There’s something incredibly satisfying about taking your own work, having it printed onto canvas and hanging it on a wall in your home.
It isn’t really an ego thing (although if you’re planning to scatter 15 huge, semi-naked pictures of yourself throughout your home, you’ll probably admit that there might be just a smidge of that in it).
It isn’t even, really, about pride, in the seven deadly sins sense of the word. You aren’t, after all, exhibiting yourself or your work.
It’s more to do with ownership. It’s your image. You created it. You choose it. It matches your decor. It represents something intensely personal to you. And, perhaps, no less importantly, it just looks fabulous.
And, that’s why, we don’t understand why someone would go to Habitat or some other random chain store to buy exactly the same canvas that 250,000 other people already have in their homes. That’s not something to aspire to. It’s a homogenous, parody of style. It’s dull. It’s insipid. It’s the absolute antithesis of creativity, passion, self-expression and every other worthwhile thing that Art is supposed to stand for…
(takes deep breath and relaxes)
Talking about this stuff in terms of Art (with a capital A) might seem uncomfortably grandiouse[1]; but it is justifiable.
If a reasonable working definition of what Art is, is that it is anything which exists to enrich our lives: then you’d be hard pressed to find something which fulfils this definition better than a canvas print.
Canvas brings with it connotations of traditional Fine Art and somehow this intrinsically elavates the status of any image presented on it.
Canvas is also a warm, natural medium, whose fine texture is sympathetic to both the images on it and its surroundings.
A canvas is also capable of transforming a room, in a way that framed prints struggle to match. This is more to do with the way that a well hung canvas (no sniggering at the back) feels integral to a room; rather than just something in it. This is probably something to do with way glass in a traditional frame reflects light back into the room, distancing the viewer from the image underneath it; whereas a canvas does not. Whatever the science, the affect is apparent and you can see it for yourself.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer a less academically, self-indulgent argument:
"Happy!" by Vanessa Kay. © Some rights reserved. Used under Creative Commons BY licence.
A canvas will make you smile, everytime you look at it.