Can you put a price on art ?

Actually, yes you can.

I took my daughter downtown on Friday for dinner and a walking tour of some of the downtown galleries. As we wandered around looking at pieces, it got me thinking a few things:

1) How is art priced ? Is the $1000 painting on the wall a function of materials used, time invested, the perceived quality of the work or emotional attachment the artist has to the work ? If any of you out there are artists please let me know because I really am curious.

2) Many of the pieces just aren't going to sell. Its not because of their quality, its because most people don't have $1200 to spend on a oil painting of a farm scene. I suppose the idea is that selling one painting for $1200 is still more profitable than selling 10 paintings at $100 each. But as an artist wouldn't you want people to have and enjoy your art. As a gallery owner, don't you want to start to create a market where people get in the habit of consuming your products ?

3) Functional art is really cool. I suppose there is something aesthetically pleasing about an entire IKEA layout, but I'm a much bigger fan of odd and older pieces cobbled together. Many of the shops downtown have tables, shelving, candle holders, table ware, etc regular houshold type goods that are either old items refurbished or stuff made by hand. Little of it, probably none of it, has clean lines. The pieces have nicks and scratches. But almost all of it it etched or painted or has some touch to it that makes you consider the fact that another human being spent time putting skill and labor into it.

I saw a couple of bands this weekend. Both had fiddle players. I thought that was odd. One had an electric piano and a scrub board. I'm pretty sure both should be pre-requisites for any music made. The group I saw Friday night was playing on the street and consisted of a fiddle, a guitar and an upright base. The folks were playing for tips and had drawn quite the crowd. I watched the fiddle player, standing in the cold jamming away and it made me realize that he was better at playing the fiddle than I am at anything in my life. Then I realized that as good as he was, that he was standing on a street corner playing for dollars while Brittney Spears was somewhere getting a foot massage. I gave him a dollar and felt depressed for the both of us.

A rule of thumb to live by. The louder someone yells, the more they're lying.

I saw a big guy in a T-shirt and trucker hat get tossed from a bar. About 20 minutes later he came back wearing a pink argyle sweater vest over top of the t-shirt and still with the trucker hat. He made it about 30 seconds before he got thrown out again. Somehow he had convinced himself that putting a pink sweater on a 6'2" 250 lb man was a good disguise. I love drunk logic. It was yet another time that I wished I had fake schnoz and glasses , because I'm fairly certain I could have convinced him to make another run at it.