The art of placing your art

LISTENING to Michelle Isenberg talk about the art in her home is like listening to a parent talk about a beloved child. She welcomes the challenge, because it is filled with possibility. It seemingly can do no wrong.

But a Melanie Pullen photograph that Isenberg purchased this year did go awfully wrong when she brought it home and hung it in her living room. The color in the large-scale crime scene just didn’t work.

“The green killed off everything in the room,” Isenberg says of the space, already filled with works by Charles Fine, Hans Christian-Schink and Roy McMakin. So she moved the Pullen photo to her bedroom. “I thought the green would be too big for the bedroom, but it slipped right in,” she says. “It wasn’t the same at all. Perhaps it was an intuitive thing. It just was meant to be there.”

Art, like home, is filled with personal connections and myriad emotions. It can reflect who we are, what we want to be and how we choose to live. But how do we know that artwork will successfully make the transition from gallery to home? And how can we make sure its treatment at home -- the placement, the lighting, the relationship to other pieces -- is working?

The first step, experts say, is to treat the art as more than decoration. Among its grander purposes is to promote dialogue. With naked pride, Isenberg tells of a recent visit from her grandson, who referred to a Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler piece of found art -- a Tonka truck, filled with fragments of various writings -- as “ ‘Fahrenheit 451’ in three dimension.” She discusses the connection between “The Grapes of Wrath” and a quartet of black-and-white photographs by Horace Bristol in her kitchen. She cites a recent dinner party, when guests discussed the political implications of angry birds depicted in a Laurie Hogan painting over the mantel.

“People will see life differently through the art they own or the art they purchase,” says Isenberg, a professional art advisor for public, private and corporate collections for nearly 20 years.

Interior designer Molly Luetkemeyer, one of Isenberg’s former students in a “Living With Art” class at UCLA Extension, warns clients that art seen in a gallery will not look the same at home.

“It’s more about understanding how the art is going to function in the context of the space,” she says. “I ask my clients how they want their space to feel, not look.”

Craig Krull, who has a photo-based gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, agrees.

“The art acts off the wall, acts off each other,” he says. “Contextual things happen when you put art in a space. Things often have to get moved around because they react to each other inside the space.”

That reality naturally leads to questions about how a piece should be framed, which room it should be placed in, how it should be lighted, even how high it should be hung.

Isenberg likes to move artwork in her home regularly. “Put it anywhere you want and keep changing it, because you will see things differently,” she says.

Adds Luetkemeyer: “Very rarely does something just not work. It just doesn’t work where you put it.”

The ideal spots are often unexpected. “Bathrooms are a great place for art,” says Isenberg, who is not afraid of moisture’s effect on art.

“She is fearless,” Luetkemeyer says with a laugh. She prefers the powder room, which generally has less moisture. “It’s a contained space, away from every other living space,” she says. “You can completely control the lighting, and in a space that small, you can get face to face with the art.”

Height is a different matter entirely. Speak with 10 experts and you may get 10 different formulas for hanging art. Isenberg positions paintings so that the center is 60 inches above the floor. “I go over to friends’ homes and lower their art and straighten it,” she says, smiling.

Krull says it’s hard to apply definitive rules to something as subjective as art. “You can have fun with height,” he says. “It gives things a quirky look.” Variables such as space limitations have to be taken into account, he says, but many galleries allow collectors to take an artwork home “on memo” to see if it works in a particular space.

“When you buy a piece of art, you have to think about framing and lighting it,” says Luetkemeyer, who advises clients to calculate the cost of both before bringing any piece home. She says framers such as Jerry Solomon, Allan Jeffries and Aesthetic Frame and Art in Los Angeles can be good resources for advice about not only framing but also choosing the right spot to display art in the home.

Editions in Isenberg’s dining room are in lamb’s tongue-shaped frames to give the room a more formal feel. Izhar Patkin’s painting “The Gathering,” hanging over her bed, gives the room drama with its black-and-white cutvelvet frame, designed by the artist.

For lighting, Luetkemeyer suggests ceiling cans that can be used for directional lighting.

