Ep 101 Original Art: Not Only Transforms Your Space It Builds Confidence and Self-Trust

This episode will inspire you to make choices that feel alive and deeply personal.In this week’s episode of The ARTwork of YOU, Lori Gouhin explores the surprising and powerful role original art plays in shaping not only our spaces but also our sense of self. In a world driven by algorithms, mass-produced prints, and safe choices, Lori invites you to consider how choosing original art becomes an act of rebellion, courage, and self-trust.

Through personal stories, reflections as an artist, and the lived experiences of collectors, Lori reveals why one striking original piece can transform not only a room but also the way you see yourself. More than decoration, original art carries the human imprint of risk, intuition, and courage and choosing it for your home strengthens those same qualities within you.

This episode is an invitation to pause and reflect: Are you decorating to fit in, or curating to grow?

Episode Highlights

• Why algorithm-approved décor and mass-produced prints flatten our spaces and our creativity
• How choosing original art even on a small scale becomes a bold act of self-trust
• The difference between art that carries lived experience and prints designed to disappear into the background
• Why a modest home with one courageous painting can feel more alive than a showroom full of expensive furniture
• How starting with a single original piece strengthens your confidence and ripples into other areas of life

Questions to ask yourself: Are you decorating to fit in, or curating to grow?

Original art isn’t just about style it’s about courage, presence, and creating spaces that reflect the real you. Whether you’re an artist, a collector, or someone curious about transforming your home.

Thank you for sharing your time with me and remember to show up in your life like the masterpiece you are because YOU are the ARTwork!!!

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Transcript

Lori Gouhin: [00:00:00] Hello my friends. I am so glad that you are here with me today because today I wanna talk about original art, and I know we've done that before, but today I wanna talk about, I guess you could say the surprising way. That original art can help you trust yourself more. And so obviously we live in a world that thrives on predictability.

algorithms study what we click, what we pin, what we double tap, what we pause on, and then it feeds us more of [00:01:00] the same. Stores, they mass produce art prints designed to go with everything and AI can now generate wall decor and seconds that's engineered to please as many people as possible. And at first, that might feel convenient because you can fill a room really quickly with things that look on trend, but what you might not realize or even think about.

Is that there's a hidden cost, at least from my perspective, and that is, is that you stop exercising your own eye for things, and when your surroundings are chosen by trends or an algorithm, you end up with spaces that feel maybe safe, but strangely uninteresting, I would say, and I see it all the time, and maybe you do too, right?

You walk into a room with beautiful, expensive furniture. Then the walls are either covered with generic prints or maybe even nothing at all, and everything technically matches. But I would [00:02:00] say the space feels maybe a bit lifeless. And then you can step into another home where the furniture is fine, maybe even modest, but there's one striking original painting on the wall, and that pulls the whole room up.

It changes the feeling instantly. Because the home not only has style, but in my opinion, more importantly, it has soul and the art elevates everything around it. And that difference isn't just visual, it's psychological. 

One space is safe and predictable, and the other says something more like Someone here trusted their own taste enough to choose something original. And I think about this a lot because my husband works in new home sales, and I have been throughout the years in countless model homes, and they're stunning.

Don't get me wrong. They're beautifully staged and every trend is accounted for, but they always feel, I don't know, just a little sterile, like a [00:03:00] showroom. And that's fine because model homes are meant to appeal to everyone, but your home isn't supposed to look like a showroom or everyone else's. It's supposed to feel alive and personal and original art is a perfect way to accomplish that.

In other words, a personal choice that says, I don't need an algorithm to decide what belongs in my world. And when you bring an original piece, whether that's a painting, a sculpture, original pottery, anything you're saying, I trust my own response to this art.

It hasn't been. I would say pre-validated, right by millions of likes. There's no algorithm that decided it, quote unquote, fits your style and there's no star rating telling you that you're making the right call and you're stepping out of the safety of the consensus you're responding to your own taste.

 I would say it's even a bit rebellious because it's [00:04:00] almost like you're refusing to let culture make you predictable. And it's one of the few purchases of modern life where you can't outsource that decision. In other words, you can't like scan a barcode or check the reviews to see what everyone else thinks.

You either feel it or you don't. And as an artist, I know this feeling from the other side. Because every original work is a risk. It's hours of experimenting, scraping back the paint, starting over, listening to intuition, and there's no guarantee it will sell or there's no assurance that it will be liked by anyone.

It's a physical object that shows that I trusted my process enough to let this exist. And here's the interesting loop when you choose to live with that object. For example, if you are buying one of my original pieces or any other artist's original pieces, you are absorbing the same energy. It was made with [00:05:00] risk, experimentation, individuality.

That's why a room with modest or subpar furniture can be instantly elevated by one bold original piece of art. The art shows courage. It's also why a space full of gorgeous, expensive furniture can feel flat if the walls are empty or filled with masked produced prints. The safe choice demonstrates conformity.

