On TV!

My tomato painting was on the TV news yesterday morning!!!

Apparently they'd had some city-type committee meeting at the gallery I belong to.  Why they would have it there, a bunch of people standing around in their coats in a small, storefront room with art on the wall, is a mystery to me. Typically for me, I was so excited to see my painting on TV that I didn't pay a bit of attention to what the meeting was about...

But there was my tomato painting, big and juicy as you please (all 12x12 inches of it), for all of central Illinois to see. It may be small, but that cadmium red really popped on the wall!  The TV station is based in Springfield, the capitol city, which is where all the big money and art buyers in this area are. Maybe somebody fell in love with it and wants to buy it! 

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

But, no, most people would've been scanning the faces to see if they recognized anyone. I saw my artist friend Kathy, Bob from the gallery, and another lady who I know only collects Hispanic art.  The rest of the crowd were "Rank Strangers to Me."

Anyway, it was such a thrill to see my painting on the news.

In other news: the gallery gave my phone number and email to a woman who is looking for someone to paint her a set of four fruit pictures for her kitchen.

Too bad these are sold...

So far I haven't heard from her. Gives me time to worry about what I should charge. I assume they would be small (not larger than 11x14 or 12x12). 

I HATE putting prices on my work. I believe art should be affordable for everyone. My art professors disagreed and said that low prices on amateur art drive down the 4- or 5- figure prices they charge for their art. (I'm hoping they weren't con- demning my art to the amateur ranks!)

My opinion doesn't hold water anyway. People that can't afford original art are not going to buy it even at "give-away" prices, not if they can get something cheaper at Wally-World (mass produced in Mexico or China or Vietnam, etc., by child labor) to hang on their walls. 

But I don't think my profs' opinion is any truer, for that matter. People who buy art, who collect art, have the money --- and they seem to think that the higher the price, the better the art.  So, excuse me, dear former professors of mine, but I don't think the price of even the best of "amateur" art is going to affect your market.  Just my opinion. But it still doesn't make pricing my own art any easier.

And that's my irritating editorial for today.