Your Home Needs Art. Here’s How to Choose It, with Liz Lidgett

My guest today is gallery owner and art advisor Liz Lidgett. She’s just as passionate as I am about getting more people to embrace their inner art collector. And we both think everyone has one of those inside us! But there are so many mental blocks to get over...what should I choose? Where can I find it? How much should I pay for it? How do you even conduct yourself in an art gallery? Liz has some great advice around all of these questions, starting with the most simple thing ever. Let’s hear from Liz.

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Style Matters podcast. I'm Zandra, your host and I'm also the creator of the Slow Style approach to designing your dream home. On this show, you'll hear lots of interviews with really talented people working in interiors. Most of them are designers, some are makers and artists, and many of them are authors. I also record a solo show where it's just me and I share pieces of my Slow Style design framework that puts you at the front and center of your home, rather than products or trends and other people's idea of what beauty is supposed to look like. If that sounds good to you and you're itching to get started, you can download our free worksheet called the Dream Home Action Plan. You can find it at littleyellowcouch.com. And about halfway through today's conversation, I'm really excited about jumping in and telling you about a new online course that I've just created called Unlock Your Signature Style. This course is self-paced. You can take it at any time. It's for people new to interior design, but also for those who really want to dig into the foundation of the Slow Style philosophy. So stay tuned for that. Now, if you're ready to learn how to make your home beautiful and meaningful from the best interior designers I know, you're in the right place. I'm so glad you're here. Today I'm talking with gallery owner and art advisor Liz Lidgett. She's just as passionate as I am about getting more people to embrace their inner art collector. And we both think everyone has one of those inside of us. But there are so many mental blocks to get over. You know, what should I choose? Where can I find it? How much should I pay for it? How do you even conduct yourself in an art gallery? Liz has some great advice around all of these questions, starting with the most simple thing ever. So let's hear from Liz. Liz Liget, welcome to the Style Matters podcast. Thank you so much for having me. This is going to be fun. Yes. It's one of my favorite topics. As people who listen to this show know, I'm on a mission to give people to buy more art. So I love having you on. And you are clearly passionate about art as well and supporting artists. But I want to hear a little bit about, you really picked my curiosity in your website when you talked about being an in-house curator for a corporate art collection. So how did you get there before we go on to the rest of your life? Because I mean, many people may not know that curating for a corporation is even a job. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Okay. So I got all kind of yada yada through the beginning, but born in Des Moines, Iowa, went to the University of Missouri for journalism and art history, and then knew I wanted to work in the art world, but didn't know how. And so I went to get my masters at USC and lived in Los Angeles. And the program is now called Curatorial Practice in the Public Sphere, which is a pretty wordy way of saying public art or anything outside of a museum space. So it was, yeah. So people from my cohort do all kinds of things, but they work for cities or they work for organizations that administer art or curate art. And so this was the type of degree that you could go and do a lot of different things with. Yeah. So living in Los Angeles, I really loved it, but saw the way that Des Moines was changing. And I felt like I could be a part of it. And I moved back and there is an incredible corporate collection here in Des Moines. There's several actually, but they were looking for an in-house curator. It was also a privately owned family business. And so it was both families collection and the corporate collection. And it was an amazing experience. I got to work with incredible artists from around the world in Christie's and Sotheby's and just amazing, amazing things. But during that time, I started talking to other businesses and they would ask me about being a corporate curator because they would have collections and had no idea what to do with them. Right. So in 2012, I decided to start my own business and help those corporations. So I worked with businesses all throughout Iowa. And really the main thing was is helping these corporations know that your art collection, whether you're a person or a corporation can show your mission values. So people walking through your home or your business. And so, you know, I worked for a company, for example, one of my clients was a major agricultural business here in town. And so we would choose artwork by regional artists because we wanted to support artists from the region, but mainly landscapes and farm landscapes. And we would actually show the crops that they help create and grow. So, you know, so it was like, I was also talking to the scientists being like, is this an accurate description? And they would look at the artwork and be like, yes, actually, this is great. So it was like really interesting conversations like that. To me, that sort of thing is fascinating because I want to be able to think that you can do that. You can support the types of artists that you want to support. You can tell stories that the artists are trying to tell. There's so many different things. I want to help people build collections that only they would own or that company would own. I love that. And that mission statement, like getting into a mission statement with an organization must have this really interesting crossover when you think about a family or an individual in their homes. I mean, we don't have mission statements for our