Home, Home on the Range

Think about your experience when you visit friends’ homes. The experiences are different. Sometimes just stepping through the front door we can get a sense of the family’s lifestyle – their idiosyncrasies. That feeling – that ambiance – is culture. How they greet. Cocktails or beer? Formal or not? Culture is the combination of our habits, pace, what interests us, our music. Even what we choose to display – like that island photo of the family 6 years ago or our Mad Magazine collection. Totally different stories, right?

Try This: Try to find three words that capture what is unique about each of your friend’s environments. Okay, four words for each.

We can reverse the exercise by imagining how those same friends might describe what it is like to visit you.

Try This: Try to find three words that capture what you think your friends would use to describe what it is like to visit you.

Our home is our haven. It is the one place where we can relax and be off our guard. And given that importance, we should make sure that the environment feeds us – reinforces us. What images make us smile? Some colors or patterns actually make us feel better. That first edition book can remind us of those bookshop tours …

Try This: Find a place in your routine or living space for three special items. Enjoy explaining their significance.

Art in Real Life is the place where we can explore the options we all have for framing our personal worlds in the midst of our bigger worlds. There’s much fun to be had.