What am I, a flea market?

Got a phone call the other day from Wanda, owner of Divine Connection in Black Mountain, NC where some of my art is on display for sale. Seems that some guy had an interest in buying Path of Least Resistance. All well and good, making a sale even though I sort of hate to part with that particular painting. What put a huge damper on the excitement of selling the work was the fact Wanda was calling not to tell me it sold, but that the potential buyer wanted to know what was the least amount I would take for it!

It pissed me off.

The price is posted with the painting. And the store owner gets a whopping 30% commission outta' that price, too.

I started to tell her just that, "The price is posted."

Then I caved.

Yes, I am ashamed of myself. But I didn't cave much. Only knocked off $150 bucks. Screw the guy. If he wants it, he'll buy it. While I would like to make the sale, it doesn't matter. Not if I have to resort to "sale pricing" my work. Trust me, caving in left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I won't be doing it again.

'Cause folks, creating art is work. This is how I earn my living. It's my job. My profession. I'm not running a Carol's Bargin Barn business. I spend days, weeks and sometimes months on a painting. I've spent countless hours teaching and training myself to do what I do with a paintbrush. And I believe I put fair prices on the paintings. Simple as that.

Okay, maybe art doesn't rank up there with most people's necessities for life like running water and electricity ... but come on, you'd pay your plumber whatever he writes on the bill. You pay your mechanic what he charges to fix your car. You'll pay what the store in the mall charges for that pair of jeans or shoes without blinking an eye if you think you've just gotta' have 'em.

Why do people think art is any less valuable? You'll have that painting long after you've traded that car or those jeans wear out.

But history shows us many artist suffered the same problem. At the time they created their work the public almost dismissed them. Then, after the artist died, suddenly their paintings are worth hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars. Will people only think my work worth paying for when I die? Not a pleasant thought. I wouldn't be here to enjoy those millions of bucks. Truth is, I don't even charge what a lot of other artist charge for their work. I've even seen some artist's prints sell for thousands of dollars. A PRINT! Yeah, those artists may be more well known, but some aren't. Some aren't any different than me.

Oh well. Wanda hasn't called back, so I guess that guy is a No Sale. Move along.

_________________

I spent the past few days here at the computer - Fun With Photoshop - working on the changes for the new website. It's coming along slowly, but I'm really liking it. Still hope to be able to publish it by the end of the month. So much yet to do. Lots of art to scan into the computer. New galleries to create. Links, meta tags, slices, buttons, all that jazz. I can't let myself think too much about it or I get kinda' freaked. I take it hour by hour, step by step.

The husband has finally gone back to work with no potential lengthy holidays in the forecast. Whew! Ended up that he didn't work on Monday as I thought he would. I knew he would have Tuesday off, holiday and all, but I didn't expect him to be lounging around the house on a four-day weekend. Gah! It just throws me off kilter to have him home for so much time. On the upside, he was pretty helpful with the website design. After I worked on a page I'd call him out of his studio to come look it over. He made a number of good suggestions, being able to view it as the 'average' person would if they visited my website.

Being on the computer for several days has put me slightly behind on the 'secret art project'. Late Thursday afternoon I started on two new works which I think will be pretty darn cool. All I can tell you about them at the moment is they are in the Art Nouveau style of Mucha. Lord! I love me some Mucha! To me, his work is beautiful and I could stare at it all day. I would love to have one of those huge coffee table books with plates of his illustrations, etc. I guarantee I would wear it out looking at it.

I actually did that once. When I was a kid we had a big book of Salvador Dali paintings. I looked at that book until the pages were literally falling out of the spine. Dali rocks! I keep telling myself that one of these days I'm going to attempt my own version of a Dali-ish surrealistic painting.

For now, it's time to get myself all bundled up and venture into town to take care of some errands. It's *effin'* cold out there. 23.4° by the temperature gage in the window. Geez Louise! That's just too damn cold. As if that weren't bad enough, the wind is blowing. I don't know what the wind chill factor is, but I'm certain is simply ridiculous. Burrrrrr!

Maybe I should just stay home and find my own snuggle spot like Creepy has ........

Namaste y'all ...