Family photos, children’s artwork and other mementos can be an interior design challenge. We want to display them proudly, but kindergarten art projects and snapshots of relatives don’t always harmonize with the rest of the décor.

What to do? It all comes down to the presentation.

Make It the Center of Attention:

If you’re more interested in celebrating one or two special pieces than displaying a large collection, there are other options.

Sarabeth Arima, an Atlanta-based artist, specializes in elevating family portraits by creating one-of-a-kind works around a favorite photograph. “It’s multimedia collage. I use paper, paint, pencil, you name it,” Ms. Arima said.

“It was something I started doing for friends, but then I had more and more people asking me to do it professionally,” she continued, noting that about a third of her commissions now come from interior designers. She described the pieces as “love letters to a family story.”

Among all of the art beautifully displayed around her home, Lucas says the recent portraits of her children are especially meaningful. “The Sally King Benedict piece in my kitchen is a wonderful, abstract representation of my two,” explains Lucas. “But these special, mixed-media portraits are my children personified. The artist, Sarabeth Arima, captured each of their unique identities and personalities perfectly. With their faces in the foreground and their interests subtly reflected in the background, it's as if I have the two of them bottled up at this age and moment in time forever.”

Fifth-generation artist Sarabeth Arima's (sarabetharima.com) art tells familial stories through symbolic portraiture. She reflects on her grandfather's art daily: "It reminds me that art is in my blood." Self-proclaimed practicing maximalist Arima produces art teeming with information, color, and precision. She attaches herself to the client's stories as informed ideas become abstract studies and odes to the moments in life that beg to be frozen in time.

From weddings, babies, graduations, and the like, Arima invests her heart into her work, producing a piece that will last a lifetime for you and your family. -Mary Peeples