“Works on paper are very sensitive to light, so you have to study your space and understand how the light works in the room,” she says. If the art is on a stand, light it from below. If you want to hang art in a space that gets a lot of sun, then you have to finds ways of manipulating the light, such as adding drapes.

Debra Padilla, executive director of the nonprofit Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice, fills every wall in her apartment with the brightly colored Chicano and Latino art that she lovingly refers to as “a blanket.” A bold Margaret Garcia painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe is an emotional anchor in her living room. Works by Ester Hernandez, Yolanda Gonzalez and Christina Cardenas -- including a depiction of bloody feet (“that one frightens my mother,” she says) -- share wall space with wooden retablos from Nogales, photographs of family and friends, and a $20 heart-shaped light from IKEA that’s never turned off in remembrance of her father, who died three years ago. A Salomon Huerta print of Frida Kahlo, the last in a series before he began his acclaimed head portraits, hangs in her bedroom. A jacket decorated with poetry and found objects by Ana Castillo hangs on the opposite wall, paying homage to what Padilla calls “the Chicano glamour girls.”

Padilla’s connection to the art is personal. The work, she says, has transformed the home into a sacred space. Some of the pieces are gifts. Others were paid in installments over four years before they came home.

“Art speaks of who you are,” she says. “They’re my greatest asset, and I don’t mean in economic terms. Their value is in their meaning.”

In a corner curio cabinet, Padilla has created what she calls “shelves of remembrance” for people in her life who have died. On one shelf, next to a picture of her father, she has placed his lighter, socks and his last pack of cigarettes.

She sees artwork in the home as an education for her nieces.

“I am really living with my art,” she says. “I am a steward. I’m taking care of them now, before I can give them to someone else.”

Famous names adorn the walls of Isenberg’s home, but some of the artists are quite young. A painting by her granddaughter hangs in a bathroom window, sharing space with the famous Alberto Korda photograph of Che Guevara and a Jenny Holzer plaque. Isenberg’s office is filled with her own art, her father’s teddy bear and works from a Winnipeg-based artist collective, the Royal Art Lodge.

Isenberg’s final words of advice, as she touches the David Ireland “Dumbballs” that make her smile: “Don’t be afraid,” she says. “It’s important to be around something that makes you happy.”

Lisa Boone can be reached at lisa.boone@latimes.com.

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Bare walls? Start here

Before grappling with how to display art at home, you’ll face an equally important question: How do you start a collection? There is no one right answer, but experts do suggest some simple strategies:

Buy what you love: “It really is that simple,” says Michelle Isenberg, an arts advisor for public, private and corporate collections. Adds Santa Monica gallery owner Craig Krull: “I never recommend anyone buy something for investment.” Personal pleasure, he says, should be the driving motivation.

Educate yourself: “Take classes,” says Isenberg. “Get out there and look at lots of art. Start with what you like and move a little outside of that circle, and then try to figure out what it is you don’t like. You’re going to change your mind.” She doesn’t object to buying at events such as the Sawdust Art Festival in Laguna Beach. But expand your horizons. “Art goes beyond simply liking it or disliking it.”

Start small: Isenberg suggests editions as an affordable way to start collecting good art. Check out art fairs, Parkett magazine and auctions by new groups such as LAX Art. Another tip: Buy directly from artists.

Think beyond decor: “You don’t buy art because you want it to match something,” interior designer Molly Luetkemeyer says. “You buy it because you like the subject matter, the style, the palette or because it challenges you.” Some people may never understand or appreciate a piece in your home, and that’s OK.

Make it meaningful: “I tell my students, ‘I’m going to be taking you to see really good artists, and what I want you to do is think nothing. I want you to just look,’ ” Isenberg says. “They’re not going to like 98% of what they see at first. I won’t let them say, ‘My kid can do that,’ and believe me, they will say it. I won’t let them talk to each other. I want them to really feel what makes them uncomfortable and get past it and understand where the artist is coming from. They don’t have to like it, they don’t have to buy it, but they need to see it.”

-- Lisa Boone