I love my Honda Fit.
And while that may seem to have nothing to do with art, actually, it does.
You see, I drive my
Honda Fit everywhere and in the process of its being used it gets dusty, the
tires see wear, the interior windows next to where my Toddler sits get coated
with whatever sticky stuff she's got on her hands and smears onto the glass. (I
know. I don't want to know much more than that, either.)
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Art pays off in
happiness dividends. Instantly, a fine art painting or any other kind
of art
provides color, depth, and emotion to our life.
Dancer by Steve Henderson of Steve Henderson Fine
Art.
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Honestly, if I kept my
Honda Fit inside the garage and never drove it for, say, 10 years, it would
look exactly the way it did the day I bought it and I could resell it -- maybe
at a profit -- because it would be such a great investment!
But you know, people
don't buy cars to keep as investments. They buy them to drive in them, and when
it's the right car, like my cute, sassy, blazing barbecue orange Honda Fit,
they enjoy the process.
If more people thought
about making art this way, more people would own and enjoy painting art. But
all of a sudden, when people look at a painting, they go into this
"I Must Make a Profit on This" investment mode -- even if
the artwork they're looking at is a limited edition print for $80. Somehow,
they tell themselves, if they purchase this, they need to be able to resell it,
ten years down the road, for $200, because that's what you do with art -- you
buy it as an investment.
As an artist -- you've
heard this before, haven't you?
What a sad, limited
world view, one that keeps people from enhancing their aesthetic lives and
their home's walls. The best reason to buy painting art-or any kind of art for
that matter -- is because you like it, because when you see the oil painting or
the print on your wall it makes you happy, because you want to have it in your
life, because -- like my Honda Fit -- it's smart, sassy, sophisticated, and fun
-- in short, that painting is You.
That's most likely what
you want people to say about your own painting art, and that's why you buy the
work of other artists yourself. Let's be bold about this and counteract this
pervasive investment message and, one by one, we'll let people know that great
art is a great investment because it pays off, instantly, in happiness
dividends.
--Carolyn