Visual and Auditory artist
Hello world. I've done this before, selling prints and originals ... in 2011. You can imagine how much activity and change happens to any one person for nearly six years. I'll spare you the long details on my story, yet give you a few highlights on time spent. My last art appearance was in 11' at a festival event titled: Art Outside. The Arts Alliance Center of Clear Lake, a gallery I participated in since 2005 turned into a gas station around this time. Finally in 12' I fell in love again, and turned my interest back into writing classical music. After writing studies for multiple pianos, I found a new tic from an old hobby - writing strange, sometimes encoded poetry. In 2014 I self published a book, but encouraged to release it as free PDF. Probably about ten people read it, but I was already hooked. I started writing short stories, but as the paperback version was reaching 400 or so pages, I found wordpress.com and decided to share them independently instead. If I wasn't doing that it was composition or electronic music. I have not worked on collage since a two month project in 2014.
I'm getting old. Almost forty. Some of you are laughing about this, and I understand how silly that statement is to a lot of you. Unfortunately, I'm feeling 91 years inside me. This is the year I start working on artwork again. I'm a little nervous, yet it hasn't been that seven year mark when those ideas turn into only that, and your cellular system is rejecting personal calling. There is a budget required for larger works, and hope selling prints will fill in at least a quarter of that.
Prints vs. Originals
There is no doubt to the superiority of the original when compared to it's represented copy. The originals make up, weight, and texture tell it's own story; usually a very personal one. You can hold it up to the light in an angle when the colors disappear and only the detail of each cut piece can be methodically examined. You can close your eyes; rub your fingers on it, and feel the elevated layers raise and fall from random to maze-like designs. A piece of original art has a stored amount of kinetic events, giving it a consciousness from phrases of its cognitive effort - even long after the creator themselves has passed. This widely accepted view has possibly made it impossible to sell most of my own originals. I've had offers to sell works when participating with the gallery. All have been turned down even when I wanted the money. I'm that obsessive collector that even keeps their own body of work in an organized storage. Though I don't display any of it on my own walls. So what's the point if they are categorized like trading cards, stored in a lifeless, de-humidified closet? The answer is that I wanted to keep it within the family with hope of my nieces could one day say, 'we had a pretty creative uncle.' Yet the older they become it's more apparent they will pursue further than I could have wished upon myself. Simply, pride had taken part even if in the most painfully average abstractions. Once I was even to leave all that I created to a woman I loved. This is possibly my time to let go of articles that no longer maintain a civil view of my own past. But, once it's sold, it's gone, and so has the image itself for further investment. You're left with a high resolution TIFF or jpeg as a reminder.
The idea of prints and endless replications seem like the best way to make an image pay for itself before the original getting sold to a private collector. If you're lucky and determined, getting the image of a piece of work to go viral is still against you, whether it be any medium. Yet if that image does so, the original work can be sold for much more than before. The world of art doesn't necessarily work in these media levels. One should sell. Let the world see your work, even if it's a single person and their two friends. Thousands of hours have been spent on these works - they deserve to spend their life on some strangers wall, and not a storage space.
For all the off/on years spent selling prints, I haven't had one returned nor have had any serious issues unless if by chance lost in transit. If you are not happy with a print, send it back. I'll pay you back the price of the print. Thank you for reading.
