Feng Shui And The Art On Your Walls 

By Mary Swick

Feng Shui, the study of how space and environment affect the people within, provides a key to understanding the relationship between our homes and lives. Thanks to Feng Shui we can grasp the logical connection between a cluttered house and a cluttered mind.

Mathematically, Feng Shui creates the equation, x = y, where "x" is ourselves and "y" is our homes. When we care about our homes, we care about ourselves. Vice versa, when we neglect our homes, we neglect issues in our lives. With this new-age application of math, we can no longer blame chaos or clutter on an inability to decorate or coordinate furniture and accessories. Our homes are primarily a manifestation of our ideas and belief systems. Uncannily, our homes express who we are and where we are going in life. I continually remind, "Your decorating taste is more a reflection of your psyche than it is your ability to coordinate furniture and accessories. 

In a Feng Shui consultation, focus is commonly placed on the landscape, floor plan, furniture placement, and elemental balance of the home. One other area of particular insight is wall decor. That, which is being hung on the walls, gives great insight into what a client values. Similar to a billboard on the highway, the height and focus of wall decor indicates "what you are trying to sell yourself." For that reason, choose wisely.

The walls of your home can be compared to the supersized screens at movie theaters, where the people and action penetrate and permeate the psyche. Needless to say, we want our walls to radiate with positive messages. Give your wall decor this litmus test to see what messages you are sending yourself.

DO YOU LOVE THE ART ON YOUR WALLS?

If not why are you asking for more? Remember, what you hang on your walls is what you are asking for more of. By hanging "half-hearted" art, you are projecting a message of compromise.

It truly would be better to have a bare wall than to tolerate or honor something for which you are lacking emotion. If this still doesn't make sense, answer this question. Would you rather stay home or go out for dinner with people that you don't like? Symbolically, a bare wall can be liberating, allowing you the time and space to follow your bliss!

WHAT IS THE HIGHEST PIECE OF ART ON YOUR WALLS?

The higher something is hung, the more honor you are giving it. For example, Jean had an oversized canvas of advertising art, featuring a caricature of the Devil, hanging in the stairwell of her home. Due to the two-story wall, it was clearly the highest piece of art in her home.

Jean candidly admitted, she was the target of an underhanded lawsuit, involving intense peer pressure with a twist of seduction. That very afternoon, she borrowed a ladder from her neighbor and removed the Devil from its high and honored perch. One week later, the lawsuit was dropped.

WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF YOUR ART?

From a Feng Shui perspective the message of the art is primary. The color palette and subject matter is always secondary to the message. Removing toxic messages from your walls is an effective cure for enhancing harmony and prosperity in your home and life. None of us feel good looking at graffiti on block walls, yet we may be tolerating negative messages on the walls of our home. Toxic messages in the form of crude language, negative images or toxic art all promote unrest and dissatisfaction. With a little practice you can learn to look at art with an "energetic eye."

All of a sudden, you can feel the sadness of a "Titanic" poster-sense the personal torment featured in "Picasso and the Weeping Woman-ache from the old Dutch masterpiece of the woman scrubbing clothes-feel the sadness of a women sitting on a wall looking out to sea.

With this new eye, you will remove messages of loneliness, decay bleakness, depression, lack or conflict.

HOW DID YOU ACQUIRE THE ART?

Did you buy it, receive it as a gift or did you acquire it under questionable circumstances?

Bob had a wall-sized mirror dominating his living room. Sheepishly, he admitted that it had been taken without payment, from a local business undergoing renovation.

By hanging this mirror, he was attracting self-deception and incomplete transactions. Interestingly, lack of money had become a significant issue in his life.

Sarah was proud the landscape hanging over her fireplace was her ex-husbands favorite piece of art. In the divorce settlement, she fought for it out of spite. Besides projecting an image of a beautiful lake, this art was jutting out with a mixed message of love and punishment.

If you gained a few bare walls in the process of this test, congratulations! You are on your way to a better life, compliments of Feng Shui. Watch for new and exciting developments coming soon! §

Mary Swick is available for home and business consultations & offers on-going Feng Shui workshops. The next workshop will be "Home-from the Heart" a joint presentation by Mary Swick, The Feng Shui Lady and Elizabeth Reaves, Healing Soul-utions September 14 in the Green Valley area. Contact her at 702-451-3855 or www. thefengshuilay.com