I guess if you put a good price on it, people will think it's worth it.

I know that if your price is too low, people will think it's NOT worth much, and pass it buy.  Triple the price and people think it has value.

You just never know about people.

Sue

"I still think it's hilarious that her Art is priced by the size, just like wall-to-wall carpet or sod."

Can you hear me laughing from WA???

So... if my PM cats come out pretty good, and I do a good paint job on them, and go by your sister's pricing method, just how would I do that?  Should I charge by the number of inches tall, the number of inches long, or the number of square inches of surface???

I guess I would need an agent.....      :shock:     :shock: 

Sue

Sue, the answer is whatever comes out to the highest price, of course, they're all original Sues.

I have never had the nerve to ask my sister whether her clients/customers/victims were fully aware of her pricing methods. However, there are many lessons for the "creative community" to be learned, some good, some bad, some inadvertant.

Yes, Vinca, she did sell them. Whether it was a deliberate effort or not, much of her energy between the time she graduated from a prestigious/snobbish/strange art school and somewhat recently was devoted to establishing and promoting an image in her city, which has a very active/snobbish/strange art community.  The essence of the attitude, both general and specific, was/is 'we're way cooler than anyone else and if you don't understand what we're doing, you're a hick and we're laughing at you.'

The essence of a lot of this philosophy is the nth convolution--that something is so unhip, it's hip, etc. Well,  I *am* a hick and too prairie populist to avoid thinking that, well, pink flamingos might have become hip because they were so unhip, but we passed that so long ago they became unhip again because they were too archly hip because they were...you see the cycle. Unfortunately my ilk doesn't sneer well and has failed to enforce our logic on my sister's type.

What this sister always wanted was to marry a rich guy who'd support her. Her first husband, the only working punk rocker with a trust fund, didn't work out. For the next decade, her art sales did rise and I think she was just about generating enough to support herself. At this point she was reasonably well known in her city, mentioned occasionally by the paper's art critic (with some effort on her part) and a contract-signing participant in the city's annual art festival.

Then she married again. Of the 12+ brothers-in-law and b-in-law equivalents, former and current, I've known, loved and hated, this one is easily the worst--and that is saying more than you'd want to know. They were probably drawn to each other by similar, 'there's an easier way to make a living than working' mentalities.

The lone instance of non-loathesomeness I've ever noticed was his admission that he didn't like much of my sister's art.  This showed honesty and non-manipulation, rather than any attempt to suppress her. But over the next decade she took a regular job (somebody had to), while he oiled his way into my late mother's adoration. At this point, the happy couple have been slumlords for years, and while he's tended their rental properties, she's worked at a very nonartistic alternative career, and drinks.

They now also own a way-cool bar which our other siblings agree is exactly what that neurotic dance team needs to seal it forever. She hasn't completed a painting in several years, but although her old inventory must be dwindling I believe she still makes occasional sales, possibly of pictures displayed in the bar.

Here's what I think it teaches about art, art selling, and prices. If you do something because you love it, you can't help doing it and you're fond of various pieces because they're neat, or because you did something really well, or for a variety of reasons, that is art and give it a high enough price that you think would deter anybody, because you don't really want to sell it. Ironically, it probably will sell because you love it, and both the piece and the price reflect your feeling. 

If you do something because you can do it, and expect a given something has a market, it is a craft. It is thus like manufacturing anything, so you can study the competition, judge the relative skill displayed, analyze your raw material cost, determine a reasonable hourly wage and a profit for yourself and proceed accordingly. Taking this approach is both honorable and fair to you and your customers, and helps avoid under- or over- valuing your worth. It also lets you develop economies of scale and efficiency, as well as an honest respect for both what you do and the people who buy it.

I think my sister took an in-between path that had all the disadvantages of each of the two approaches, with none of the advantages of either. Instead of each piece being something special, with its own qualities, and thus its own price, all pieces became the same. House painters also charge by area (sq. ft, not inch), and although different types of jobs have different prices, each job within a type has the same price per unit. Nothing wrong with that--it's an honorable and highly skilled craft.

Maybe the key is that the best craftsperson almost always generates the best value for the person who's buying. The best car tune-up may cost twice or triple the least expensive, but it shows so much quality that the customer thinks it's a good deal. The price shows respect for both the craftsperson's work and the customer.

Perhaps the very difference between craft and art is predictability.

With pieces of art, the price can't be predictable because if you don't love each piece for some unique quality, it's probably a craft piece, no matter how well done or how fond you are. If each piece reflects the love you have for it and reluctance to part with it, the price will resonate with someone who also loves it and wants it near. If the artist does not love a piece and tries to price it or sell it, it actually shows contempt for the potential buyer and the artist him- or her- self. In other words, the piece is worth a lot (whether anybody else besides the artist ever loves or buys it) or, essentially, worth nothing.

So, art price shows love and pride, craft price shows respect and pride, craft-as-art shows hate (for self and or customer) and contempt.

I once saw a stack of twigs that was in an art show. I think it sold for $15,000. :shock: