The Pieces I Keep

Lovely Rose
Kneeling Man
Lilitu
Tribe
Unconditional
Before There Was Time
Rihanna

Not everything is for sale. As an artist some pieces you just can’t part with. Maybe a piece carries fond memories or maybe you put a lot of yourself into it that you just can’t bare to let it go. So you keep it. Then there’s the unfortunate circumstance where you may realize that people just might not be willing to pay you for what your art is truly worth. So instead of devaluing your work and your worth as an artist, you keep it. Hence my reasoning for creating small works of art that I feel can be sold an affordable price without feeling that I’m raping myself. It’s sad that people expect artists to sell their work at Walmart prices. Anywho, here’s a small bit of the pieces I’ve kept for myself either out of love or worth.

Published by

Q.

Pen and ink artist inspired by Nature, Beauty, Spirit and Song.

13 thoughts on “The Pieces I Keep”

  1. Do you do contract work? For, say, an album cover or poster… All original, not a re-make of a Robert Nesta Marley classic cover or ne thing of that nature. More, personal, I would say. Very interested after seeing these… And yeah people want print prices for originals since the Mona Lisa days. No wonder, multiple-der… is the new status quo lxl let me know, and if so we can exchange more personal details w/ more personal forms of communication. I’m new to WordPress but I don’t see a DM ne where. THATs phashodoe

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  2. That’s a very good way of doing things and, from my point of view as a Brit, quite unusual. I think there are two main types of buyer (here, at least). One is the type that regards art as a luxury and can’t usually afford it, so when they see art they like, they go crazy about both the artwork and often also about its creator and if the price is low enough for them they will buy one or, over time, several. The other type is the art collector (often self-named!) who has plenty of money to spare, will spend almost anything on an artwork but is focussed on just one or a small number of types of art. I was lucky a couple of years ago to sell to one of the latter, but most of my life have only sold to the former and, like you, eventually I created smaller works for that reason.

    It’s so annoying, though, isn’t it, that people who are not creatives (or who are creatives in a different sphere) don’t regard art as equal to any other type of work?

    Thanks for the titles of your works.

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  3. They’re beautiful. I particularly like the elephants, the one below it and the one at the bottom of all the others.
    When I was selling my art, there were a few I kept (I still have some of them). They were in a different style from the ones I sold, and actually people didn’t like them! Most were surreal and ‘dark’ in nature but I had – like you – put too much of myself into them to be able to part with them. Though for me it wasn’t about financial value as I’ve never been able to judge that on my own work.

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    1. I completely forgot to add the titles in the captions. The drawings you are referring to are “Tribe”, “Unconditional” and “Rihanna” just in case you were wondering about their titles. Figuring out what your work is worth is difficult. In the beginning I did a variety of sizes at different price points and over the course of three years I noticed that there was a particular price point that none of my customers exceeded. That discovery was further validated when I had a meeting with a community coordinator about getting my work featured in local businesses and art festivals. She informed me that the art that was selling at various businesses and festivals didn’t exceed the price point that I noticed from my own experience. I discovered the same also after speaking with several other artists. So I adjusted my work (size) according to that price point so that I don’t feel like I’m cheating myself. People now always ask me why don’t I do larger pieces. When I explain to them how much time and effort it would take to create art through the technique that I use and how much it would cost, based upon an hourly wage, and then ask them would they be willing to pay me that, they typically just give me a blank stare. Figuring out what people are willing to pay has saved me a lot of frustration and heartache.

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      1. Sorry, my last comment was supposed to be in reply to this one, I forgot, I think, to click the ‘reply’ button beneath yours.

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