How Much Does It Cost? Part II

On this very warm day in Chicago, I decided I had to get out of the house. I completed a painting today and realized that administrative tasks had been piling up. So I grabbed my laptop and now I'm working in a cafe in the Andersonville neighborhood, one of my favorite parts of town.

All of this is of course procrastination of the real task at hand today, pricing the work from my latest series. I've been avoiding it. In the past at least, I priced paintings without commitment. That is to say, the prices changed. Hard to run a business or sell when then prices are a moving target. In addition, I have heard from a number of different sources that my past pricing is too low for the quality of work I'm producing. And this takes me back to something I have written about before, art versus product.

I was thinking that my art needs to be priced to sell, what the market will support. This is Econ 101. It also assumes that my art is a product, not a commodity. As a commodity, everything changes. What is the price that I am willing to let go of an original is now the question. In fact, a good friend suggested that I price my work "as if I didn't need the money." That is quite a concept given the fear of becoming the stereotypical starving artist. Ironically, I'm not starving and there is no sign of that in sight so the fear is completely unfounded. I think my friend's advice has merit. A lot of merit.

The other thing that was pointed out to me, which I think is a common trap for emerging artists, is pricing based on size. This is one of the cases where "sizes doesn't matter." (I'm referring to art work size.) What matters is the plethora of variables such as the complexity, the amount of work it took, the quality of technical execution, the quality of the emotional impact, the message, etc. Few of these are "product" orientated. These are visceral. This is why art is a commodity.

Since I create without worrying about selling (most of the time) but focus on expressing myself honestly and in an individualistic manner (I try to at least), the pricing should follow suit. The pricing should be based on how well I expressed myself. Just as when I speak, I don't know if anyone will listen, the same is true for my art. Just because I painted doesn't mean anyone is going to "buy" it. But I believe people like honest dialogue. Selling comes back to honest expression, just as creating. This has been a difficult concept for my to digest. I am amazed by the influence the culture of commercialism has had on me. For a successful pricing scheme, I feel the need to step outside of that influence and determine the price of my expression, not of the art product.

Basically, if you want a piece of me, i.e. my expression, it is going to cost you this day forward. ;-)