A businessman recently sat in my shop
asking, well, in roundabout way, why money does not seem to
motivate me, maybe in the way it does him.
“There seems more to life to me, than
money” I said “Art is important to me and the monetary value can
become clouded or even secondary sometimes”
He pressed a bit further, his real
reason though, was to find out how I tick, he had ideas about making
money from me, by supplying funds, that we could share. This line of
conversation was not insulting, far from it, it gave me the
opportunity to explore my own thoughts and maybe understand his.
“By surrounding yourself with
interests that mean something to you, there is a part of you that
gets fulfilment and enlightenment, that slightly diminishes the need
for cash” I said this knowing that money is very important and all
things have a price. I also know that other things can not be bought.
“I deal in art and that allows me to
enact other things, the job gives me a freedom, to explore, my music
and study and in the studious times I also try to understand
architecture. I am an artist and a potter from time to time, more
keeping my hand in than creating, building up skills that may be of
spherical use to me in the future” He did not look impressed, maybe
he was not understanding, I thought, or does not care what I am
saying because as I no longer understand his motivation to swerve
people into his domain, so he may profit from their endeavours. He
will not understand mine.
“Here is some of my artwork,” I
said reaching over for some life drawings I had recently completed. I
do these in about 10 minutes, I consider them a good staring point
and show a level of understanding to go on I may use this one, of
which I am proud as an oil study”
He looked at them without any
observation and said quite flippantly, “Do you sell them Wayne”
“No not really”
“So how much would you sell that one
for”, pushing further “How much is it worth?” He asked
directly.
“Probably about a hundred an thirty”
“What for five minutes work” he
asked cheekily
“Its not the time it is the level of
experience, it takes a long time to get to that stage, do do the work
at such a brisk pace, so its not the five minutes work, but the
culmination of skills acquired and the emotion that you put into your
work that counts.”
He looked and curled his lip up at one
pencil sketch, that I know to be good.
“Didnt you just proclaim proudly that
you own some Lowry sketches”
“Yes, he said, I payed”.... Here I
interrupt him abruptly.
“So you value a Lowry sketch in
several thousands, that's very interesting indeed, as think I could
knock one of them out in, about.......... three minutes.”
He didn't reply.
Sometimes an encounter with such an
unenlightened individual makes you think.
Think about who are those that know the
cost of everything....and the value of nothing.