And not to be dramatic, but I would say living with original work keeps you connected to risk in a healthy way. Because it says, I know what I love. I don't need permission to display it. That's a very different message than letting a big box store or an algorithm tell you what's acceptable. And one of the reasons original art feels different, even if you can't explain why, is because you're standing in front of something that carries a human imprint.

Every brushstroke or layer, every decision came from a real person [00:06:00] navigating doubt, making choices, sometimes starting over. There's trial and error that's buried in the surface of the work. There's a lived moment of, I'm not sure this is going to work, but I'm going to keep going.

Believe me, I deal with it every day and mass produced prints, they don't hold any of that. They're flat, both literally and energetically. They're designed to be inoffensive and broadly appealing, which in my mind is another way of saying forgettable. They're made to disappear into the background and in a time where AI can spit out hundreds or thousands of images within seconds, I think this difference matters even more.

We're surrounded by content that's optimized for engagement, but has no lived experience behind it. An original art, whether it's mine or another artist, it refuses that flattening. In other words, it says, A human did this with their hands, with their [00:07:00] heart, with their courage, and they took the risk. And when you choose to hang that on your wall or place it on a shelf or a table or anywhere in your home, you're making a statement.

Not just about style, but about what you value in the world. And you're saying you want to be reminded of depth and struggle and creativity every time you walk by that piece. And again, that's why a single painting can shift an entire room. And as I've said many times before, it's not about matching the sofa, and I literally just had a collector, a repeat collector actually tell me that she just bought a sofa to match the painting that she purchased from me several months ago.

And so it's more about presence. Original art stands out in the best possible way, and when you live with it day after day, again, not to be dramatic, but it kind of shapes you, it keeps you connected to the fact that humans, including you, can [00:08:00] create something real and lasting in a world that's rushing, I would say, towards convenience and sameness all the time.

And the beautiful thing about this is that it doesn't have to be over the top or expensive. You don't need to rip everything off your walls and start collecting museum pieces or anything like that. You can begin with one small purchase. Maybe it's a tiny original painting from a local gallery or an artist selling their work online or at a local art fair.

There's incredible work out there, and it's often at the same price you would pay for a mass produced canvas print. Especially when you're buying from emerging artists or at local shows, and that single decision to purchase original work matters because it's a vote for individuality. And again, it's saying I trust my own taste enough to invest even just a little in something that resonates with me.

Once you do it, it does get easier. And the next time you're [00:09:00] decorating, you might pause before buying the safe algorithm approved print, and you will remember the feeling of standing behind your own choice, and you'll do it again. And each time you strengthen that muscle, it shows up in other parts of your life, like your work and your creative risks, and in the goals that you're going after.

Again, I'll repeat it. That's why a single small painting can change more than a corner of your room. It can start shifting how you see yourself from someone who follows what's popular to someone who can lead with their own eye and their own voice. Remember what we talked about earlier. Even the most beautiful furniture cannot make a space feel alive if the art is generic or missing.

But that one bold, original, even a modest budget friendly one can pull an entire room and your own confidence level up. And so before we finish, I wanna ask you a few things, and not to criticize what you have in your home currently, but just to invite curiosity. [00:10:00] When you look around your home or your workspace.

Which pieces feel truly you and which did you most likely choose? Because they were either easy, safe, or just everywhere out there. And if you genuinely love your space as it is, that's great, but there could still be room to explore. Ask what might shift if you took a small step and brought one original piece home, something chosen only because it either moved you or resonated with you in some way.

And also ask yourself, where else in life have you been sticking with? What's safe or widely approved? And what would it feel like to experiment just a little with trusting your own taste.

Again, you certainly don't have to overhaul everything. This is about stretching comfort zones, trying one choice that isn't mass produced or algorithm approved, and noticing how that decision changes the way that you see yourself. Because in my [00:11:00] opinion and from my experience, original art isn't just decoration. It is a way to remind yourself about the importance of living with originality.

So just notice the next time you feel the urge to make a safe. I need to fill up the wall trip, maybe go to Home Goods, target, or some other big box store instead, consider setting the same budget that you were already going to spend and heading somewhere different. Maybe a local gallery or a market with handcrafted work, or a pop-up show or an artist.

Run shop, anywhere like that and go in with no expectation of what you'll find. Only trust. Trust that you'll either know it or feel it when you see it. And don't rush through. Walk slowly. Pick things up. Talk to the artist if they're there, or to the shop owner, and notice what pulls you in before you even know why.

And by pulls you in, I mean to the work, not to the store. That's the moment when you're reclaiming your own taste. [00:12:00] And by all means, again, start small if you want. when you show yourself that you can choose for your own reasons, you start to unlock that same courage in other areas of your life. I swear you do so this week.

Get honest with yourself. Look at your walls and ask, are you decorating to fit in or you curating to grow? Because maybe it's time to little, little courage, and most importantly, a lot more of you live in your space.