There has been a recent discussion on a creative page I’m a member of. It is about trying to get the public to understand why art costs what it does. People aren’t willing to pay the asking price for art. They want it for free.
People think they can make whatever you have made themselves for cheaper. They don’t understand the time and training necessary to create that piece of art. Or, they try to talk you down on the price. They want Tiffany quality work for Wal-Mart prices.
Now, it doesn’t help that there are a lot of people who say they are artists who put out terrible work and charge high prices. Millions of dollars for a Jackson Pollack piece? Really? It is paint, thrown at a canvas. A child could do better.
I once read a story about a jewelry designer who was dealing with a difficult customer. The customer balked at the price of a wire and stone necklace – pointing out that the price of the items was a lot less than the price on the necklace. The artist sent her a box with a spool of wire and the stones. The necklace was reduced to its parts. The customer called and complained. The artist pointed out that if she wanted it to be put together, she could do it herself, since all she was willing to pay for was the materials.
There is a lot more to art than materials. There are the years of learning and polishing the craft. There are all the mistakes and wasted supplies, learning how to perfect a new technique. There’s a lot of time and energy put into being an artist. It isn’t something that just happens. A good artist makes it look easy. It isn’t.
There are also incidental costs to art. Shipping supplies aren’t free. Marketing isn’t free. Display racks aren’t free. The same is true for pop up tents for art shows. Entry fees are rather steep. Then you have to schlep your stuff to the show and back, in containers, that again, aren’t free. There is wear and tear on your vehicle and yourself. It all adds up and has to get factored into the cost of the art.
I have found that I enjoy the transaction more if I’m selling to another creative person. S/he understands value and doesn’t haggle. So maybe that is it. We need to actively teach other people to engage with their artistic side. They will understand how much work is involved, what quality is and isn’t, and they will become artists to boot.
Perhaps some artists won’t like that idea. Perhaps they think there will be competition. Perhaps they think that if everybody can do it, then they won’t have a monopoly on art. But then I think they might make art for the wrong reason. Everybody should make art. It is healing to do.
I honestly think that if more artists taught other people to be artists, then the public would be happier to start off with, and more understanding of what goes into making quality art. Then they’d be willing to pay real prices for real art.
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Deer Yeshua
So I bought this bit of artwork. And I made it into something else.
I didn’t think to take a picture of it when I started, so here is a picture of it after the first day.
It said “Yeshuaddix!” in spraypaint.
Yeshua Addix.
Addicts.
Jesus freaks.
I’m for Jesus, certainly. This is a little weird, even for me. But I like a nearly free canvas. It was on sale at Thrift Smart, and I had a Groupon. This two foot by three foot “painting” cost me $6. I had no compunctions about painting over it. It isn’t a masterpiece by any stretch.
I don’t have (I don’t make) enough time to paint every day. I steal away a bit here and there. I decided to mess around with this canvas and see what happened. I practice “blob” art. I put a bit of paint straight from the tube onto the canvas. I put another color, and another, then I swirl it around with my fingers. It releases my inner three year old. Pretty fabulous, actually.
It is hard to wrench myself away and become a responsible 45 year old, but I have to. It pays the bills.
Here’s a closer shot of a really interesting bit.
Then I finished it.
I left two lines of the silver spraypaint – one slightly obscured – to remind me of the underpainting.
I just enjoyed putting the paint on the canvas. I enjoyed the playtime. It doesn’t have a theme or a goal.
I posted my blog post about “Blob Art” on the Facebook page of a creative group I belong to, and one member wanted an example of what I meant by “Blob Art”. I took a picture of this and posted it.
Her comment was “Looks like an aerial view of a deer by a tree. Were you seeing that?”
Nope. Not at all. I like that she saw that, and it proves my point. People see what they want to see. All art, whether representational or abstract, changes meaning when it leaves the hands of the artist.
So this is Deer Yeshua, like Dear Jesus, or Dear John.
WordPress turned the first two pictures sideways, in spite of my best efforts. It does what it does. Feel free to pick up your monitor and turn it to compensate.
Not for sale paintings/collages
Marriage feast. Acrylic, leaf skeletons, Buddhist coin (in painting), foreign stamp with a bear on it, English sixpence coin I wore in my shoe when I got married (loose in the shadowbox). The canvas is glued to the backing of a shadowbox. Canvas is about 4 x 5. Impressions of honeymoon on Grandfather Mountain.
A different view – the glass is hard on the camera.
Flight. Acrylic, stamp from Zaire showing DaVinci’s flying machines, leaf skeleton, Canadian coin with a bird, cut out corner of a Visa card with bird hologram. Framed – original canvas was 5 x 7
Paintings and collages, posted 6-13-14
Early morning behind the rock, on the planet Graille. (a picture is worth a thousand words series) Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20
Swimming. Silver and aqua acrylic paint on canvas. 8 X 10
Yellow queen. Acrylic paint, English stamps of the Queen facing left with one Austrian one of a dragon facing right, in a gold spiral path. On 8 X 8 canvas.
