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I don’t want to squelch any creative ideas you may have when it comes to placing wall art in your home. If you are inspired to hang art in a specific spot, it never hurts to try it out and see how it looks.

On the other hand, if you’re new to collecting art and are looking for guidance, here’s an easy way to start thinking about where to place your artwork.

Pretend you’ve never visited your house before and take a brief tour. Start at your front door and walk through the entry, living room, and dining room to identify the ‘key wall’ in each room – the wall which is most visible as you enter the room. As you enter the bedrooms and bathrooms, identify which walls are most visible from each doorway. More often than not, these key walls are going to be good locations for your first pieces of original art. Down the line you will start thinking about placing art on your secondary walls too. But for now, if your art is strategically placed on those key walls, you probably need fewer pieces than you think to impact your surroundings.

Make a master location list of your key walls (include wall measurements) as you do your walk through. Take the list with you when you’re shopping for artwork so you know where you can place the art you will inevitably see and love.

Once you have purchased key pieces of artwork for your most trafficked rooms, then start thinking about artwork for hallways, transition spaces and secondary walls.

Prioritizing art placement in this way will maximize the impact of your purchases. Think about it, if you make the effort to buy original art but it only fits in your guest room or back hallway, the buzz you get from collecting original artwork is going to wear off faster than a New York minute. Try this approach to art placement at the beginning of your foray into art collecting. Knowing where you will put the art you love will help you feel good about your purchases. By the time your art collection rivals Herb and Dorothy’s, you can put your Motherwells on any wall you want and nobody will dare question your judgement.

Photo: Eric Plasecki

It’s easy to think of images of death as macabre and morbid, as looking on the dark side of life. But in art, images of death have often had a more vivifying role—to remind us that we are in the midst of life’s fleeting brightness, and not to let it pass by. If you’ve been to Prague, you’ve most likely seen the famous fifteenth-century clock with a skeleton perched by its side, flipping an hourglass every hour to remind us that time is running out:

Granted, in Medieval Europe the idea was that you were to think of your impending judgment in the afterlife. But thankfully, this is art. It’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and this beholder chooses to see the depiction of death in art as very life affirming—to remind me that life will end, and to make something of it while it lasts.

This painting follows the Dutch still-life style called vanitas, which would often include skulls as symbols of impermanence:

But often the still life would include subtler symbolism. This one employs a bouquet of flowers with a few stems beginning to wilt and wither:

Of course, Europeans aren’t the only ones to depict death beautifully. Here’s a Japanese nineteenth century wood block print that just might be my favorite:

And of course there are the many contributions of modern-day popular culture. Here are some from the punk and heavy-metal music scenes:

The list wouldn’t be complete without Eddie, Iron Maiden’s poster boy, drawn by the illustrator Derick Riggs:

Do you have any favorite images to help remind you that the clock is ticking?

Sometimes I think the most interesting and expressive ways to display art are created by taking a chance and doing something unexpected. If you are somewhat creative, why not try using the way you display art on your walls as another way to change the way people interact with it?

This is such a great way to display many photographs and still have a clean uncluttered feel.
Photo from Martha Stewart

I love how the television blends in as another piece of art and how randomly the art is hung on the wall.

This one is a great example of how to tie accessories in with the art itself. The vase and flowers echo the colors and fiery bits of red in the photography. Asymmetrical and lots of white space.

This was a wall at the Paul Smith store in London (left from apartmenttherapy.com) and San Francisco (Right, shot by me). It fills every bit of space, using many different types of frames, art, styles, colors and dimensions. It would be a great way to combine a bunch of mismatched things on one wall in a home as a focal point. Just one wall though I would think, a whole house like this might be overwhelming!

Break some rules, hang things off-center, in a space too small, too crowded and mismatched. If there is something about the collection that relates to each other somehow such as a frame color, or the medium (ie: all b/w photos) it can be the thing that ties it all in together. Or perhaps that thing is the fact that none of them have anything to do with each other at all! The point is to have fun, be creative and play with it. It is art after all.

It happened when I least expected it. I was sipping a martini at Proof on Main in Louisville, Kentucky when I saw them- the most beautiful series of fine art photographs I had ever encountered. Each race horse was photographed alone in a black box studio wearing just a mask. Seeing the horses stripped down without the fanfare, the media, or the persistent whipping of hyperactive jockeys left me feeling raw and exposed. The whole experience was incredibly moving, especially when you consider that I had never had an interest in horses prior to that moment.

I combed the restaurant until I found someone who would share the name of the photographer. Given that I was traveling at the time, I knew I couldn’t drop a few thousand dollars on art and then turn around and stuff it into a suitcase. Vowing to bring home at least one of the shots once I was back home, I jotted down the name of the photographer, Elena Dorfman. Two months later and having just moved into a brand new, white-walled apartment, I’m dreaming of horses once again.

Like falling in love with your next great love affair, you’ll know it when you’ve met the newest addition to your growing art collection. A great piece of art stirs your soul, opens your heart, and speaks to you every time you catch a glimpse.

Not sure how you’ll know it when you see it? Here are a few other clues that you’ve found “the one”:

You won’t be able to forget it. When you experience a piece of art that truly speaks to you, you’ll find it impossible to get the image out of your mind.

You won’t feel the need to justify your purchase. With the right piece of art, you won’t waste time giving your friends the financial play by play of why you decided to make the purchase. Instead, you’ll be sharing the story about how you felt when you first saw the piece.

You know exactly where it will live. We often connect with art that fills an emotional or physical void in our home or workspace. If you see a piece that resonates with you and you have a reasonable idea of where it will go once you’ve purchased it, you’re on the right track.

It’s not just “wall decor”, it’s a show piece. If you’ve really fallen in love with a piece, you’ll find yourself wanting to introduce it to everyone you encounter.

The sad truth is, pigeons may have an easier time discerning “good” art than us human beings do. And I’d say one reason is they’re not hampered by what Kurt Vonnegut Jr. called “those great big brains.” A pigeon doesn’t look at a painting and worry about what it says about them. Instead, they see it as either a bad piece of art or a good piece of art. Take the avian approach, and you’ll never second-guess your taste in art again.

Here’s a young man taking a very unpigeon-like approach to art appreciation:

He’s not looking at the Mona Lisa, perhaps the most famous painting in the world. Instead, he’s having his picture taken in front of it. Clearly he knows he should appreciate it. It’s important to him that his friends and family see him next to that woman and her mysterious smile. It shows he has Good Taste—that he can embrace the subtle genius of Leonardo da Vinci. But does he really? Or is it just that he knows he’s supposed to like it?

If you’re thinking of throwing some art up on the wall, forget about what you’re supposed to like. Don’t think about what it says about you. Instead, channel your inner pigeon. If your frontal lobe takes over and starts chattering about how impressed the neighbors will be, well forget it. Instead, does the image make your mind sing? Do you fall into a mini trance? Then you’re on the right path. Here are a few examples of pieces of art that work for me:

Liza2 by Francois Chartier

Nobscusset Light by Shawn Nelson

What art works for you? Not sure? Well, channel your inner bird brain and you’ll start to find out.