THE ART OF DECOR

THE BATTALION MAROON LIFE 20 Self expression through home décor

Courtesy of Gwen Howerton

Sociology senior Gwen Howerton decorated her college room with a variety of posters, polaroids, maps and artwork to her personal taste.

What we fill our homes with is more than just decoration, it’s declaration

By Ruben Hernandez

@battandmuse

Vacancy, in any setting, leaves room for creativity.

Thus, many students become tired of the blank slates on the walls of their rooms and homes, and find a need to take up the negative space. Such decorations can consist of anything, including paintings, pictures, magazine pages, newspaper clippings, collectible posters, a shelf adorned with books or figurines — something that will assure the environment of the person settled within the space. It can take place within a multitude of settings, such as offices, classrooms, a mansion or prison cell.

The possibilities are endless, yet a certain standard of images and ideas must be met to fit the conditions of the decorator. The decorator will choose ornaments out of their own judgment, never choosing decorations that do not represent their views. It’s these pieces of judgment that imbue the items of decoration with the “spirit” of the decorator, a collage of their characteristics in tangible form, a reassurance of the individual.

To quote John Berger in his book “Ways of Seeing,” “Adults and children sometimes have boards in their bedrooms or living rooms in which they pin pieces of paper … on each board all the images belong to the same language and all the more or less equal within it, because they have been chosen in a highly personal way to match and express the experience of the room’s inhabitants.”

Berger’s argument focuses on the importance of the person, not just the items that form the décor. Without the ruling of the decorator, the images are nothing more than images present within our world. When such images are chosen, the decorations enter the world of the person. Such images may consist of who we are, who we want to be, what we worship and what we desire to possess.

This form of expression is nothing new, as the earliest form of these collectibles were the oil paintings commissioned by the wealthy to have artists depict their possessions, or mythological scenes representing their ideals in the practice of flaunting their wealth. In our modern era, this practice is just as easy as it is accessible, granting such practice a greater uniqueness now that it is no longer restricted to a certain demographic. In this scenario, it’s the college student.

While classic forms of expression required a certain standard of nobility, expression through art décor can take any form nowadays, no set boundaries or limitations required. Biomedical sciences junior Danya Garza said her assortment of decorations enriches the way she lives within her home.

“It’s pretty simple, but at the same time it’s colorful and kind of funky,” Garza said about her décor. “I have my plants by the window with my dinosaur beanie babies on my desk. It’s a mix of all the little things I find interesting with my life.”

Garza said moving into her new apartment, she visualized the empty room as a blank slate ready to be filled with life.

“Most of my collection is new. Moving out of the house, I didn’t really bring anything with me but my clothes and some other essentials,” Garza said. “My apartment is a space that I could create from scratch, so I ordered everything I needed from Amazon and other websites. I do have some things from my old room, like my stuffed dinosaurs, plants and polaroid pictures.”

In a seemingly opposite side of the spectrum of art décor, sociology senior Gwen Howerton said her practice of décor selection involved more.

“For me, I’ve been really into kitsch lately and I just generally hate blank walls, so I must have as much stuff on the walls in my bedroom or, in general, everywhere,” Howerton said. “I like the chaos of it all, all the conflicting things that I am into placed on my wall, and as soon as you walk into my room, you’re immediately like, ‘Yeah, this is what she likes.’ [I like] decorating a space that is overwhelming, just an assault on the eyes.”

Garza said she finds her home in the emulation of life in a thematic format of plants and the outside.

“I think that my decorations are less about expression and more about emulating what I really enjoy in my life,” Garza said. “It’s about surrounding myself with pieces that make me happy and make my college apartment more than a place to stay and more like a home.”

However, Howerton said she finds her sense of home in the filling of space that should be used to its potential.

“I like the personality of a maximalist … [trying] to incorporate a homey and cozy vibe, since to me, a room with barren walls or lots of empty space personally doesn’t feel like home to me as it’s synonymous with moving, which stresses me out,” Howerton said. “People say I’m cluttered, but I’m comfortable with clutter. This is my one place where I’m allowed to take up space, so I take advantage of that.”

Both Howerton and Garza said they never followed a set of instructions, but a flow of comfort which came pouring into their walls and shelves.

“I’m pretty satisfied with it, but I never try to be too satisfied,” Howerton said. “I never like to get too comfortable with one style

of things. I’m always changing and my space should reflect that, but right now, I’m pretty satisfied for the most part.”

Artistic decorations can be easily collected, bought and created. Decorators can be divided into the collectors, who simply purchase and collect art that fit their experiences, and the creators, who go one step further and conceive the images of the suited setting. While the collector can be seen as someone who obtains visual media from the outside world, the creator is one who creates imitations of objects and ideas of the outside world.

Additionally, the creator may even sell their work to others who seek to collect décor from local artists and creators. A collector may hang a picture of an art master, finding a connection with the produced image made by the artist, while the creator produces an imitation of the image birthed from their cumulative experience of artistic input and expression.

Education junior and local artist Stacia Angela said her artistic style is best described as brazen iconography of a woman’s identity, centering around a surrealist artistic perspective.

“Each one of [my pieces] have vibrant color,” Angela said. “Even though there’s a lot of different colors and textures, they are somehow all blended together.”

It’s a combination of creation and collection which Angela said fills her home.

“What I’ve made and what I have are fairly similar,” Angela said. “I paint things that make me happy, primarily with the concepts of colors. I also make décor like my cake mirrors that I think go well with my current style.”

Angela doesn’t just make decorations for herself, but for others who find that same passion in her creations, having her own Instagram page where she shows and sells said art, @femme.artura. Students who purchase from a local artist can find understanding in an art piece from a person within their community who shares a similar experience, possibly even a different one. The decorator doesn’t just bring the outside world into their room, but a local entity that can evoke contemporary commentary of the decorator’s proximal outside world.

While décor like posters become evocative of a distant fantasy, local art becomes the weaver of a local reality that can be directly interacted with, creating a perfect connection between individual, art and community.

“As an artist, seeing other people appreciate my art and styling makes me happy,” Angela said. “I’m glad that I’m able to help people fill up their empty spaces with things they love, and it makes me happier to see that my own art is one of the things they love.”

Ruben Hernandez — THE BATTALION