I was on TV!

Oregon Art Beat had a special on collecting art... I remember them filming the show I was in, but I hadn't noticed that I was IN the filming. http://www.opb.org/programs/artbeat/videos/view/269-The-Art-of-Collecting. I'm at 7:47 if you don't feel like watching the whole thing... though I recommend watching the whole thing, it's actually very interesting.

It was an "Artists for the Community" show at the Albina Community Bank during First Thursday... I want to say maybe April? I think I price my stuff a bit high for those shows.... because I feel like my work is worth more than $100 a painting. Actually it's worth talking about pricing. People wonder why paintings "cost so much". I have actually had people ask me this question, people who seemed to think that spending $50 on a painting was a lot!

Lets break it down: One painting is not made out of thin air. It has within it years of training, practice, unsuccessful works, sketches, and lets not forget about school (I owe over 50 grand in student loans. If I sell my paintings at $5o a pop, how fast will I pay that back?)

The next thing to consider is that when an artist is doing relatively well, maybe 1 out of 10 pieces actually sell. So I wouldn't make $50 per painting. I would make $50 per 10 paintings. That's $5 a painting, which is about a third of what the materials cost, and that's only because I know how to get my materials cheap and I stretch my own canvas.

In order to quit one of my 3 day jobs and just focus on my art, let's say the real time waster... I need to make at least $1200 a month. How many paintings at $50 is that? I would have to sell 24 paintings a month. I'm lucky if I even finish half that many. If my paintings sold at $1200 a piece, they would likely be selling in a gallery, which would take half. Which means I have to sell 2 per month. And have a show every single month (which in most galleries, that's not the way it works.) I have been thinking about that actually, if you are in a major gallery, you usually sign papers that say you won't show anywhere else in town. Which means you get to show your work once a year in one city. (Which is why a lot of artists travel, or refuse to sign contracts) So I would have to make about $14,400 in one sale to live meagerly for a year. Only famous artists sell their work in the tens of thousands. (This is only because I have other income. If art is my ONLY income, well we get into a bit of trouble then don't we?)

And last but not least, we are talking about a completely unique object that will last longer than you do. It is something you can pass on to your grandchildren, and may actually be worth quite a bit more some day. You are buying a piece of contemporary history, a part of a whole paradigm. People pay a lot more for a mattress, a pair of shoes, or a nice dinner for two. It's all about what is valued.

The quality of my work suffers because I have to spend my time elsewhere to pay my bills. If I wanted to REALLY focus on my work, I would spend at LEAST 5 hours a day in the studio. But I simply don't have that kind of time. I have been doing good compared to how I usually do, which means I spend about 3 hours every other day in the studio. But what that amounts to is about one finished piece every month and a half, not including small drawings and sketches and stuff ( I may need to do another 100 drawings project, just to feel a sense of accomplishment)

Well, I gotta get off this computer. I have to start getting ready for my day job.... sigh.