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Holistic Living
Inexpensive Ways to Bring Art into Your Life
by Jennie Brown Hakim
When circumstances curtail the budget, our impulse is often to eliminate the treats in life, such as eating at fine restaurants, traveling out of town, or buying new books. Most of us would place art in that category too.
Not so fast. Art is not a mere treat, nor is it a luxury for the privileged. It is a human right, connecting us to beauty and wonder and speaking to our hidden souls.
There are many paths to art that cost very little, or nothing at all. Here are some of my favorites:
1. On a single day, take at least 25 photographs—not of family, friends, or tourist attractions, but of the things you see every day in your life. Your coffeemaker. The place where you catch the train to work. A tree growing outside your window. A drink balanced on the edge of your balcony. What do these photos tell you about your world?
2. Pick up leaves that you find on the sidewalk. You can do so much with fallen autumn leaves—and they’re free. Place them between two pieces of paper and do a pencil rubbing, put them into a small vase, take pictures of them, or use them in decoupage.
3. Be on the lookout for free or discounted admissions to local museums. For example, Tuesdays are free museum days in San Diego’s Balboa Park. If you are a student, senior, or member of an organization like AAA, you might be eligible for discounts.
4. “Art walks” are booming in various communities. Check your local listings for these free late night gallery openings and sidewalk displays.
5. Look for greeting cards with images that interest you. You can have a “gallery” that fits on top of a dresser or on a bulletin board.
6. Check out books from your public library (remember the library?) While it would be nice to travel to Europe to see the Mona Lisa, David and Guernica in canvas or marble, books can bring beauty to your eyes immediately.
7. Take a local architectural tour. Some communities offer formal guided tours, but you can also take a tour on your own in architecturally diverse suburbs, main streets, and even cemeteries. Plus, it’s great exercise!
8. If you have a local independent video store in your neighborhood or a Netflix account, look for biographies and documentaries about artists, as well as filmed operas, concerts, and ballets. These kinds of films are rarely available at chain rental stores.
9. Find a coloring book—not in the kids’ aisle, but in the art section of your local bookstore. Dover Publications has a great collection of coloring books with fine art reproductions.
10. After you buy your coloring book, find some nice materials to color with. I suggest colored pencils or watercolors; using markers is ink-intensive and takes too long. If you’re feeling really whimsical, buy a box of 64 Crayola crayons. (Not 96, not 120, but 64. That’s the magic number.)
11. Create your own artwork. My husband and I have some small paintings in our apartment that we created using acrylic paint and small canvases. Even the smallest apartments have room for these.
12. Do your own performance art. If you’re the shy type, do it when you’re home alone. Try dancing in a dark room to the beat of a sound effects album.
13. Think of the role color plays in your life. With the camera you used in suggestion number one, take pictures of objects of only one color—red one day, green another, and so on. After you print the pictures, put them in a collage.
14. Paint an object in your dwelling. It may be a bookcase, a small table, a lamp, or even a teacup. Use an out-of-the-ordinary color that leaps to the throat.
15. Think of unusual advice like: Plug your soul into the electric current of groovitude. Or, Build a birdhouse and live in it. Write it all in a notebook.
16. Go to an antique store and just walk around. It’s almost like visiting a museum. It is comforting to spend time among objects that have survived for decades, if not centuries; they’re material messengers that defy the bonds of time.
17. The next time you receive a fortune cookie, save it. When you have collected at least five, put them together and make a poem.
18. Photographer/illustrator Ashleigh Brilliant is known for his single-panel “Pot-Shots” which combine an old-fashioned ink illustration with his own handwritten philosophy. Why not write your own philosophies and illustrations on cards?
19. Look up a stock photo website such as Corbis.com, iStockphoto.com, Jupiterimages.com, GettyImages.com, and Shutterstock.com. Use the search engines to look at images of your favorite things.
20. Buy an art toy, such as the Spirograph (a classic favorite). You’re going to enjoy this more than you think.
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May this small list of ideas help create art in your life—especially in trying circumstances, when art reminds us that we (the individual as well as society) are greater than the mundane.
Jennie Brown Hakim is a writer, graphic artist and thinker rising above the mundane (cheaply) in Tustin, CA. Contact her at jbrwn65@hotmail.com.