I’m not sure exactly when I started collecting art. Maybe it’s because the internet has helped make art accessible and affordable; providing the means for artists to offer their wares easily. Or to discover craft fairs at the click of a mouse. Whatever the reason, we have a lot of it in our home. None of it is high dollar art. It’s all pieces we’ve collected because we enjoyed them. A variety of things.

I do tend to have a soft spot for microart. It’s like art, but small. Why do I enjoy it so? Not a clue. Small things are cute, as a rule. Possibly by a similar token they are also charming to me. In some of the art I’ve made and collected there is a fair amount of satire and cheekiness. Maybe it plays on the part of my brain that’s tickled by that.

In the following photos I’ve taken, I included a Canadian dime for scale.

The tiny landscapes above were my first foray into microart. The hangers on the back are bent pop tabs. When I came across them at an art show in Houston, I ran to an ATM to get change. They were two for $12 if my memory serves me.

This sketch was a gift from my friend Stephanie. It is flanked by two tiny candlesticks made at the machine shop at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI. They change out the machine every couple of year so people can get differently shaped tiny candleholders. One night my husband and I had a fancy date dinner at home and set the table with our tiny candlesticks. We’re dumb.

This is actually a cube that houses a little curated collection of things. It’s such a weird, quirky selection. The book is an old print of the “Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam” I ended up with, likely the only antique we own. The chicken and the egg used to sit next to that hare and a ceramic tortoise (a small nod to animal based quandaries) but he’s on temporary leave hanging out in my terrarium.

Oooh. Here’s the terrarium. Props to Real Simple Magazine for the tutorial. No dime here, but the terrarium is small.

This final picture is of a tiny painting I got from an Art-O-Mat and a photo. Art-O-Mats are all over the country. You pay $5 to a cigarette-turned-art vending machine. You get art. The photo has a slightly different origin. It was in our house when we moved in. Just laying on the mantle. Our house only had one owner, so I have to assume that he is the shadow in the photo and that’s his dog. It was so peculiar… I felt it needed to be apart of my little collection.

Go out and enjoy some art. Better yet, get some art. Better yet, make some art.