Angled view of the above, to show the gold.
Luggage. Stamps and money from around the world, with Chinese fortunes. Acrylic paint on 5 x 7 canvas, with decoupage glue.
Mid afternoon rain on the planet Graille (a picture is worth a thousand words series) Acrylic on 11 x 14 canvas
Angry eye. Acrylic on 11 x 14 canvas
Underwater rabbit fish. Acrylic, photocopy of a cross section of rabbit bone, water color pencils, cut out fish stamps, tissue paper, gold pastel, decoupage glue, canvas 8 x 8
Side angle of the same.
Leaves in water. Acrylic, gold foil, real leaf skeletons, decoupage glue, canvas 8 x 10
Sunset clouds. Acrylic on 5 x 5 thick canvas, sides painted as part of the design as well.
A side view.
Deer Yeshua (see separate post explaining name) Acrylic, silver sharpie on 24 x 36 canvas
All of these are available for sale. Please write a comment for more information.
Paintings set 1(including acrylic and watercolor pencil)
I was asked if I had some of my paintings on my blog, and I do, but they are in various posts. Here I’m going to put together some of the ones I’ve posted here and create a new category for my blog so if people want to look at my paintings / collages, they can go here.
For the 1000 word story, part 2 2-3-14
A painting using light language, painted 2-1-14
A close up.
This is the first layer of that painting. It has light language on top of light language.
From “Thousand Word story” part 1 1-24-14
A watercolor pencil drawing of figs.
Mary and Jesus at Mercy Convent 9-17-2013
Blue vase 7-24-13
Praying in color 10-29-13
Blob art.
There seems to be two ways that art is going these days: hyper-realistic and blob. Either people are painting reality better than reality or they are painting blobs.
Me, I’m in the blob category. Sure, it is fun. And nobody will know when I don’t get what I was aiming for, because what they see looks nothing like anything else anyway. When you try to replicate something that is real, it is easy to tell when you have missed the mark. Blob art is free from this constraint.
But then I see other blob painters charging hundreds, even thousands of dollars for what they made, and I wonder. Is someone actually buying this?
Blob art can be made by toddlers. The more you think, the less it works. In fact, part of the reason I paint blob art is because I want to not think. I want to disengage. I have tried to paint blob art with brushes and other paint tools and I just don’t like it. It is fingers all the way for me.
I call it blob art because that is how I make it. I pick up a tube of paint that looks nice and I squish out a blob of paint on the canvas. Then I pick up another tube and squish it out too. I’ll keep adding blobs until I feel I might have something to work with. Then I smear the blobs around and mix them together until I like the blend and the swirls. Sometimes I add in a few more blobs and mix them in.
It is kind of like how I cook. Spices, colors – it is really all the same. I’m heading towards a goal, and I take whatever I need to get there.
Painting realistically has never made sense to me. Just take a picture. It is faster. Sure, it is pretty impressive to find someone who can paint a picture that looks like it is a photograph. But to me it seems like a waste of time.
Now, one advantage to painting is that you can paint what isn’t there. You can paint all the good stuff and leave all the bad stuff out. This is especially appropriate when you are painting a family portrait and not everybody is available to sit for it at the same time. Or it also works if you are painting something that would be good for a science fiction illustration.
While you can create some pretty amazing things with photo manipulation software, there isn’t really “art” in that. You aren’t making something new, so much as working with what is already there.
Is blob art really art? Sometimes it just looks like someone shoved paint around a canvas. Sometimes they did. Sometimes I do. So is it worth a lot of money?
Sure, the materials are expensive. Paint and canvasses are stunningly expensive. Framing is insane. Sometimes you can get deals on supplies but not often. So there is something about the actual physicality of the piece that will raise the price.
Sometimes what inspires people to admire artwork or writing or music is what it reminds them of. What they see in it has little to do with what the artist put into it. Some swirl, phrase, or riff catches their attention in just such a way and they find that a doorway has opened in their mind, or a bridge has been created.
That is one of the most frustrating things to me as a creator. I really feel like I’ve expressed something well, and people just don’t get it. They may like it, but what they like isn’t what I was trying to express.
Maybe that is why I make blob art. I don’t have as much invested in it. It doesn’t matter if they see something different in it, because I didn’t put anything in it. It is more about what I got out of it.
I discover when I create blob art. I play, too. I learn how the colors go together, and I relax during the creation. There is no stress because there is no specific goal to be reached. Just enjoying putting paint on the canvas is the goal. It isn’t about creating anything. It is about creating me.
