PORCH PAINTINGS

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Her home is not for everyone, though, Hayes admits. It’s eccentric, but so was the original owner, who supposedly carried around a pet raccoon on his hip like a baby.

A friend once joked that if Diane’s home ever burned down it would take 30 years and $400 to replace everything.

“It’s so true,” she says.

THE QUIRKIER, THE BETTER

Dealing in antiques and oddities feeds Diane’s creativity as an assemblage artist. Groupings like these can be found throughout her home. The fortune teller display at right is part of her bedroom decor. Knock on the glass and the mannequin just might talk!

bright spots

Artist’s happy accents enliven exterior walls across town

STORY + PHOTOGRAPHY CHRIS CHRISTEN

Ann Manhart Dirks was reading a newspaper article on creative ways to brighten a porch when she noticed a flaw in the featured photo.

“There was this wide open space on the wall behind the furniture grouping,” she says.

She solved a similar situation on her own front porch 25 years earlier by adding an original painting — of her own creation.

A side hustle emerged after seeing that newspaper article, as the veteran secondgrade teacher and hobby artist starting painting and posting pictures of her works on her personal Facebook page.

Two years later, her acrylic Porch Paintings can be found on more than 50 homes across Omaha, she says.

Prospective customers email Dirks a photo of their house and tell her a little about their style preferences. “Then we start playing catch,” the artist says. She replies with images of three or four pieces in her inventory that would complement the space – whether it’s a porch, fence or garden wall, for example. Client feedback then gives Dirks enough information to gather eight to 10 paintings for a driveway showing.