homes, but we do have a set of values and we have a set of passions and interests. So okay, well, we're going to definitely get into all that. Yes. Keep going with, okay, so you're doing this corporate curation and then your business evolves once again. It does. So as I was doing that, people started calling and saying, well, would you help me with my restaurant or would you help me with my small business or would you help me with my home? And I started getting calls from around the country of people that wanted help with their homes. And so that's when I started working more with art advisory and helping people buy the perfect piece of art for their style, space, budget. And then that kind of, the business kept evolving because I was doing that. I was working with so many galleries. And I felt like there were some serious best practices and I don't want to be, I love the gallery world, I love the art world, but sometimes there are stereotypes and I felt like the stereotypes happened for a reason. And I really wanted to build a gallery that was based on inclusivity that treated the artists really well, that helped them live and create and then also really respected the clients and focused on the idea that art is for everyone and that I don't want people to come into the gallery feeling like there's kind of, it's cold or they're not being welcomed or that idea of like there's no prices on the wall and they feel uncomfortable. That's the exact opposite of what we're trying to do. So I opened the gallery in 2019, LizLogic Gallery and that brings us up to today. It's almost been four years. Yes. And this is something that I'm so passionate about is getting people past that hump of intimidation or feeling like, well, art is only for wealthy people or I don't know anything about art. I don't even know what paint color I like. How could I possibly pick out a piece of art? And so I want to kind of talk about those folks who are in that situation, but we're going to also talk about sort of the journey that someone goes through as they go from complete novice to starting a collection and then growing a collection. So, you know, a lot of people that I work with, they're at different stages of developing their confidence in their personal aesthetic and they start with nothing on the walls. And there might have been 10 years with nothing on their walls, right? Because a couple of things that I know you probably hear all the time, one, I'm afraid to put a hole in the wall. Yeah. But two, I don't know what to put on the wall. So it's blank or they do throw some things up that are either mass produced or they pick out because it matches a throw pillow or something. So let's start there. How do you get people over that first block, that mental block of buying your first piece? Sure. So at first, I want people to look at as much art as possible before they purchase. So one of the things that I love talking about is even taking a friend or your partner, significant other on a date to a museum. And I want you guys to pretend that you've got all the money in the world and you can buy one or two pieces yourselves. But I want you to be able to articulate why you would buy that piece. And even just that practice of having a conversation about talking about art, even if you feel like you don't have the vocabulary or the degree or whatever, you don't have to have an art history degree to appreciate art. There is no one right way to participate in the art world. So what I really want you to do is just to participate. So I want you to go to a museum. I want you to talk about why you like something. And when you start to articulate that, you will be amazed that certain themes start to come up for you that maybe you do really like representational artwork. You really do like abstract. My father, who I'm very close to and helps me out with the business all the time is retired. And so he'll stop into the gallery sometimes and he'll go, oh, Liz, you've got something that looks like something on the walls today. I take it he doesn't like modern abstract art. I'm like, oh, dad, you're so predictable. So anyway, so it's like, you know, that's what he likes. And so I know exactly when he's when my parents are buying a new piece of artwork, what they're going to go for. But but by looking at a lot of art, you're going to start seeing the things that you really like. There are that. Yeah. And there are artists at all different levels that are creating that type of art. So depending on what your budget is, and you've got maybe a trusted source and maybe that's a gallery that you really like going to, or maybe it's an artist that you found on Instagram and just adore. Whatever that is, there are lots of ways to be able to find those people out there that are creating the art for you. Yeah. And that is what's so amazing about this time that we live in is that the access to it has changed so much. But I also think that it's a double edged sword because then it's also a bit overwhelming to sift through all of it, which is one of the things you help people do is sift through everything. Right. I think that's why the trusted source, a trusted eye is really important. But that step of really figuring out why do I like something? I think that's exactly, it's the same thing when you're trying to pick out furniture or compose an entire room or even a small vignette. What is speaking to me specifically? Is it the shape? Is it the thickness of the paint on the canvas? Or is it the fact that it is, like you said, very representational? It's a landscape that I can relate to. And I'm just picturing, I mean, my husband and I do this all the time. We go to a gallery and it's like a museum and it's like, we make a whole afternoon of it. We treat ourselves to the fancy lunch at the museum and get a glass of Prosecco or something. Love that. Yeah, you step into a different world for a little bit. But then there are all of these other artists that are so accessible for when you do get over that first intimidating walk into a gallery. And I also want to say your gallery is built with a mission