Pandemic Projects PLUS Corona Cleaning - Art!

So this was supposed to be the weekend of art hanging (more on that below). 

But yesterday was just too nice and so we worked outside. Today Beatrix and I started it by heading to a clothing exchange (Yay! Our first one in soooo long!), and then picking up some rhubarb to plant (after carefully cleaning the roots in case of jumping worms), so we got a little bit of a late start. 

And then our first project was actually hanging  couple of pieces in the kitchen, which led to cleaning off a high shelf on the window that we were not using for the original intent of herbs at all (too high up and they would just die), so we replaced them with growlers, and by changing the batteries on the clock. So it was well into afternoon by the time we got to the real art hanging. But doesn't the kitchen look nice?

Plus a couple of other small pieces hung on the walls there:

We also hung a piece in the library that the Easter bunny brought Patrick (along with a beer caddy for bringing beer over to socially-distanced gatherings).

But why the focus on hanging art? What does that do?

You see, a lot of our basement was taken up by art that needed to be dealt with. There were lots of pieces that we loved but did not have the right place for, or had always envisioned in our hallway once we redid it (this picture is actually AFTER sorting it...)

There were also tons of pieces in boxes that needed to be framed, and an equally large amount of frames that I had collected for the frame but that had crappy art in them (think cheap prints from Target, etc.). So any art project incurs a lot of finding frames that might fit the art — and vice versa — then taking apart the frame (always rife with issues, a lot of glass was broken today), and cleaning it, and reframing it, and...well, you get the picture. Patrick spent a lot of time with an x-acto knife recutting mats today. And everything was filthy and needed to be cleaned. And there's still a lot left to do:

(It's not all going to get used — can you see remnants like a lovely 1980s wood frame? Trying to match pictures to frames is an INCREDIBLE amount of work. But otherwise frame are soooo expensive...)

So here's the hallway before we hung anything:

And here's after:

We have a lot more to hang, so I will put up pictures when we do!