Bathroom Art
Yes, we decorate our bathroom with art. I am referring to our downstairs bathroom, which is used frequently by everyone who lives here and everyone who visits here. The bathroom is a tiny room with a sink and a toilet. There is a window for streaming light and a blank wall for hanging art. The whole room is about 6 x 7 feet. I love that our bathrooms are all small. Small means cozy. Small means less to clean. Small means spare and functional, but it can also mean joyful and comforting.
We added a gallery rail to the open wall and hung a few of my photographs (still life scenes of a front porch and some cut figs) and a few thrifted oil paintings as well. I love to use vintage photos for decorating, too. I recalled an interesting one from the collection of childhood pictures I have squirreled away—one that might fit in color and theme.
This is a photograph of me in March 1961, sitting on the toilet, in what is clearly an attempt at potty-training. In this picture, I would have been only 11 months old, very early for potty training by today’s recommendations. I am holding a huge wad of toilet paper and looking bewildered. On the floor, I see something that at first, I thought was a hotdog, but on closer inspection, I think it’s the tube that holds the toilet paper roll in the holder. As any one-year old would tell you if they could, pulling all of the toilet paper off the roll is incredibly fun.
My original photo is about 3.5 inches square. Not particularly well composed. Faded to magenta over time. I scanned the picture at a high resolution and set about trying to restore the picture in small ways (not wanting to take away the subtle vintage aspects but still wanting to clear away dust and scratches, maybe tone down the purple cast, and sharpen the image a bit). I gave it my best shot, aiming to warm the magenta tones so the photo would better coordinate with the existing art on the wall. The results were pretty good. Then on a whim, I researched Photoshop’s latest features and found, under Neutral Filters, a Photo Restoration filter. And just like that—a remarkable improvement, though maybe a little too improved for my taste. I’m still playing around with the picture to get the look I want, but mostly I’m just delighted that my parents had a camera and used it so much during the first year or so my life.