"My Personal Taste in Art" chapter 3 The Kitchen

I didn't think I had much art in my kitchen but I was wrong.  When you live with things on an everyday basis I guess you get so used to them that you loose site of what you have.  I have both functional items and decorative items in my kitchen.  Like I mentioned in my last post, most of these things have special meaning and memories of people I love. 

I'll start the tour with the area between the living room and the kitchen.  This is where the door to the garage, the entrance to the downstairs art studio, and the staircase going to the second level of the house are located.

The first thing I want to mention is that the walls are not yellow like they appear in this photo.  They are a shade of beige.  Some of the walls are a dark beige and some a lighter shade.  This is a little cabinet that I bought at Target in Tucson and painted as a companion piece to a couple of other items that I had in my office in AZ.  You saw the game table in my living room post.  The large pot was given to me by my mother.  She went to Ohio State University when she was over 60 years old for a BA degree.  While there, she had a part time on campus job assisting a well known ceramic artist.  He would create the molds and she would pour them.  He gave her this pot which she gifted to me. I have the back of the pot facing out.  The front featured a large high heel red shoe!  I love the back and dislike the front so have always turned it backwards.  I bought the cross at Hobby Lobby when I moved here.  It was the perfect color so no re-painting necessary.

This is the wall next to the garage door.  I bought this chest at a yard sale.  It was in my office in AZ with the other two pieces that have the same design.  The mirror was from Hobby Lobby and was silver when I bought it for my master bathroom here.  Later I moved it to this spot and painted it to match the chest.

This is the stairway down to the art studio.  At the time we finished this remodel project I did a blog post going into detail on what we did.  If you are interested you can research older posts and read all about it there.  The shelves are full of favorite things.  I did the painting and the wall hanging is from Hobby Lobby.

I'll move on to the kitchen.  Since the room is too big to show in one photo I took two shots from different angles.

I took close ups of the various "art" items I have in the kitchen.

This one shows a pot I got from Ross, a container filled with a plant that my friend Nancy gave me and a small vase that my mother made and painted that are on top of the cupboard.  The large bowl and matching small bowls were a housewarming  gift from my mother that she bought at an art fair in Columbus, OH for us when we moved to AZ. The little gold leaf dish was a 50th anniversary gift from friends Rubin & Jan.  The copper container which holds my kitchen utensils was from a garage sale.  Notice the apple on a stick in the container.  It was made by my dad and painted by me back in the 80's.  The two trays were also garage sale items.

I painted these as a matching set.  They are functional as well as pretty decorations.

As we move around the counter I have a few other special things that are also useful.

My napkin holder was made by my dad and painted by me many years ago.

I can say ditto on the tray...made by Dad and painted by me.  I use it to hide all the cords from the phone.  The fruit bowl was a gift from my friend Jean and the small bowl and vase came from garage sales.

The items on the top of my dish cabinet are a mixture of garage sale items and a pot made by my mom.  I painted the cross painting and stool.  The stool came from a garage sale here in MI. Roger made the stained glass windows.  Below is a close up of the stool.

By the door to the backyard I have a painting I did on a board made by my dad.  This was in the 80's.  The small cross is a very special to us.   It was given to us as a going away present by our Bible Study group in OH when we moved to AZ.   Roger has just started work on a stained glass window for the door. When it is done I will post photos.

The wooden bowl which I have on my island is another yard sale find which I painted.  I use it to showcase some seashell balls given to my by my friend Nancy.  You have probably notice I have lots of items that were given to me by her.  She was always changing out decorative items and when she bought something new she  gave me the things she was replacing.  I put a piece of coral that came from (you guessed it) a yard sale on top of the balls.

Last are two glass items.  The plate was made by my friends Don &  Leila"s  daughter.  She had it on display in her home and when I told her I thought it was pretty.  She gave it to me saying "her daughter made so many of these that she would just get another one from her and I could have this one." The glass flower is something that I bought from the Three Rivers Art Guild Holiday Show.  It was blown by one of the guild members. It is a perfect match for the plate.

You have now seen all the art in the first floor of my house.  When I decided to share my personal collection of art I didn't realize how much I had.  Everything I own is full of memories of people and places.  People who have passed through my life and places I have lived.  Doing this series has reminded me of how I am surrounded by love of all these people.  Some have passed away and I no longer live close to the rest, but owning things that they gave to me will always keep them close.