{artwork in our home}

One thing people always ask me when they visit our place for the first time is "where did you get all your artwork?"

This large piece is by a San Francisco artist, Pete Doolittle, which we were lucky enough to come by on a visit to Canvas art gallery/cafe when I used to live in San Francisco. The gallery used to feature different San Francisco based artists and at the time we were there, they were solely featuring Doolittle's artwork. As we were headed out to the car to leave that day this piece was sitting outside the back door near the dumpster!! We called the gallery curator when we got home and asked why it was outside and if we could take it. Turns out, the artist had done the piece during the opening night for that monthly exhibit of his work and had planned on giving it to a friend, but was willing to sell it to us for $100. Sold! This piece of artwork is now one of my most prized possessions and has been with me through several moves.

The three pieces of "slashed" artwork are from one of my neighbor's in the city I grew up in. Driving down the street one day back when I was still in high school, I spotted a stack of 30 or so canvases out with our neighbor's trash. I did not know these neighbors very well, but I did know that the woman who lived there was an artist and I figured she was throwing out some unused canvases which I was thinking I could re-purpose. Once I got closer I realized all of them were beautifully painted, but all them had slashes throughout the artwork. Many had so many slashes that there were pieces of canvas hanging off. I figured these were clearly unwanted and took these three which were the most intact of the paintings.  I really love the vibrant colors these paintings inject into our living space and am surprised at how well they have held up in spite of the slashes.

I purchased this small piece from Canvas Gallery in San Francisco for Chris's birthday one year. It was created by another San Francisco based artist, Sita Rupe. The exhibit at the time was all pieces similar to this one created with vintage wallpaper, acrylic, and resin on plywood.

Chris gave me this print for my 25th birthday this past September, around the time when I started talking seriously about starting a blog of  my own. Made by Girl, the blogger that designed this print, has some wonderful pieces available on her site.  If you are looking for some beautiful and affordable prints I would definitely recommend checking it out. I have my eye on purchasing her LOVE print once I can figure out where I would put it. We used a simple Ikea frame which comes with the matting to frame this.

Chris actually painted this for me when we were first dating so it has a lot of sentimental value. It is a huge piece of plywood my dad was getting rid of painted with acrylic. Back then, we were pretty into Exploding Dog which is what this inspired this one.

I really enjoy hearing the stories behind the different things in people's homes and I love that all of our artwork has a fun story behind it. At the very least it makes for good dinner party conversation!!