May 14, 2016
Off to Santa Fe Artists' Colony. Then to SoPas for more art and possibly food!
Thinking about the value of art and how some works of art are collected and made famous. How some go at auction for millions of dollars. How dollars may define artwork? How artists become a cause celeb? The remarkable difference between the so called painter of light whose name just cannot be written here.. and Mark Rothko whose ego and huge canvases may envelope the viewer. I am recalling the wonderful play, RED, by John Logan and the amazing portrayal of Rothko by Alfred Molina. Molina is a treasure in his own right.
So.
I make art and would love to sell one piece of the sculpture that I'm making right now with sixteen parts for a hundred bucks each. That might recoup my investment in materials and pay me ten bucks an hour for my effort. Then, I marvel at beautiful galleries like Jack Rutberg's on LaBrea and see that Margo Levin is donating millions to UCLA's Art Program. How these gallery owners keep a staff and pay for their spaces is a mystery. But, if they sell a work of art for a million dollars, chances are that it's fifty fifty with the artist? Sell a couple of those pricey pieces in a week or so and there you go. I bought a Claes Oldenburg lithograph from Margo many years ago for pittance. Doug Roberts threw in a signed booklet that chronicled the fabrication of the huge sculpture that the artwork, Alphabet as a Good Humor Bar.
Michael Crichton had one of the sculptures in his back yard. I met Oldenburg one time and said I enjoyed my Good Humor Bar. He got a quizzical look and said that he didn't remember one of the sculptures going to me! Hah.. it was the limited edition litho!
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| Alphabet in the form of a Good Humor Bar. Claes Oldenburg 1970 |
Maybe big time collectors only want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars and poo poo the stuff that is priced very low? If it's expensive, it must be worth something?
I'll see working artists today. Hopefully, I'll be inspired to move in some direction with the stuff I make, but I'm not counting on it. I'm not nearly as prolific or as loopy as Henry Darger, so what will be found in my house after I've died won't be 'discovered.' Hmmm.. life goes on.
May 14, 2016
michaelsheehan
I love art and I love original art. Wish I could invest in living artists. Perhaps the check is in the mailbox If it is I will buy a piece of your sculpture.
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