The artistic life
I’m on vacation, and I just haven’t written as much as I normally do. I’ve taken the time to draw, which is nice. It seems to take just as long to draw as to write. I’m not sure how I’d find the time to do both.
What is more important? Isn’t it just important that I’m engaging in art? Art of any sort is healing. The ideal is to have time to write, sketch, paint, drum… But then there is a job I have to go to.
I have a few friends who essentially have said that art is more important than a job. They have made art their job. They say things like “money is evil”. While I agree that loving money isn’t great, I do like the things that money can buy, like food, shelter, and clothing.
While I don’t live large, I do like to live comfortably. I have a small house. Most of my clothes come from thrift stores. I eat well, in part because I’ve learned how to cook. While I admire the gumption of people who have decided to strike out on their own, I feel a little like they are saying that my path isn’t valid, isn’t authentic. I feel a little like a meat eater versus a vegetarian.
Their way is seen as higher evolved or more mindful. My way is seen as hedging my bets and unwilling to cut loose from the shore. My way is seen as being a slave to “the man”, whoever that is.
They wonder why their friends and relatives don’t support their choice to follow their dreams. The only problem is that “support” means “pay for”. They expect their friends and relatives to buy what they’ve made or go to their seminars. Meanwhile they mock them on social media for staying with their secure job. You know, that job where they earn money to buy their art.
If we all quit our jobs and start making art, then how are we going to pay our bills? Because who is going to come to our our seminars and concerts? Who is going to buy our books and artwork? We will all be starving artists because we won’t have an audience to buy our stuff.
I feel it is very dangerous for an artist to mock her audience, or to make them feel like suckers. If everybody could draw or write or bead or dance then why would they need to see you do it? Why would they need to pay you to do it?
We need gas station attendants. We need janitors. We need garbage truck drivers. We need them the same as we need teachers, doctors, lawyers, and diplomats. Saying that someone is less evolved, less mindful, or is just plain less because they have a “real” job and haven’t cut loose and created a non-profit or live in a commune is thoughtless and cruel, and wrong. It is wrong in the sense of “mean”, but it is also wrong in the sense of “incorrect”.
You can be creative while working for “the man”. It just takes a little figuring out. And to knock down someone else’s lifestyle choice as being less enlightened than yours is, in itself, less enlightened.
Mary’s finger
So, I found Mary’s finger. And not just any finger, her right index finger. That has to mean something. That has to mean more than just her pinkie finger, right?
I was on retreat at Mercy convent – a convent for retired nuns of the Sisters of Mercy. There is a statue of Mary in the back garden, made of marble. I went outside to draw it. I’m not much of an artist but I like to try. I’d just realized that drawing is easier if I use pencil and an eraser rather than a pen to make my first sketch. You can go as deep on that as you like.
This is the angle I was working with.
Part of drawing is noticing what is actually there. When we take pictures, we often work so quickly that we miss things. Or, well, at least I do. There are things that our brains fill in and we assume things are like we think they are. I’ve learned that when I take time to actually draw something I learn where those gaps are. I learn what reality is, versus what I think reality is. It is a very useful meditation.
While looking, I noticed that she is missing some fingers. She looks a little sad about this.
Here is her left hand. Some repairs have already been done.
Here’s her right hand. There is a lot more damage here.
There are six intact fingers, and only one thumb in total. There is a small chip marble rock garden at the base, so I thought that the rest of the fingers could be there. It was a long shot. Surely someone else has looked for it.
Here’s the rock garden. The plaque says “Our Lady’s Garden” In memory of Sister Mary Demetrius Coode, Fall 1993.
I started looking on the left-hand side. That is the side I was closest to. I looked around a bit, but not really very hard. I mean really – someone else has to have thought of this, right? White marble statue pieces fall into a small rock garden filled with white marble pieces. That is where you look.
But the people who live here are all old. They don’t have great eyesight. They aren’t quite fit enough to hunch over and study these pieces. Their knees and backs aren’t so great anymore. They’ve had a life of service and now they are resting.
I gave up looking on the left side and moved to the right. There was more to look for over there – bigger pieces. It should be easier.
After about a minute I found it.
An electric shock ran through me. It was like finding an Easter Egg, or a four leaf clover, or a diamond. I found it. Me. It was here.
I thought briefly that they had left it in there as a treat, as a special thing to be found. It was the fact that I found it that made it special. It wouldn’t have been the same if it had been intact, or if it had been sitting at the base.
There is something about seeking, and finding, that is special. There is something about putting forth the effort and having it rewarded.
I thought about keeping it. Then I thought about taking a piece of chip marble as a token instead. In fact, I thought about taking one anyway, even before I found the finger. I thought about taking a piece as a memento of the search. I was going to pretend that the chip was a piece of the finger. Kind of like a diamond in the rough. The pieces at the base and the statue were both marble. The only difference between the two is one had a lot more work and skill applied to it. But the material is the same.
