The downtown home of Andrew Eastman and Anthony Nelson is clearly a space inhabited by two people who live and breathe art. 

Nelson, who is a visual artist, inspired Eastman to get into the art world and co-create Synonym Art Consultation, which has been putting on art shows and cultural programming around the city since 2013. 

“I felt so passionately about Anthony’s work,” Eastman says. “I wanted to represent him and help him get his foot in the door in the art community. I partnered up with (Synonym co-founder) Chloe Chafe, who was throwing these underground art shows, and we really hit it off.” 

The couple take a “found object” approach to decorating their spacious apartment, in addition to the artwork and photography lining the walls. 

“We’re like treasure hunters,” Nelson says. “We mostly like going to Value Village or going through the dumpsters and finding the best stuff.” 

“It used to be even more full of stuff,” Eastman says. “It was kind of a museum. Anywhere you went there was something to look at. Believe it or not, we just went through a big purge, and this is a very pared down version of what we used to have in our space. We just kept the objects that really mean a lot to us.”

 

 

1) SNAKE ARTWORKS 

“That’s our little snake shrine. I love snakes and collect snake stuff. The piece above is by Erin Josephson Laidlaw. The mask is from the Mayan Riviera. The candlesticks and the silver snake are found objects,” Nelson says. 

2) JOSEPH VISSER PHOTO 

“This is a beautiful piece that was in one of our shows. This man’s family asked (Visser) to come photograph their father. He was beginning to suffer from Alzheimer’s, so they wanted to capture him before he slipped away a little bit,” Eastman says.

3) CHINA CABINET BOOKSHELF 

“We don’t really have any use for having china, but we definitely need room for books,” Nelson says. 

4) GIMLI PHOTOGRAPH 

“This is one of my most prized art pieces. We have another home, a house in the country just north of Gimli. We have 160 acres that we bought and moved a house onto the property. It’s still a work in progress. Anthony took this photo of me on our land and framed it for me. It’s like a window into that magical place we have,” Eastman says. 

5) VINES 

“We recently just started stringing these vines across the ceiling. We have these different pots of them growing and entangling with each other all across the apartment,” Eastman says. 

6) MANNEQUINS 

“Anthony’s mom gifted them to us. We repainted them. The necklaces on there are my favourite jewellery objects. They’re by Corey Moranis,” Eastman says. 

7) PHARAOH 

“One of my prized possessions is my pheasant here. His name is Pharaoh. Anthony’s uncle raises exotic birds. He (stuffed and mounted) this one and Anthony gave it to me for our anniversary,” Eastman says. 

8) COLOURING BOOK 

“I just spent the last six months working on a colouring book. It’s called AWAYKIN with Colour. I’m now in the process of publishing it through a publisher in Victoria. It should be out in a couple months,” Nelson says.

Published in Volume 70, Number 23 of The Uniter (March 10, 2016)