Giselle, why don’t you sell prints?
Over the years people have expressed how expensive original art is. They say things like, “I could just go to Ikea or Homesense and fill my walls for much less. Yes, you certainly can do that but here are some reasons to invest in original art…
I made the decision early on in my career that I wanted my art to hold it’s value and increase in value as time went on. Years ago, I used to have each new painting printed onto a greeting card. I was eventually selling them wholesale to card shops all over central Alberta. I would spend my days back and forth from the printer and folding & packaging cards and driving to and from the card shops fulfilling order. All of my time was spent working on the card sales. Eventually I had to decide, do I want a card business or do I want to be an artist and paint? That was an easy question to answer. I wanted more time at the easel, so I stopped calling the card shops to fill orders and got back to painting.
A lot of artists make prints of their work and that is one way to earn a living. I sort of gave it a go with selling my cards. But once I made the decision to streamline how I was spending my time, I feel most fulfilled creating new paintings. I’ve noticed that the momentum can be lost in creating new art all the time when you have hundreds of prints to sell when you are doing an art show. I am forced to create new art all the time. The pressure is on to have new original works for sale each time I do an art show. It continually pushes me to come up with new fresh work all the time and keeps my creativity at work. Exercising the creative muscle all the time breeds more ideas.
I feel like if I had hundreds of prints of one painting, it waters down the value of the original painting. My customers like knowing they have the one and only painting. There are no reproductions of the painting they spent a few thousand dollars on.
So yes, original art is expensive and it should be. It is one-of-a-kind. When you think how much you sent on your TV, living room furniture, a dining room table or your bedroom set, consider it as a timeless piece of furniture that will be passed down from generation to generation.
It is just my opinion, but prints are basically an expensive poster. They can still cost quite a bit. So when people ask me if they can buy prints from me, I ask what their budget is and even set up a layaway plan to chip away monthly at their favrte painting and invest in an original instead.
I can’t tell you how many homes I have hung an original painting in and helping them remove the print they have on their wall. They often say, “We are going to take that one down. It’s JUST A PRINT.” Nobody says, “It’s just an original.” When people have an original, they like to tell me about who the artist is and how much they spent on it. They are proud of they collection and look at it as an investment.
No print can replace an original painting. You lose the personal touch of the actual paint the artist used to create that painting. You lose the energy that was put into the painting with prints. Original art has the energy, the materials and the vibe and that’s what you are paying for.
Original art is an investment. It should increase in value over the years. Prints don’t increase in value and they often end up in a garage sale or a thrift store. The artist you purchased from 10 years ago should have increased their prices from 10 years ago as well.
Another reason I don’t print my art on merchandise like clothing, mugs, iPad cases etc, is yes, I could work really hard at selling those things for $25-50 but I am too busy at work in studio creating original paintings, coming up with new ideas and working hard at making art that can sell for several thousand dollars. Creating art that holds value is important to me. Art that will hang on someone’s wall for many years and then get passed on to their children and their children’s children.
I hope you enjoyed reading why I don’t sell prints. Staying focused on what I feel most fulfilled doing has helped my career in so many ways. Regardless of how much money could be made doing other things, what I love most about what I do is creating fresh new art all the time and I will continue to do that as long as I can and as long as I am able.
Thanks for reading!
xox, G