How do things get value? Why is this piece of marble more valuable than that piece? How does this relate to ourselves and our lives? Deep down, we are all the same.
I didn’t take the finger. I put it on the base, easily visible. This was during the silent part of the retreat, so I knew I couldn’t explain it to the sister who is the caretaker of the place. I figured if I left it there it would make it easier to tell her later.
Then I thought that maybe it is safer in the rock garden. It can’t fall off the base and break into more pieces. It could shatter if it fell again. And I thought also, maybe I should leave the joy of finding it for someone else.
I didn’t find her right thumb, but then again I didn’t look too hard after finding that finger.
A whole finger! Of Mary!
She looks pretty happy that her finger has been found. This is around 11:30 a.m.
Later, at the end of the retreat when we can talk again and it is time to go home, I went to tell the Sister in charge. I thought she was going tell me that they left it there on purpose. No – she was delighted that it had been found. “Now I can write up a work order!” she said.
I was about to leave, but I followed her outside to make sure that she found it. Maybe it had fallen off. Maybe someone had moved it. I went to have some resolution. I went to help find it again if necessary. I went, in part, because I didn’t really want to leave.
She was beaming when she noticed it, and carried it carefully, like a baby bird, in her hands.
She told me that members of the church that sponsored the retreat came once and cleaned this statue. She was so happy about this kindness done to the Sisters.
She told me “We have to be the finger of Mary.”
Yes, and her thumb, and her big toe. And everything. We have to be Mary, willing to let God into the world. We have to let her take care of us, and we have to take care of her. It is reciprocal, this relationship. She isn’t God, but she is a face of God. She is mothering, kindness, compassion. She is a willingness to say “Yes, here I am” when God asks for a favor. She represents who we are when allow God to work through us.
And we also have to be marble, allowing ourselves to be shaped by a Master’s skill.
And we have to understand that we are valuable even as chips at the base of a statue.
Mary is beaming now. This is at 7, after I told the Sister about her finger.
Studying for life.
Health isn’t like a test you can cram for. It is something that you have to “study” for every day or you will fail.
So many people want to get in shape but they don’t want to do the work. So many people wait until they have a serious diagnosis before they start to take their health seriously. Really, they want to be in shape, but not to get in shape.
It is too easy to blame someone else. Your parents didn’t exercise, so you don’t. Your friends all eat unhealthy food, so you do. This is such a passive way of living. They don’t feel your pain when you can’t walk around the block, or you can’t get out of bed without help. You have to live your life, and by living, I don’t mean just exist.
There needs to be an entire sea-change in the way we think, but until then we have to do it for ourselves.
I have a dream that hospitals and rehab centers will teach people how to be healthy rather than treat their sicknesses. People will learn that health is more than just about diet and exercise.
They will teach people how to care for themselves through food and exercise. People will learn how to cook for themselves and what are healthy choices when they are out at a restaurant. They will learn how to grow their own food. There will be no caffeine or refined sugar, and no tobacco.
They will learn about healthy boundaries. They will learn how to protect themselves and how to respect the boundaries of others.
They will learn how to share their thoughts and how to listen to other’s thoughts. They will learn dialogue versus debate.
They will get in touch with their inner child.
They will explore different ways to express themselves. All arts will be shared and people will be encouraged to pick as many as needed.
They will learn the value of getting enough sleep.
They will get career counseling to find a job that fits their abilities and beliefs.
This movement starts with each one of us, right now. It isn’t a top-down way of thinking. It is a bottom-up. We have to be the change.
Communication breakdown
People just want to be understood. They want to know that they matter, that their voice matters. Nothing is worse than not being able to communicate. Not everybody can communicate verbally. It is important to have as many ways as possible.
Babies that are taught sign language show less frustration than other ones. They are not able to master speech at an early age, but simplified gestural language is perfect for them. With baby sign language they can express if they are hungry, or tired, or hurt. This cuts down on the frustration for them and their parents.
Adults have the same needs. They just want to be understood. People need to be Seen and Heard. Communication is the responsibility of the producer and the consumer. It is important to speak clearly, and to pay attention. But what if you can’t speak well? Then you can draw, or paint, or write, or dance, or bead, or any other number of ways of getting your idea out.
It is essential for humans to be creative. That is what makes us human. We need to express ourselves, and to share what we feel with others. When they don’t understand us, we feel isolated and lost. That sense of connection, of community, is a hallmark of humanity.
I believe that if we teach all people different ways of expressing themselves, and we teach all people how to “listen”, then we will have peace. I believe that we won’t have violence towards self or others.
I believe that all violence, whether directed against the self or others, is the result of people not being able to connect to others because of a communication breakdown.
betsybeadhead 
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