Weddingbee Blog

Mr. Dolphin and I are big on art. Not the fancy-schmancy art gallery stuff (although we would LOVE to own something from one of those types of galleries), but instead, local art. I have two requirements on every trip we take:

1. We purchase an ornament for our Christmas tree from the place we visit
2. We purchase local art from the place we visit

From the beginning of our relationship, Mr. Dolphin and I have wanted the walls of our home to be filled with pictures and art from our travels. No Target/Pottery Barn/Pier 1 mass-production art allowed here.

We aren’t big spenders. We have a tight budget for art, and our honeymoon was no different. I believe you can find amazing art, on the cheap, while vacationing. If you look around, you can find amazing pieces for great prices.

While in Maui, Mr. Dolphin and I were always on the lookout for something great to bring home. We even made special shopping trips to look for a great art piece to bring home. While in Maui I fell in LOVE with these sets of  old school 1940s-1950s postcards advertising vacations (through Pan-Am) to Hawaii. They were beautiful. Mr. Dolphin and I decided we would buy a few to frame and hang in our kitchen. At $1.00 a pop, I was sold!

$1.00 per postcard, and $2.99 Ribba Frames from IKEA

Total for post card art - $11.97

I wasn’t content on having just postcards from our honeymoon as our honeymoon art, since they were neither handmade nor one-of-a-kind. I was on the search for something more. After eating at a great fish restaurant in Paia, Maui, we came across a little art gallery. There we found art by Kalani DeWitt Lickle (say that 10 times fast). He is the owner of the fish restaurant we had just ate at. Every day he goes out and fishes, brings his catches into his art studio and makes ink prints of them, then turns the fish into yummy fish sandwiches at his restaurant. We loved the idea of having something handmade by a Maui local, so we checked out some of his pieces.

Kalani Dewitt Lickle working his magic. The style of printing is called Gyotaku, and it originated hundreds of years ago-before the “camera age” as a method to scientifically record the size and unique characteristics of the endless array of species of the “wet world.”

source: Gyotaku Maui

I fell in love with all his prints, especially this one:

I’m still kicking myself for not buying it, but Mr. Dolphin wanted the octopus print more and I felt two of these types of prints was just too much for our little condo.

source: Gyotaku Maui

Kelani’s octopus prints are actually made with the ink of the octopus. He has many pictures on his website of him laying out the octopus (I’ll save you the grossness/scary-ness) and pressing them into the paper. He then comes back and enhances the print.

source: Gyotaku Maui

And here’s our print, framed, in all its glory! The total for this piece was $175, and $113 for framing (Harmon’s). We’re still working on getting to that bathroom makeover, but until then, we might as well enjoy our honeymoon art!

Grand Total - $288

A little expensive for our cheap as*es but we felt it was worth the $$$. I mean, when will we be in Maui again? And on our honeymoon?

When we got home I was eager to show everyone our little piece of Maui. We were met with a lot of “oohs,” and “that’s interesting-s,” and “that’s different-s.”   I could tell no one liked it. But, WE DON’T CARE. There was something about that day, that location, that time when we bought it that we will always remember. We were on our honeymoon, newly married, head over heels for each other (and still are) and in the most beautiful place we had ever been.

I love how when we purchased the print at the art gallery in Paia, Maui, the saleslady asked me where we were going to hang it. I immediately responded, “the bathroom.” You should have seen the look of pure horror on her face. She didn’t understand why we would hang it in our bathroom. I explained that we were doing a little makeover of our 1/2 bathroom for our guests and this would be replacing some ugly Albertson’s print (yes, Albertson’s sells framed prints of random stuff…don’t ask me why we have it).

So there you have it, honeymoon art on the cheap and the not-so-cheap-but-still-cheap. Here are a few of our other favorite pieces around our house from our travels, and our friends’ travels! (Man do I have fabulous friends who bring me back art from different countries!)

A gift from Sunny MOH when she was studying abroad in Peru.

A beautiful piece of art, brought back for me from Gator Bridesmaid when she was studying abroad in Italy. Love her!

A Moonlight Bay print purchased on our trip to Newfoundland, Canada. Also, my Marfa Postcard I purchased while on a school trip to Marfa, Texas (home of the Prada installation). I sure love myself some vintage-looking postcards! Please ignore the terrible paint job. I chose the color but someone else painted it… terribly.

When we went to Newfoundland, there were puffins EVERYWHERE. I always thought they were the cutest little birds. So, of course I had to have a print of them to remember our trip.

Do you plan to purchase art on your honeymoon? If you’ve already honeymooned with your honey, did you pick up any decor for your casa?