An Artist Who Finds the Life in Everything

As far as Betti Franceschi is concerned, every last part of her apartment is alive.

“I’m an animist,” she said, referring to her sense that there’s a soul in everything, including inanimate objects. “And anyone who’s not — I don’t understand it.”

The 90-year-old artist has lived in her Upper West Side apartment since 1990, and she’s accumulated a lot of life in the place.

Each room is defined by its art. Ms. Franceschi has curated her collection over a lifetime and added in some of her own portraits and sculptures along the way. There are dozens of paintings and drawings, some photographs and sculptures and stained glass. There’s a samovar converted into a lamp, and a framed apron — woven by her grandmother in Belarus more than a century ago — hangs on the wall. In one hallway, Ms. Franceschi displays three portraits: her mother, her daughter and herself. There’s a lamp shade from Venice, Italy, and a vase from Hangzhou, China.

A few large prints are bundled in a corner, remnants from a book of photographs featuring pre-eminent dancers from the New York City Ballet, her most recent project, which took nine years to complete and was published this year.