I was thinking, last night as I was painting, about art sales, confidence and the nature of art sales.
It’s impossible to know what any given person is going to like. You never know which work is going to speak to whom, or why, or how. It occurred to me that I am not creating art just for me, I am creating art for that one person out there that this piece will speak to. Therefore, I don’t have the right to judge one of my pieces, or scrub it out because I don’t like where it ended up.
I think art is a lot like love. you don’t know when it will hit or how, you don’t know why it happens and I don’t think you can force it, it just has to happen.
Some pieces I’ve sold I’ve thought – Why? what made this piece the one for you? a recent big sale was of a piece I didn’t particularly care for. a lot of paintings I’m proud of have had some lukewarm responses.
I think the key is to create, with less fear for the consequences. canvas isn’t that expensive, and you never know what is going to pop out to a particular person. what if one of the paintings I scrubbed out was a true match for someone? I need to just paint, not to think about where it’s going to sell, or who it’s going to appeal to. I don’t want to release crap on the world, I think I need to still exercise some quality control, if the groundwork is wrong then I need to start again, but no more almost finishing a work and then scrubbing it in a fit of pique – I might be killing someone’s true love.
I was listening to Sunday in the Park with George and pondering the lyrics. “stop worrying where you’re going, move on” “stop worrying if your vision is new, let others decide that, they usually do- just keep moving on.”
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