HAVE happiness. It's our natural state of being–it's who we are. However, if we think were unhappy, it's probably because we've blocked ourselves from seeing it; kind of like sticking our hand up in front of the light coming out of a movie projector. The projector can use up to a 4,000 watt light bulb, so there's no lack of light exposing the movie on to the screen, that is unless we block this light with an obstruction of some kind. So, I say, stop creating shadows by standing in front of the Light, just sit down, relax with some popcorn, and let the movie come to you in all it's clarity and fullness. Now that's happiness. The following famous quote on the art poster below, gives another wonderful take on this.

It's so important to be yourself–let your light shine on, as they say.

Who knew that the letter 'L' was so inspirational? LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH?... or is it LAUGH, LOVE, LIVE?...now I'm just laughing at all the possibilities. I don't think the order matters, as long as you get the picture. The following poster, graphically designed by me, was a real pleasure to create. There aren't that many statements that suits whimsical home decorating, however, this popular phrase seems only fitting to exude a mood of whimsy.

There's an irony about meditation posters because meditation is supposed to be about erasing the endless stream of words that float around our mind, yet visual inspirations like posters can often get our minds geared up for action. But, don't worry because after you've read the text of certain posters and you are pondering its insight, there's a silence that naturally occurs AND within that silence, you are able to experience a mini meditation. A good example of this phenomena is the following print quoting Jeremy Taylor which says, "Meditation is the tongue of our soul and the language of our spirit." Remember, there aren't any hard rules stating that a meditation has to be a certain length of time, so I say make sure your rooms don't remain silent–hang some deep thoughts on the walls.

Optimism posters are positively hard to come by recently. Maybe because it's so hard for all of us, artists included, to stay optimistic in a world that's changing at the rate of a heartbeat, or should I say, at the beat of a tweet. But, I think the most positive way to look at all this is the way the little seedling looks at life in my enlightening poster below.

You made it! Guess your perseverance to find a scriptural poster paid off. I say scriptural because the saying is just one of the many that English preacher, C. H. Spurgeon's expressed. Another quote I really like by him is, "You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect." And I expect that if you adorn a wall, front and center, with this type of encouraging expression, you will not only be reminded every day to hang in there, but you'll also be reminded that with patience and faith, no dream is too big to reach! It brings a smile to my face just to imagine this little snail heading to the ark, let alone making it.

Now, because Genesis 6 indicated there shall be two of every kind on the ark, clearly I would need to find a way to demonstrate two were on their way. so, the poster is offered in blue as well.