I’ve been treading lightly in regards to selling my work. The truth is, most people don’t buy art. They don’t value art. They don’t see a place for art in their homes, in their lives. Money for rent, for a car, for food, for health insurance, for a vacation, for drugs… all on the list way ahead of art. Still, we live in this god forsaken capitalist society, where everything (and everyone) has a price tag. To be an artist in this environment is a challenge. To keep the dirty concept of money out of my art has been a struggle. I don’t make might art to make money. I’ll do it anyway. But… material costs money. Internet and websites cost money. My studio (a luxury, I know) costs money. Hanging a show costs money. Prints and frames and promotion cost money. Again, sales of artwork are few and far between. And yet… I can’t deny that it is nice to make a sale every now and then. It is validation, for sure. Someone likes your work enough to pay for it. To hang it in their home. To live with it. I don’t want to be motivated be profit, or greed, or even breaking even. But somedays (like today) it is hard. Hard to justify making work to sell. Hoping to move a few framed photos. The adage that “nobody cares about your work” still is a tough thing to hear and every now and then, you get a stiff reminder of the truth in the statement. I have been working on adjusting my attitude towards “selling” and I am trying to divorce myself completely from the expectation of getting money for something that comes from so deep inside of my soul. The art vs. commerce dilemma is nothing new, but it’s jarring when the sludge of money creeps into my process. How do you feel?

Every autumn I get the urge to purge. I usually spend an afternoon going through bins out in the shed, throwing out ephemera that I’ve dragged from place to place. This year, my ritual has expanded into reassessing my photo related items. I have more cameras than I know what to do with, and film in my fridge and freezer that has been unused long enough. This week I parted with 15 boxes of Fuji peel apart film, committing to “moving on” from a camera and format that has been a thorn in my side long enough. This has me reassessing other cameras sitting idle in my office, and I’m taking steps to part with them as well. As much as I claim to love shooting film, the reality is I have film cameras I haven’t touched in years, and most likely will not be using any time soon. My Ebay account will be getting regular usage for the next few weeks. Nostalgia be damned, it’s time to move on.