I recently chatted with Simply Framed about this original painting I had them frame for my daughter. Here’s the full interview.

Like so many people during the pandemic, we moved. We chose a town in the orbit of NYC but with its own infrastructure and liveliness plus easy nature access. Friends who moved here called one day to say that a space opened up next door to them. We made the leap and took it site unseen (after taking a virtual tour). We had never even visited the town. It felt crazy but also exciting. It was a bizarre experience to move this way and furthered my desire to get rid of things and pair down to the essentials. I know very well that there’d never be a space that I considered perfect and that when moving into a rental you can make a big list of priorities and concessions and balance them the best you can. Our new space has lovely old bones but was in great renovated shape. I usually prioritize painting the walls but they had just been painted a neutral color. I knew in moving this way I’d need to let go of perfectionism and control and lean in to what I could control which would be to make the space comfortable, nice looking and functional as a space for us all to work and go to virtual school. 

I’m pretty decisive when it comes to figuring out where furniture will go. The movers broke a lot of our stuff, A. LOT. It was upsetting but with what’s happening in the world I just knew that it was not worth crying over. I decided to focus on what I can control instead. As a renter, art on the walls is something personal and manageable. While I’m decisive and confident in many of my choices, hanging art felt kind of big this time around. We had lived in our Brooklyn apartment for over 6 years. I hadn’t changed the art in at least that long. I knew that in this new home I wanted art that felt meaningful to us and not just nice looking. I am also kind of compulsive about unpacking and getting set up immediately so as soon as we started the moving process my brain started running 1000 miles per hour about where the art would go and what it would be. After settling in I realized that making wall art decisions wasn’t going to happen over night. I took a deep breath and thought it through. There were a few choices that were immediate and the rest would fall into place after we’d lived in the space for a little while. I do most of the framing myself but with such a big move and so much on my plate with work and remote school and setting up the space I decided to allow the gift of getting a piece framed by Simply Framed. It literally felt like such a gift to not do it myself. 

I promised to my daughter a custom rainbow when we told her we were moving. I said I’d paint her rainbow in the palette of her choosing for her new room. She was the catalyst for me to start Maison Rainbow so I thought this would make her happy and excited. She agreed to let me paint a squiggly rainbow rather than a traditional arch but insisted on a specific color palette. I painted a number of versions on really gorgeous French watercolor paper and she selected her favorite. Simply Framed sent a roll mailer and I put the painting in and voila, a floated and framed rainbow painting came back to us, ready to hang.