of inclusivity and there are other galleries like that and there are some that are not. And you know immediately what kind you're in. So just, you have every right to be in that gallery and the most gallerists, they want to talk to you about their artists. They're excited about them. So what kinds of questions should we be asking ourselves or should we be asking a gallerist or even an artist? Let's say you go to an open studios. What should we be looking for? What questions should we be asking ourselves so we know we're quote unquote buying the right piece? Right. You know, I think it even starts like as you walk in walking confidently, you were meant to be in that gallery. It is open. You know, I see people do it all the time. As much as I am, we're like, welcome, come in, come see the art. We're so excited you're here. You know, but I still see them kind of like, should I come in? I know. You know, it's like they do this dance in front of the door trying to decide if they deserve to be in an art gallery. And you know, that's the kind of thing that we're really fighting with even from like the first step in the door. And then it's like, okay, well, can I speak in here? Is it like a library? Oh, it feels so quiet. Yeah, it feels so quiet. And that's why we try and have music going and I want you to be able to talk. So I mean, there's all kinds of different things there, but I think engage with the galleries and if somebody, you know, comes up and speaks to you really do have that conversation of as simple as can you tell me about this artist? Can you tell me about their process? And that really starts the conversation there. You know, I mean, there's so many different things to talk about. If you see something and you say, this is what I'm seeing, can you tell me more about it? Yeah, good question. Right. Just really kind of opening that dialogue. You know, there oftentimes are materials to take away. If you're thinking about it, that's very normal for a gallery. Don't feel like you have to purchase from the very first time. Right. A postcard, a little bio or something that they will give you. Exactly. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I don't know if it's this way, but we have a completely shoppable website. So oftentimes I can tell that people have scoped out on the website, almost like, you know, you do that with your menu before you go to a restaurant sometimes. Yes. Yes. Totally. If you are not just walking down the street and you really are going with the attention of buying artwork, really do scope out their social media or their website first because that's going to say most of the time, for example, we have a small but mighty space. And so I have the current show up and then I often have some additional artwork, but I don't have everything that we have on the walls. There's just no space for that. So if you came in and said, well, I see that you've got Carrie Gillan on the walls right now, but I love Karen Ola to do have anything from her right now. If you even come equipped with a few names, write them down on your phone and put them in your notes app so that you at least know to ask, these are the artists that I saw. I'd love to see them in person. Yeah. And I love that way of you've just given us a lot of things we can say to a gallery owner to start that conversation to make us feel like, oh, the gallery owner is just a person too and we can have a conversation about something. Exactly. I do think that people maybe sometimes are worried that, especially if you're the only one in the gallery at the moment, that someone's going to pounce on them and there's going to be this hard sell. And I feel like, well, then that's actually easy for me to walk away from because I want to have a much larger conversation about the art before I buy it. So try not to be too worried about pushy salespeople because that's not the right gallery for you. Right. Exactly. I think that based on social media presence and things like that, if you do any research beforehand, you'll start to get an idea of what the personality is of the people that work there or the gallery, what their program is like, what their mission is like. And so I think with anything these days, do a little research beforehand and see, are these people that I would really want to do business with? We ship 80% of the artwork that we sell. So that means that it's not really the people that are coming in off of the street. That certainly happens, of course. But these are people that are buying from our website, from our social media, from a DM. And I think part of the reason is that my team and I are on every single day talking about artwork. They know when they buy a piece of artwork that it's being wrapped by Allie or Tina is the one chatting with them or Liz is the one that curated it. And so I hope that they feel like they know us and we take that as a huge responsibility that we have their trust because people are buying more and more sight unseen. And so if you feel comfortable with the people that you're working with, then you can trust their eye too. Absolutely. Before we continue with the conversation, I told you I was going to jump in at some point and tell you about a new project that I've been working on. So here goes. You may know about an online course I teach called Master the Mix. It's about four weeks long and it's only available two to three times a year. And a lot of people have told me that they just don't want to wait for the doors to open. I get it. When you're in the mood to get your house in order and make it look and feel good, you want to do it now. So I've just launched another online course, but this one you can start at any time. It's called Unlock Your Signature Style. And it's right for you if you're new to interior design concepts, if you've just moved into a new home or if you feel like your whole home needs an overhaul, and if you have no idea what your style is or where to start. Unlock Your Signature Style is a self-paced course that you do on your own with easy to listen to audio lessons and worksheets that go along