I started on this journey because I like to connect things. Not just physical items or people, but also my past and hopefully my future. Growing up, I think I was creative. I know my sister was; she’s an artist and has always known it. Maybe some of her rubbed off on me or maybe I was naturally creative and just didn’t follow it. Either way, I have viewed the art world with interest but from a distance. I followed my left brain into business and dabbled with my right brain creativeness. Drawing, painting, photography, I’ve done them all but none passionately. I would get bored with one and move on to the next. I’ve always been intrigued with people that have always known exactly why they were put on this earth. For me, there were just too many things to try! Finally I started focusing on others and how they interacted with art instead of producing it myself. I looked at who bought art and who didn’t. I looked at what people hung on their walls and where they bought it. I looked at the time, energy and expense that it takes to discover artists. I asked why some artists are more successful than others. Is it talent? Is it salesmanship?
Ultimately I felt there was a huge disconnect between artists and a large portion of consumers. Basically I felt that a lot of people didn’t know they existed. This brings me back to my first point; I like to connect things. If you know a group of people that are doing something really cool and you know another group of people that do not know about the first group, what do you do? You connect them. That is who The Art Menu is.
David Hobbs
Founder, The Art Menu
Do you buy art? You can tell a lot about a person based upon the answer you get from this question. The responses range from a fanatical yes to actually no answer at all as the person gets up and moves quickly away.
Are you into art? People can have many interests, but I believe an interest in art defines people. If you answered yes, more than likely you are an individual. You enjoy expressing yourself. You are a trend setter. You are unique and you want the items you purchase to be fresh and original. You enjoy the exhaustive hours of finding just what you want and what nobody else has. When it comes to art, you relate to what you buy. You take the time to understand the artist and their work. You know that what you buy will get noticed and be the topic of conversations. Art is an extension of you. It’s who you are. You’re interesting.
If you’re not into art, you should be. Seriously, who doesn’t want to be interesting? I know… it’s hard to be unique. It takes a lot of time and energy to be different. Unfortunately, whether it’s because of a lack of time, energy, knowledge or interest you resort to good enough. Not great, not unique, but ok. Maybe you don’t understand art or are afraid of it or maybe you just don’t care. But even the most style challenged individual realizes they at least need something to hang on their walls. So what do you do? Do you follow the path of least resistance? Maybe your home or apartment came fully furnished, or maybe you spent 15 minutes picking out art after spending hours picking out your furniture. If you’re not into art you probably don’t remember where it came from or why you bought it. Somehow it just ended up on your wall. Oh well, maybe nobody will know the difference.
David Hobbs
Founder, The Art Menu
Do you know an artist? I’ve wondered about how many people actually know an artist. Unless you frequent galleries, art shows, or own an art business you may not. Ok, even if you don’t, do you know about an artist? I’m not talking about Picasso or Rembrandt; I’m talking about a local artist. Can you remember their name? Once again, I’ve wondered about this because if everyone knew an artist or even knew about an artist, wouldn’t there be better artwork in people’s homes? Wouldn’t more people be able to tell you the name of their painting and the name of the artist who painted it? Not knowing that is like listening to elevator music on purpose. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to someone’s house, asked about their artwork, only to have them say “I don’t know who painted it; we bought it cause it matched our sofa”. In my opinion, art should be the centerpiece of your home or office. Yes, I’m talking about picking out your art before the sofa. It’s the one thing that can say something about you; in fact it should say something about you! It kills me knowing the wonderful, talented, artists that we have right here in our city and many people still go buy their art (if you can call it that) at Couches To Go.
Ok, I’ll ease up. I know there are a lot of you who do follow art and that do know an artist or two. I know there are some fine folks out there that could tell me the name of their painting and who painted it. I also know that having unique items that scream “I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being!” are hard to find. For those of you who take the time to discover and own local artwork, my hat’s off to you. If however, you find the description in the first paragraph more resembles the man in the mirror….stay tuned!
David Hobbs
Founder, The Art Menu
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