The art you chose for your walls is highly personal and meaning-driven. Or is it?
Lots of people chose art for aesthetic reasons only, which is what came to mind when we read md-canvas's manifesto: "modern canvases that are design objects."
We've admired the ochre canvas that graces the walls of this NY stylist's loft featured in Elle Decor last year, but without knowing its provenance or story, our admiration stems mostly from the way its deep color and texture play off the white bricks and the pale green chair.
If you like the dramatic impact of a large, handpainted canvas like the ocre piece but can't afford an original, modern digital canvas is a good place to start. This large-scale canvas printing service sells an ever-changing gallery of original designs that were created with bold, budget decorating in mind.
m-dc prints come in three sizes, none of them small: medium ($179), large ($249), and jumbo ($349). Jumbo is a little shy of 5' by 4'.
Thanks to a digital thermal print process and the use of pigment-based inks and a sealant, the canvases have a texture that looks hand-applied, if not hand-painted (see closeup, above), and an archival finish. The "paintings" come stretched on 1" by 3/8" kiln-dried wooden bars, with all hanging hardware pre-installed. You can frame your
m-d canvas if you like, but it's not necessary, as the print stretches around the frame and is neatly finished on all sides.
(A note for Bay Area readers: we really like the idea of hanging a canvas over the bed rather than art framed in glass and metal or heavy wood. Much safer in an earthquake.)
David Diskin,
m-d canvas' founder and art director, spent some time living in the Hamptons and was inspired by the Minimalist and Abstract Expressionist traditions that rooted there in the 1950's, so most of the stock designs featured on the site are modern in one of those veins. Some of the best offerings are color fields à la
Rothko, or photos of architectural details found around New York.
The selling point here is not so much the designs as the value proposition: big modern canvases at great prices. An
m-d canvas will run you between $179 and $349.
(A sister company, Photo2canvas, uses the same process to create large, afffordable canvas prints of your art and photos.)
i agree that it is an interesting way to decorate walls.
i come at the 'is it art' question from another angle - as someone who paints (oil on canvas). a passer by once looked at a landscape i was painting and said 'i'd never hang that over my couch. the whole thing is way too dark'
the group i was painting with took his comments differently because he was concerned with how it would 'match' his room, not other more 'painterly' concerns.
on the other hand, if art is to be sold, and hung on people's walls, maybe this does need to be a consideration.
-jd,
i don't think of this as a cop-out. the fact is there are a lot of people who would love to be able to afford "real" art but simply cannot. i am a recent college graduate already struggling to pay rent, student loans, all my various and sundry bills, AND decorate my home. as much as i want to (and hope i am able to someday), there is no way i could ever go to a studio and drop $500 (at the low end!) on a piece of artwork. and everyone deserves to have something pretty on their walls!
Has anyone tried these? I've seen this site before, and I'm torn. Someone's making these images, but are they still "art" if they're mass produced? I like some of the images, and I'd love to have large scale art on the walls....but is it a cop-out? Especially with the open-studios going on here in SF this month....
It's art if you say it is art. If an artist can fill the Guggenheim with piles of candy and say that's art then you can hang anything you want on your wall and call it art.
By the way, this post is art. But you can all have it for free, that's part of the art.
It's not art - its decoration. There is nothing wrong with that. Art provokes. Decoration embellishes. Some art can manage both. I have been searching for a few perfect pieces of "art" for the walls of my home for the last 3 years and have so far haven't found the right match. I have used pieces from md-canvas (large scale) and ebay (small scale) as "place holders" in the meantime. They look nice and have the right scale and mood for the rooms. There are a lot of good affordable options out there - there is no need to live with blank walls unless thats the look you are going for.
I think it's fine, but this isn't a new idea. Art.com has modern images. Or, you can find modern stock photos online anywhere and have any copyshop enlarge them for you.
My preference: take a photo yourself and have it enlarged onto canvas. Then it's not mass produced AND it has personal meaning. It's art if you say it is.
Not a good photographer? Take a blurry picture of something colorful like flowers or autumn leaves - it will look abstract and cool.
Also, art and craft fares occassionaly feature true artists who sell their work at low, reasonable rates for regular people. You just have to hunt a bit.
I think it's fine, but this isn't a new idea. Art.com has modern images. Or, you can find modern stock photos online anywhere and have any copy shop enlarge them for you.
My preference: take a photo yourself and have it enlarged onto canvas. Then it's not mass produced AND it has personal meaning. It's art if you say it is.
Not a good photographer? Take a blurry picture of something colorful like flowers or autumn leaves - it will look abstract and cool.
Also, art and craft fares occasionally feature true artists who sell their work at low, reasonable rates for regular people. You just have to hunt a bit.
> My preference: take a photo yourself and have it
> enlarged onto canvas. Then it's not mass produced > AND it has personal meaning. It's art if you say
> it is.
I didn't even know having your own photos reprinted on canvas was possible until reading this post, but if I can do it even more cheaply than one of these places that would be wonderful! But where would one go to do this, and how much might I expect it to cost?
This is definitely not a new idea. Ever since industry printing processes have improved any graphic designer with a good eye can churn these things out. Having work printed on canvas and in this new pop art medium is hugely popular in the UK and it's like there's a shop on every corner. Try doing a search online for "digital canvas printing". Ikea in some areas has entire lines of these sorts of pieces. And the level of embellishment on them can go from little to almost full blown painted pieces. I collect the art of a well-known minimalist artist that I discovered here actually on AT. She releases signed and numbered canvas printed versions of her pieces the way other artists of the past released giclee prints. And what with the new printing technology and the ability these days to print onto any surface, her artwork is now on everything from pillows to other home interiors. As for is this art? I only say NO because my personal definition of art requires more skill than knowing how to use software or scan an image to be printed out en masse. My consideration of art is more craft based in that the person has to have the ability to compose a piece, create it by hand, and it's a bit more laboured over. This is just high end graphic design. To me these are no different than a poster. So what if they're printed on canvas? it could be printed on glass. M-dc is another in a long list of interior design fads for wall "art." I agree with the person who said if you want something unique, create it yourself and then have it printed.
Chris - The photo2canvas place mentioned above does it for $200 to $300. Another place that I haven't used, but have heard fairly good things about, is photofiddle.com (beware the noisy intro screen). They have a variety of sizes from tiny to 45"+ A 20x30 print is $160. Keep in mind - this is from digital prints, and not every digital print is going to look good blown up so big, although the textur eof the canvas ought to help (and of course, not every chemical print looks good blown up either).
I think there is a difference between , "fine art" per se and just fun "decorative art". These are fun, cool canvases and they are a very afforadble , surely no harm to the serious ART World and a help to many with bare walls. Also , having used them , they are a very well run company.