Decorative Arts

Home decorating has kind of a bad rap. Even though it is a very artistic endeavor, one which combines all of the senses to create a work of living beauty, it is still considered inferior when compared with pursuits such as painting or music.

One reason for this may be the basic nature of decorating. Every space has a style, even if that style is just unintentional chaos. However the difference between a well planned and put together environment and a chaotic jumble is enumerable.

Further, decorating is about more than just the outer appearance of a place. It is also about the feeling, the ineffable ambiance of a room, and how that affects the people within it. Different styles of decorating can lead people to act, feel, and behave in different ways, and something as simple as the color of the walls can change the course of a person’s life.

Because of this the decorative arts are actually quite powerful, determining where the scenes in your life take place. Just imagine a movie. The setting determines the action, and it is quite easy to tell in most movies where the bad guy lives, or when two people enter a romantic room. The subtle details of a scene will often set the stage for how interactions will take place.

Another problem with home decorating is that it is transient. All art has the problem of opinion, where some people will think that the work is beautiful while others will disagree. In decorating not only do you have opinion subjecting the decorator to the whims of an individual, but this opinion can change based on where they are standing, how the light is falling on a given day, or even the energy of the people around them.

Just think about the pictures in those magazines. They are all taken from a single angle. Would that beautiful room look quite as good if the photographer had been standing somewhere else?

Further, since decorating is a living art, spaces are constantly changing based on the way people live and interact in a space. Dirt may be tracked in, chaos may ensue, and objects will be moved. All of this makes the decorators efforts a fleeting prize.

However in a way this also makes those efforts all the more beautiful, because they are only temporary. It is like the great sand portraits done by the Buddhist monks, who spend hours delicately arranging every bead in an elaborate tapestry, only to blow it all away into the winds when they are finished. The beauty is in that the art only lasted for a short time, and so had to be enjoyed all the more while it was still there.

Decorating is an art that involves not only visual elements, but also texture, aroma, and even the ineffable feeling of ambiance. As such it is actually quite a complex undertaking. It is also a powerful skill which allows you to control the energy of interactions within a space, coloring the thoughts and perceptions of the people, and how they behave when relating to one another. For these reasons the decorative arts are actually one of the most important and potent disciplines in the creative world.