538. June 16…You too can afford real art…from real live people!!!!…no kidding….

“Message on My Shadow” 2011

“Does any art have a practical value? People love to talk about how expensive a painting is. That’s the only way we can talk about paintings in this century.” – John Gaure

“They all said “Wow”…sort of in unison….but it sure could have been something other than excitement…maybe the fear of less is what lit the fuse closer to the explosive…than the hearing could bear…”it was courage”…I’d said…I mean really is it a blink…maybe or some choke hold that starts to make the room a little bit smaller…the light makes that…”beep” noise…just before it’s gone…and everything gets real quiet…still…sort of cotton”… The Black Eye Project

I went to art school…jumped through all of the necessary hoops…got a beautiful piece of ecru colored paper that says…Bachelor of Fine Arts…Art Studio…and the part I really do like is along with that I received “all of the rights and privileges appertaining to that degree”…I’ve wondered what exactly the rights and privileges might be…perhaps a savings while renting a car…a 10% discount on top of the AARP and AAA discount…that Just so you know….I’m not getting yet…after some thought I found the rights and privileges…are the parts of the endeavor that make being an artist something of an honor for me…a privilege to be part of an incredible lineage…of people who basically are just like me…and I like them…no matter when they were or what they did…

all of this made me begin thinking about advice…and how often advice is easily served…but rarely followed…by those doing the serving…I have really begun to notice what people do…not what they say…and if what they are doing is really right up there with slinkies….Chinese finger traps…holographs…binary numbers and a well made chicken fruit tajin…I believe in them…but if what they are doing is tapioca…sitting in the sun for a few days…I have to wonder how valuable the input is…

the first art show I ever did…I was experiencing stage fright in a small way…I had the typical artist doubt…that none of my paintings would sell and if by some remote chance they did…the buyer was only doing it…naturally because they knew somehow…I needed the money…that I ate a great deal of Ramen noodles and bologna….and stuff that came in boxes that took 11 seconds in a microwave to heat…that show I sold 3 paintings…made about $700.00…and they knew they were paying my rent for a month…and maybe I could go to Furr’s cafeteria with this new found wealth…or buy a big bag of heroin…some gin…and girly magazines…because as artists we do things like that while we listen to Miles Davis and John Coltrane…have an old refrigerator…and nothing but a box in it…

nevertheless….I was wrong…my notion of worthiness to price relationship did stay around for awhile until I realized that…art only has value if it has value…now how simple is that…sort of like food tastes good if it tastes good…exactly!!!…how a value gets attached to a painting is still a mystery to me…it is economics…based on variables…like stocks…but without all of the tight shirts and insider trading….most artists do have a rather unreal sense of value when it comes to their work…and I think it’s because they are unsure of what to do next….

Art is a mystery in itself…there is a dialogue that requires an education just to ask directions to the bathroom…there’s the whole “Understanding it” thing…that if you don’t get it…or at least act like you get it…you’re going to be run out of the gallery on a rail dripping with tar and feathers…there is also a great deal of head nodding and sighing…that’s on the buyer’s end…while on the artist’s side…big prices mean good art…small prices mean bad art…it’s simple…there are no 4 dollar paintings….but there are 8 million dollar ones…the proof….

I think art should be affordable and affordable to everyone so we can eliminate mainly those horrible $25.00 posters of Vincent’s Starry Night that people spend an additional 80 dollars framing at Hobby Lobby and think there is some future value in it….I’d rather sell my work than keep it….because if you are prolific…it doesn’t take long to fill a house with mounds of art work…flat files of drawings and paintings…notebooks of “New” ideas and walls covered with work…

I just opened an online store to show my work but mainly to sell it….I paint 5-8 paintings a day on paper…let’s do the math…30 days at 6.5 paintings per day = 195 small paintings on paper….and they are affordable…under 20 dollars for an original painting…WOW!!!!…(I know you’re saying outloud…if not thinking “I should buy a few of those paintings…keep Robert from eating any more Ramen and bologna)….so check it out: Ten Thousand Paintings a Daily Adventure in Painting

I can’t say I have the new finger cuffs in a future project…or a slinky that will put the old one to shame…or some alternative to binary numbers….but since I paint…I thought it would be a good idea to see if the talk fit the walk….

so far…so good….left in front of right…ahhhh….

“I believe that global warming is a myth. And so, therefore, I have no conscience problems at all and I’m going to buy a Suburban next time.” – Jerry Falwell