with them. But I'm also giving it a very personalized touch. Everyone who takes the course is able to sign up for a one-on-one coaching session with me. Yep, I'm going to get on a call or zoom with you and give your home my full attention. Okay, there's plenty of other info on the website about Unlock Your Signature Style, so just go to littleyellowcouch.com and click on Courses up at the top. And one more thing, and this is important, if you've signed up for the Little Yellow Couch newsletter, you're going to get a special 30% off discount code for this new course. Because it's brand new, I really want your feedback, so I'm looking to my email subscribers here to jump in and let me know what you think. And so as a thank you for subscribing, you're getting a 30% off discount. So check out all the info about the course. Make sure you're subscribed to the newsletter. You can do all of that at littleyellowcouch.com. Okay, enough of me blabbing on. Let's get back to the episode. And my husband and I go, we make pilgrimages to Santa Fe and have done so four or five times and we now have relationships with those gallery owners, even the ones we've still not bought anything from. And they love, you know, we don't really talk about price range, but we'll see something. We see what the prices are. We know what we can swing. And we will often buy something that is not the most expensive piece in the shop. And the gallery, they don't care. They're just happy to talk about the art. Most of these gallery owners are passionate, just like you are. But I want to go back to this idea of buying art online, site unseen. Because it's one thing to look ahead on your website before walking into your gallery. That is fabulous. I love that idea. But site unseen, what should we know before we actually buy the piece? We don't want somebody to get it and then be surprised when they open it up. That's right. So I'd say the number one thing that I recommend is asking for a video. And I will tell you that a video will show off a work of art in a way that a photograph just never could. The way that the light bounces off of it, you get more of a sense of what it looks like as like a 3D object. Oh, yeah. You can really even have it, the way that I, for example, video the artwork for someone is that I'm far away. I'm up close. I'm side to side. Sometimes you see the back of it. Almost the way that you would look at an artwork in a museum. Or in a room. Or in a room. This is what it's going to look like above my couch because this is the angle you come into the room. Exactly right. I try, even in my Instagram videos, I try and get up really close so that you can see the texture of the paint. All of those things that sometimes get missed in a photograph. So I think video is really, really great number one for a client just to get a better sense of what they're actually receiving. Oftentimes we also send a photo of someone, a person holding it so that you can understand scale. I can send you a thousand photos of a piece of art on a white wall and I can even tell you the dimensions. That doesn't mean that in your mind you understand what 30 by 40 is in comparison to your sofa. Okay. Let's move on to the person who has now bought a few pieces of art. Sure. They're much more comfortable with the idea of having original pieces in their home. Maybe their price tag is going up a little bit. They're a little bit more comfortable spending some more money. Is there a process you take them through to start thinking of building a collection versus sort of more random pieces that have caught their eye through the years? Or maybe, I mean, probably anything is okay. I'm sure there are no rules, but I mean, is there a different way to think about your whole body of artwork that you've collected versus doing it a little bit more piecemeal? Absolutely. I think that your collection, as I said earlier, can really say a lot about you. And it's up to you to try and figure out what it says. So maybe it's you pick up a piece every single time you go on vacation and it's something about your love of travel. We worked with a female-owned legal firm, and so we decided that we were going to help them after a conversation with them, that they were going to build a collection of only female artists. Because that was really interesting to them. I've had clients that really wanted to represent themselves as a couple in artwork. So they would often buy like diptychs where there's two canvases or there's two things in artwork, and then they had a child. And so we started buying things in threes. I've had client mission pieces that were split up in thirds so that someday the children would each get one. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, there's all kinds of things and so many stories that I have had and worked with clients on. But I think the most interesting collections are ones that actually say something about you. There's this derogatory term in the art world called OTC art or over the couch art is what it stands for. And so it's like, OK, well, we don't want to just do OTC art. And it's not, it needs to be more or it should be more. You'll get more from it if it does more than just match your sofa. Does it make you feel something? Does it make you think of something a wonderful time in your life, a beautiful trip? Does it make you think maybe you're really environmentally conscious and these landscapes make you think of how beautiful the world truly is and what we're doing to save it or not? Right. You know, I mean, there's so many different things that you can bring in your, as you said, your own personal values into a collection. And I guess I would just challenge you. You don't have to know everything about the art world, but I want you to think about it. I go back to like, I just want you to participate. I just want you to think about it. And if you do that, you don't have to know everything. You don't have to have all the right vocabulary. No one expects that from you. I don't have all of that, right? I don't I don't know that anyone has ever done learning about art or the