On Friday morning I went to baby-sit, as usual. I had time after that to come home and freshen up/rest for one hour before going back out to get Christy at the train station. Much to my surprise and delight, my daughter decided to join me.
We picked up Christy and went to park near Made by Hand Gallery, then ducked into a Thai place across the street to eat dinner. The experience at the gallery was good…it is a lovely space! It is not a pure gallery but rather a store that sells handmade arts and crafts with rotating art on the ‘gallery’ walls. This is the same setup as Sweet Mabel, where I hung my 12 TTV photographs.
Roldan West is the owner and artist-in-residence of Made by Hand, and it was an honor to meet him. He was very relaxed about the whole show in February (maybe March, too) and I found his typical artist temperament amusing. He does have an absolutely lovely business partner with whom we can hammer out the real details. We are having a show in February, though! Christy and I—a show of select self-portraits! We are hoping to push the “Women’s History month” angle to get the show extended through March, and Roldan seemed keen on the idea. We will bring a selection each the week before and spend likely a few hours deciding where to hang everything. Very exciting!! The idea will be to keep our pieces on the small side (with some large ones for impact purposes, I think), so that they are affordable.
And this then brings me to discuss value and pricing artwork—a discussion that has gone on for ages with no real resolution to be found. It is such a difficult thing to assess, is it not? We think of not only the time, but also the heart and sweat we put into our artwork and there is no monetary amount to do it justice. We think of the market and look at what others charge and try to match it. We think of trying to sell—sell anything at all! —and we charge too little. Some argue the psychology of it. If you charge too little, then the buyer will assume you are not very important or talented. If you charge too much, the buyer may assume you are an artist of the most rare caliber.
I have this problem not only with pricing my art, but pricing my portrait photography (which is an art in itself) and even with charging for babysitting. I seem to have a problem taking money, as much as I so desperately need it. What is this about? Is this an inherent self-esteem problem (still)? A friend of the mom for whom I baby-sit requested if I would include her son on Friday and to just let me know how much I would charge. I had no idea what to tell her. I phoned and she asked me what my rate for the regular baby girl was, and I told her. She said, “OK.”
I said, “oh, no that’s not necessary…just give me $x.xx and it will be fine. I’m there anyway!”
Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me? She said for me not to be silly. Turned out the boy was very sick and cranky and cried pretty much the whole time he was awake, and I was relieved she had insisted on my full rate. However! She handed me money when she picked up her son and it was an hour short. I saw it was an hour short, and said nothing. I couldn’t open my mouth. I thought, “it is still more than I would have charged” and then I kicked myself after she was gone. And you know what? She came back. She came back with more than what was due because she felt bad! And that was dinner for my daughter and me that night. That’s not too bad.
So after our talk with Roldan, we three left to drive back out to my neck of the woods and see how my photos looked hung at Sweet Mabel. My parents were meeting us there and they were having a reception in the store for First Friday. These were priced low as they are small and are part of a show of “Art under $100”. I marked them at $45, knowing I’m only getting a percentage of that (the store getting the other part). It was crowded with people when we got there after 8:30pm. I stood there taking it in and trying to squint over to where my photos were. I made my way through the crowd and displays to get a closer look and to check out the other photographer (she had Holga prints) and see what she was charging. I was pleased with all of it.
I didn’t even notice.
Christy and my daughter asked, “Which ones sold?” when I made it back to them. Huh? There were two missing from the wall—two obvious holes where they had been hanging—and I hadn’t noticed. Two!! I grinned. Tracy, the owner, told me one sold before she even finished hanging. I was ecstatic!! She said I could bring replacements over so I have to get those over to her before the weekend if I can manage it. The two that sold are up top.
And then on Saturday, after doing family photos for a holiday card for Liana, they asked if I wanted my sitting fee then or the whole thing or what. Liana and her husband who have been kicking me in the ass about getting things set up and yelling at me for having my prices too low (I offered to charge them double but they didn’t take me up on it…heh)…I looked at them and shrugged, “It doesn’t matter.” They shook their heads and her husband said, “Howabout we don’t pay you at all and you baby-sit while you are at it?”
Am I hopeless? I don’t think so. I just need more confidence. I was never good at faking it like some people are. It is an invaluable skill I just don’t have. I think with time, though, and with practice, I will get better at it.
So I’m back to wondering how to price the art that will go in Made by Hand in February. Roldan already said that nothing over $50.00 typically sells. I can’t offer anything of a decent size for $50.00…so what do I do? Hang 100 ttv’s?
I think not. I think most of the art will be geared towards “sellable”, but I will not sell myself short. I will have some art that is displayed how it deserves, and the price will reflect that.
I also think this will be something I struggle with for a long time.
