Tiny Art: Mary Witt's Collection
I am continuing the series on tiny art collections today! If you missed the last ones, check them out here:
Tiny Art: How To Collect Art on a Small Budget
Tiny Art: Linda Robertson's Collection
Tiny Art: The Quinn's Collection
Mary Witt is an artist and musician living and working in Western Massachusetts. I had the pleasure of teaching Mary various encaustic classes when I lived there and Mary became one of the first people to collect my work. Mary’s home is a delight of artistic sensibility. Her living room doubles as a rehearsal space for her band, the O-Tones, and there is art hanging everywhere.
Mary’s parents were avid art collectors, buying art throughout their life even when they already owned plenty. Mary told me that for them, it was just the obvious way to support the arts in general. This, of course, got ingrained in Mary and she has continued the tradition of regularly collecting art.
Mary started collecting tiny art several years back when her mom began a collection. Buying tiny work allows her to have bits and pieces of work by many artists, especially the ones whose bigger work is out of her price range. A family of tiny art hangs on her office wall where she can see it as she works. Mary arranges them organically but also aims to intersperse the colorful and monochromatic to balance the arrangement.
Each of her pieces has a story attached to it. There is a piece that acted as a birthday card from a friend one year. There is a photograph that a friend gifted her. Then there are pieces she collected intentionally. She has a couple collage pieces by Lilly Pereira and a few from her mentor Claudia Sperry. Among the collection are two that she collected from me. The one that hangs in her office is an abstraction resembling a pod and roads.
Her advice for starting an art collection?
Trust your instincts. People should just not second guess themselves. If they like something, they should just get it. Don’t be too concerned with matching; put things together that speak to you and it will work. Get what you love and support people doing what they love.
Further Exploring:
If you like swing, motown, jazz, or R&B, be sure to check out The O-Tones' music.
If you live in the Northeast, be sure to catch a show sometime!