art world. So just understanding that, you know, maybe you have a passion for it and you have an eagerness for it and people will see that and will want to help you. And if you're thinking about it, then you're doing more than most, honestly. Right. Absolutely. And I, you know, this whole thing we keep coming back to about artists for everyone and you deserve to be there and all of that. Yeah. Ultimately, just like with your own interior style, you the only thing that matters is that you love it. And that is you are the only one that can decide that you get to pick that, right? And so it doesn't, you know, don't be intimidated by someone saying, you know, that's not very good quality. Look at the brushstroke. Look at this. Like, oh, it's so derivative of so and so or, you know, whatever. Yeah. Who cares? No, who cares? You need to love it. And I think you will. You will become more educated about the art world, but also about yourself and why you love something the more you do it. And so, exactly, right. You mentioned, you know, going to a museum, going to galleries, there are oftentimes first Fridays or first Thursdays where all the galleries are open. And what's wonderful about those is that you will not be the only person in the gallery. So if you've never stepped foot in a gallery, there's going to be a lot of people there and there's little cheese and little wine and it's very festive. And then there's also open studios for artists and then of course online. So you've been very inspiring and I hope people listening are going to take you up on all of this wonderful advice. That's kind of. Yeah. I also want to say you have some great resources on your own website and we'll link to those. One of them you have a free guide on, I think it's about how to hang. Yes. Which is, people know how to do that. They don't know how to do that. So I'm just going to tell you now, definitely get the guide because I do think it's very helpful and it takes you step by step. But 60 inches to the center of the piece from the bottom, from the floor is where the artwork should be hung because that's average eye line. And so let me just say, if you keep that 60 inches marker in your mind, first you shouldn't be worried about putting that many holes in your wall because if you do it right and you measure then you're not going to be putting that many holes. But also gosh, it's so easy to patch holes. It's just just hang the darn art. It is so easy to patch a whole. Yes. So don't even, I hear that you mentioned that fear. I hear it all of the time that somebody's going to do something wrong. And here's the other thing about it. If I want to be honest with all of you and I do, is that I change how I hang art. Sometimes I live with something for just two weeks and I think that's not it. That's not the space. I love this artwork. I'm going to move it. And then I'm patching walls. So it's not even the quote unquote experts are moving their artwork around. And sometimes it's fun after a couple of years, I think, oh my gosh, I've got something else and I'm going to move that there because I think that art can have conversations while they're next. Well, art is next to each other. Right. So you get to decide what that conversation is. And I noticed that I see something different in a work of art depending on what it's also next to, which is what I think is so exciting about the gallery world in general is that we get to put up a new show every four to five weeks. And I get to see different artists combining their works side by side and I look at the work in a different way. Absolutely. And moving it to a different location, you're going to start seeing it again. I think that we stop seeing stuff that we've been staring at for years. And so if you move it, it's all of a sudden like it's almost like you just bought yourself a new piece of art because it's in a fresh place. And so that's another reason. So true. Moving things around. So Liz, let's wrap up with my signature question. Why does style matter? And maybe you'd rather talk about why does art matter, but I leave it up to you. I think, you know, I'm passionate about both honestly. And I truly think that it has the ability to make you happy. It makes you enjoy the space. And I think that I could be maybe, you know, more descriptive of my words, but it goes just down to the fact that style truly can make you love the space that you're in. And how important that is to feel that way, to feel the comfort, to feel the energy you want to feel, to make it a space your own so that when you come home, that space truly is home because you have surrounded yourself in the things that you love and the people that you love and art is a part of that. I walk in and see when I walk in my front door, I see a floral piece by Kip Porter every single day and it makes me smile every single time. It's got the right energy. It's got my colors. It's got everything. And then, you know, I've got two little kids at two and a four year old and they're running around this artwork all the time. And I don't, I truly don't think twice about it because they have been raised around art and they know not to touch it now. But also it's like, this is the home that I wanted to create. I wanted to create a chaotic, loud, wonderful, warm, full of art home and somehow we've been able to do that. And so it just, it truly makes me so happy. Oh, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. Thank you. Love that. Thank you so much for your time today and for... This was wonderful. Yeah. Opening up our eyes, I really, really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. If you've gotten something out of this episode, please be so kind as to leave a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you're listening from. It really does help this show stay on the air. And also don't forget to grab our free guide, the Dream Home Action Plan at littleyellowcouch.com. And also that's where you can find the show notes pages for all of these episodes with photos and links to things that we've been talking about. Have a great week. Bye for now.