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Question: How do painters detach themselves enough from a painting to sell it to someone they don't know!?
i can't bring myself to part from any of my artwork! i mean they are a part of me!. it's my emotions in there!.!. it's my life in these paintings!. i know eventually i'll have too many and i won't know what to do with them, but i would rather give them to my friends instead of selling them to people i don't know!.
for one, i don't want to put a value on my artwork, and secondly how will i know how these people who purchase my artwork will handle them!? i pour my heart, soul and sweat into these!.!. so i don't understand how painters can part from them!!
i've had times where i would purposely create a painting for a friend but i KNOW that i'm giving it away and it's kind of different!.!. maybe even less emotional!.!. so that's different!
but how do you get over it and just let them go!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
I KNOW the feeling!. I DO sell my art!. I photograph everything that I paint!. I keep it in a little album!. Sometines I look over the litle album with the same feeling that I think I would have if I had a bunch of children who had moved to the other side of the earth and I would never see them again!. I created them, I loved them, and I let them go to their own fates!. I just think that one day when I die, they will live on without me anyway!. I have just kissed them goodbye and let them go anyway on"their own trips"!. They would have gone anyway!. Museums are FULL of pictures that the artists created and let go on thier own voyages!. The art usually outlives the creator!. It's part of the glory of semi-immortality and part of the pain!. How many of us get to create something that outlives us!? Realtors, dentists, bankers, librarians, policemen, farmers, plumbers, lawyers!.!.!.the work that most of us do does not outlive us!.!.!.for centuries!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Most artists starting out (or artists who don't produce a lot of work) feel this way in the beginning!. I, too, felt this way when I sold some of my earliest paintings and, twenty years later, wish I had at least several of them left!.
But that was back when I had only painted a dozen or so works!. Now, three hundred and fifty paintings later, I'm wiser and better as an artist and realistic!. Of the paintings I've done in the last ten years I've kept about twenty that I won't sell, given a dozen or so to friends or family and the rest are all gone!.
Most serious artists, at least those wanting to make a living from their creativity, don't have the luxury of not parting with a 'part of their soul!.' Most artists trying to make a living from their art sell paintings to pay their bills, put food on their table and, more importantly, to buy more paint and canvas!. Most aren't 'housewife types' or 'stay at home types' or have 'rich husbands or daddies types' or 'I don't need the money types'!.
Most of us sell our paintings because we do need the money and we also get a lot of satisfaction knowing that someone loves our art enough to be willing to pay hard-earned money for it!. And most serious artists realize that people willing to pay hard-earned money for art are going to take care of it, treasure it and be proud of it!.
About twelve years ago, when CD burners first came on the market, artists have been able to make high quality prints and keep high quality images of their work and even when they sell a painting they still have good quality copies of their efforts!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
I sympathise, but if you keep track of the buyers then you know they're out there being appreciated!. Nobody's going to pay money for a painting, which is a luxury after all, and then mistreat it!. And you have more $$ for art supplies!
A lot of people feel that once the work is out of the artist's hands, the meaning is open to interpretation by any viewer!. I like that, myself!. It's sort of liberating!. As you produce more paintings you'll be able to let go of them more easily!.
Regarding the pricing, very few painters ever get to the point of finding the ideal price for each work!. There are too many factors in play!. If you can, it's a good idea to let the dealer figure it out, since they know what the market is doing and also aren't as emotionally involved as you are!.Www@QuestionHome@Com