The Living Room Collection
The Manifesto
"Much of the world's significant art does not hang in museums. It's living quietly in someone's home, waiting to be publicly unveiled."
That idea stayed with me. Years ago, I listened to Terry Gross interviewing a museum curator who spoke about a reality few people consider: many museums simply cannot compete with private collectors for significant works of art. While museums preserve our cultural heritage, countless important works spend their lives in private collections, seen only by a handful of people. Whether those were the curator's exact words or simply the impression they left on me, the idea never disappeared. It made me look differently at collecting.
Museums preserve history. Artists create it. Collectors recognize it.
A living room is more than a place where art hangs on a wall. It is a place where life unfolds. It's where conversations happen, where books are read, music is heard, families gather, and ideas intimately become part of everyday life. When art lives there, it is no longer something we visit; it becomes something we live with. The Living Room Collection was born from that concept.
A museum asks us to visit art. The living room asks art to live with us.
Over the past thirty years, I found myself drawn to artists who challenged convention, crossed disciplines, and changed the creative landscape in ways that reached far beyond their chosen medium. I didn't always understand why I was drawn to them. I simply trusted insightful advice and intuition that their work had relevance. A meaningful collection is rarely the story of what we own—it is the testimonial of what we recognized before the world understood why it mattered.
Engaging collections are not built on certainty—they are inspirited by curiosity.
At the center of this collection stand two grandfathers of influence: William S. Burroughs: The literary and visual titan who broke open narrative boundaries and inspired surrealists, subversives, visionaries, and visual storytellers like Camille Rose Garcia.Chaz Bojórquez: The West Coast patriarch of street art and graffiti who bridged ancient calligraphic discipline with barrio culture, codifying a localized typographic lexicon that catalyzed the work of next-generation visionary writers like Mear One and David Choe.
Through the years, these artists have weathered every shift of time and market. Their persistent presence has been instrumental in shaping modern art and permanently embedding their vision into our culture. Ultimately, their indelible legacy rests in the work they produced, yet also in their lifelong devotion to art itself. I now realize I had not been collecting objects. I had been collecting raw commitment, beauty, and vision.
"Influence begins with defiance and risk; consensus only follows."
This collection is an invitation—not simply to view works of art, but to explore the ideas behind them and the conversations they continue to encourage. Every portrait is a beginning, not a conclusion. Every work is part of a story much larger than itself. If, along the way, any of these works finds its next steward, then the collection has fulfilled an integral part of its purpose. Art outlives its collectors. Its legacy relies on those who choose to preserve it.
Acquiring art extends beyond owning a canvas or print. It is a doorway into a larger cultural lineage, an opportunity to enrich our world, and visually connect with ideas that spark lifelong conversations. Beyond filling a wall, the right piece elevates our lives, enhances the character of the space we inhabit, and deepens how we engage with culture.
A collection begins with art. Its immortality is inherent in the consciousness that created it.
That idea stayed with me. Years ago, I listened to Terry Gross interviewing a museum curator who spoke about a reality few people consider: many museums simply cannot compete with private collectors for significant works of art. While museums preserve our cultural heritage, countless important works spend their lives in private collections, seen only by a handful of people. Whether those were the curator's exact words or simply the impression they left on me, the idea never disappeared. It made me look differently at collecting.
Museums preserve history. Artists create it. Collectors recognize it.
A living room is more than a place where art hangs on a wall. It is a place where life unfolds. It's where conversations happen, where books are read, music is heard, families gather, and ideas intimately become part of everyday life. When art lives there, it is no longer something we visit; it becomes something we live with. The Living Room Collection was born from that concept.
A museum asks us to visit art. The living room asks art to live with us.
Over the past thirty years, I found myself drawn to artists who challenged convention, crossed disciplines, and changed the creative landscape in ways that reached far beyond their chosen medium. I didn't always understand why I was drawn to them. I simply trusted insightful advice and intuition that their work had relevance. A meaningful collection is rarely the story of what we own—it is the testimonial of what we recognized before the world understood why it mattered.
Engaging collections are not built on certainty—they are inspirited by curiosity.
At the center of this collection stand two grandfathers of influence: William S. Burroughs: The literary and visual titan who broke open narrative boundaries and inspired surrealists, subversives, visionaries, and visual storytellers like Camille Rose Garcia.Chaz Bojórquez: The West Coast patriarch of street art and graffiti who bridged ancient calligraphic discipline with barrio culture, codifying a localized typographic lexicon that catalyzed the work of next-generation visionary writers like Mear One and David Choe.
Through the years, these artists have weathered every shift of time and market. Their persistent presence has been instrumental in shaping modern art and permanently embedding their vision into our culture. Ultimately, their indelible legacy rests in the work they produced, yet also in their lifelong devotion to art itself. I now realize I had not been collecting objects. I had been collecting raw commitment, beauty, and vision.
"Influence begins with defiance and risk; consensus only follows."
This collection is an invitation—not simply to view works of art, but to explore the ideas behind them and the conversations they continue to encourage. Every portrait is a beginning, not a conclusion. Every work is part of a story much larger than itself. If, along the way, any of these works finds its next steward, then the collection has fulfilled an integral part of its purpose. Art outlives its collectors. Its legacy relies on those who choose to preserve it.
Acquiring art extends beyond owning a canvas or print. It is a doorway into a larger cultural lineage, an opportunity to enrich our world, and visually connect with ideas that spark lifelong conversations. Beyond filling a wall, the right piece elevates our lives, enhances the character of the space we inhabit, and deepens how we engage with culture.
A collection begins with art. Its immortality is inherent in the consciousness that created it.