Once upon a time..... okay, that's pretty corny, but this story did start a long time ago - about three or four years ago, I reckon.

 

I used to promise myself I would destroy any of my work that didn’t sell in a reasonable amount of time – maybe after showing in five different places, or after I’d had it for a couple of years – something like that.  But I have discovered that things don’t work that way.  Oh, yes, sometimes, I would submit a piece to a show, and it would sell right away – even on the first day – but I usually would take Every. Single. Piece. Right back home afterwards.

 

Funny thing, though: people, sometimes multiple people, would said they “LOVE” my work, and let it stay there, on the gallery wall, anyway.  They would even say they want to buy it. And let it stay there.  Discouraging.

 

But I have noticed something.  Not just once, but several times now, someone would contact me “out of the blue” and say, oh, they want to commission a piece, or “Do you still have that one?”, and, Bingo!: $$$. Not much, but nice, anyway.

 

For example, the owner of a bookstore that was showing my work – finally decided she wanted to buy a set of three small pieces that she had had hanging around for more than a year; and another person commissioned a piece, simply because he had noticed something similar on a wall.

 

Most recently, I received an e-mail from a woman who REALLY loved my work, and had seen it in a gallery maybe three years ago – with a red dot on it.  Then, last year, she saw another piece pictured on the 1^st Friday Art Walk guide map that has been distributed all over the county.  Of course, I couldn’t paint a copy of it, but I offered, finally, to have a giclee’ made of it.  It wasn’t until I delivered it to her house that she told me this story, and then explained why she wanted it, even after all this time.

 

Nostalgia plays a big part in art appreciation, I know, but she said this piece was an “uncanny” recreation of a home she shared with her family when she was young.  “That table with the checkered cloth”, she said, “was RIGHT THERE”.  And the trees formed a little spot where the kids set up their dollhouses and little villages.  Of course, the house was the same color, with the windows in the same places! 

 

Now, I wonder what will happen in the future: I am selling my older images, though my work – and I – have evolved considerably since then. 

 

I guess all I can do is my best work, and be patient.