I'm going to make a bold suggestion that some readers won’t like: In terms of home decorating, it’s time to de-emphasize the Ag Fair posters. We’ve all seen that big yellow chicken in dozens of houses, and it’s time to put it in the rec room or the kids’ bathroom. Ag Fair posters should no longer be the major art statement on anyone’s Vineyard walls.
With all the artistic talent and interesting, affordable art to be had on Martha’s Vineyard, there is no excuse for displaying tired art in your home. Whether you frequent galleries, artists’ studios, crafts fairs, yard sales, thrift shops, or antiques stores, shopping for art on the Island is a Vineyard experience to be savored, an adventure like going to the beach; just as looking
at art in a home should give pleasure to its viewers, buying it should give pleasure to its buyers.
Help is out there: the galleries
If I were in the market for art and didn’t know where to start, I’d seek out someone at a gallery. There are many galleries on the Vineyard run by people with expertise in the Island art scene and beyond. Go and browse; when you find a gallery whose tastes seem similar to yours, find its owner or a staff member and ask how they can help you in your art quest.
I’d probably call my friend Carol Craven, for example. She owns the Craven Gallery in Tisbury and works as an advisor to individual art-seeking clients. Carol would likely start by coming over to my house, getting a sense of my tastes, furniture, color preferences, and other factors (such as my budget) that might affect what I choose. Then she’d pull a selection of works from her collection. I’d go through them, find some pieces I liked, and maybe take one or two home to hang on my walls on a trial basis – just to see how they held up at different times of day, and to make sure I still loved them in the morning.
Perhaps among her holdings I’d find an artist whose work I love, but whose available paintings weren’t exactly the size, colors, or whatever that I was looking for; in a case like this, Carol might arrange for me to commission the artist to do a piece more to my specifications. If I was really picky and didn’t find anything at all that I liked in her gallery, she could look in New York for something just right for me.
Things to keep in mind
Museum-quality art may not be advisable for the typical Vineyard house. Dampness and mildew can lead to discoloration and textural changes, especially to works on paper. Exposure to direct sunlight is also a hazard, as it can cause fading. “Ideally,” says Carol Craven, “things should have conservation framing to prevent mildew and staining, and they should be kept in a climate-controlled environment, out of direct sunlight. But that’s a lot to worry about. Really, you just have to be aware of the elements – to take care of art the same way you would your fabrics and furniture.”
Hanging things away from sunlight can be particularly difficult on the Vineyard, where houses often have many windows. “When you’re inside on the Vineyard, you want to be looking outdoors,” says Harvard Business School professor and year-round, part-time Edgartown resident Rosabeth Moss Kanter. “It’s as much a part of the visual delight as what you put on your walls.” Kanter points out that because the eye travels between windows and walls, there should be harmony and a sense of continuity between what’s indoors and what’s outside.
Kanter and her husband, Barry Stein, have a house chock full of art. “We don’t think of ourselves as collectors,” she says. “We just buy what we like to surround ourselves with.” They prefer art that is colorful, “things that make us smile, even if they’re not always the most challenging or cerebral pieces of art.” She notes that art in the home should “liberate the spirit and bring pleasure. I like things that draw you into them, that you can rediscover, even after you’ve walked by them a thousand times.”
Many of the works in the couple’s Vineyard house were made by Island artists. “We like supporting local artists,” says Kanter, “and there’s really a lot of serious talent here.” Also, she notes, much of the work by Island artists is created in the same Vineyard light we see through our windows, which can give it a mood or a spirit that is consistent with the outdoor view. Kanter and Stein enjoy visiting artists’ studios and buying work from the artists themselves. Once, they commissioned a group of Island painters to come to their house and paint whatever they chose around the property. “With Vineyard artists you can have a relationship,” says Kanter. “You know the places where they’re painting, and you understand what they’re doing.” Of course, the Island art scene has matured considerably over the past couple of decades. “Sometimes,” Kanter says, “there’s sticker shock.”
Beyond the canvas
Not everything you hang on your walls must be pricey, and not everything must be a painting.
Particularly for those sunny spots, it’s wise to consider art or other objects made of tile, metal, wood, or other materials that the sun won’t damage. On a wall near an entrance to their house, for example, Kanter and Stein installed three rows of pegs on which they hung an assortment of caps, with a result that is whimsical, colorful, and original.
Ron Gamba, who organizes periodic flea markets at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury (this season, they’ll take place every Friday from May to Thanksgiving), says that people buy all kinds of unusual objects to display in their houses as art. Hooked rugs, quilts, lace runners, and other textiles often wind up on walls. So do wooden pitchforks and farm implements; old saws and antique woodworking tools; anchors, cleats, winches, and other boat hardware; quahaug and eel rakes; old signs; and sports paraphernalia of all kinds, including leather baseball helmets and old bats.
“Driftwood,” he notes, “got played out. It became too Cape Cod-y.”
A friend of mine – a seasonal up-Islander with lots of wall space – has the best collection of nontraditional wall adornments I’ve seen. Much of it has an historical relationship to life on Martha’s Vineyard, past and present. A huge steering wheel from a boat, too heavy to hang, leans against a wall. An old wheelbarrow and handmade baskets sit up on a ledge beneath the eaves. Near the rafters in a room with atrium ceilings, he’s hung such items as old rakes, a thresher, a harpoon, cranberry scoops, a rug beater, and a long paddle for putting bread loaves into an oven. “Sometimes,” he says, “the challenge lies in figuring out how to affix these things to a wall.” He jokes that on a windy day, there are places you might not want to sit or walk, such as directly below the thresher blade.
Safer to sit beneath are his collection of old maps of the Vineyard. “Some are nautical maps,” he says, “or old tourism maps of the Island. Others are very rudimentary, made by craftspeople.” He’s found these and his other nontraditional art mainly at flea markets, antiques fairs, and bric-a-brac shops. Other sources include eBay and other online sites, yard sales, and estate auctions. For more traditional art at bargain prices, the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services Thrift Shop in Vineyard Haven has an annual art sale that’s worth a visit.
And then, of course, there’s the Ag Fair, with its booth full of posters for sale. But this year, why not buy the poster on a T-shirt? Wearable art . . . well, that’s another story.
