Blog: Pricing Your Art

Featured image: The Ripples We Make

First let me say that all trade should be voluntary and not coerced or forced. It is not trade if it is coerced. Trade, for the most part, is understood as an exchange for goods and services. It there is not a voluntary agreement for this exchange, then it is not trade.

I believe in the concept of trade, and I believe in fair trade, un-coerced or forced. So how does an artist determine the value of their work? It is its fair-trade value. If the exchange is uneven then the artist will either be sitting on a lot of their creations, or the artist will not be able to keep up with the demand for it. Either way – the value of the work, too much or too little, is also linked to one's value of one's self. If one over values or under values their self, their soul and their spirit they either think too much of themselves or they think too little of themselves. Finding that wonderful middle is the key here.

How do I value self? Spirit? And in turn, my work? The only thing that determines the value of an artist’s work is whether they used their mind when they created it – whether they thought about what they were going to create. So it follows, if the value of your work is too little, or too big, is determined by how much you thought about the work beforehand. It makes no difference how smart you are, or how much education that you have. Simply, it makes a difference if you personally, uniquely thought about the work and then attempted to create it.

Contemporary artists today are leaving behind a history. What is the history they are leaving behind ? It is histories that they have read about, learned from, and expanded upon and discovered and explored from. It is extremely important. Why? Because that means that the artist is thinking about their work. Discovery and exploration are limitless. It is when there are no fresh, new ideas or concepts that we need to be worried, for that is when an artist stops thinking and merely does what has been.

Just a quick note here – new and fresh do not make the object and authentic art object.History has shown that – examples of the shocking are plentiful.