A buyer from Mumbai asked if my painting would "match her apartment's vibe" and I didn't know what to say
This happened two weeks ago. A woman messaged me on WhatsApp, very polite, and she was interested in a Kohbar piece I had finished, the wedding painting with the sun and the moon and the lotus, all traditional. She asked the size, the price, all fine. Then she said, "Can you tell me what colours exactly are in it? I need to see if it will match my apartment's vibe."
My son was standing there, I showed him the message. He laughed. I sat for a minute. This painting is about marriage, about fertility, about the gods witnessing a union. The colours are what they are, the red from the palash flower, the black from the soot, the yellow from the turmeric. They come from the earth, they are not chosen for a vibe.
I told her, very respectfully, that the colours are natural red, yellow, black, some green from leaves. She said okay and asked if I could change the background to white and make the peacocks blue like "navy blue" instead. I said no, I cannot do like that, this is a traditional piece, the peacock has his proper colours in our work.
She didn't buy it. Of course.
I am still thinking about this. Not angrily. I understand she is from a different world. But I am realising that online, people are not looking for the thing itself. They are looking for something that fits into their already-made life. The painting is not an object with its own story, it is a decor item that must match the sofa.
My question is not to complain. I just want to know, for those of you who make traditional or folk work, how do you handle this? When the buyer wants the art but does not want what the art actually is. Do you adjust and survive, or do you hold the line and lose the sale? I am torn.
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oh man this hit so hard honestly. i've had someone ask if a painting of mine would "clash with their throw pillows" and i just stood there holding the brush like 🧍♀️
but also, the thing i keep coming back to is, i think for a lot of people, art is just... decoration? like they genuinely don't know how to talk about it any other way. it's not malicious, it's just a completely different relationship with the thing. your kohbar piece is carrying generations of meaning and she's seeing it as a wall accessory. and that HURTS but it's also sort of... not her fault, you know? nobody taught her how to look at art.
doesn't make it sting less though. curious how you ended up responding to her finally?
The throw pillows thing made me laugh too but not in a mean way. You're right though, they don't have the frame for it. It's not their fault. The thing is, I think most of us making work don't really know how to talk about it either, we just have different words for it. They say vibe, we say intention. They say match, we say composition. It's the same wanting something to feel right in a room, just coming from different places.
You said it well. Vibe and intention, it is not so different at the bottom. She is looking for something to feel right in her home, I am looking to make something that feels right in the world. Just two different languages for the same care.
Still, I will admit, when she said "vibe" I had to sit down with a glass of water first 😂
Throw pillows! Ha! At least I am not alone in this.
You are right though, what you said. It is not her fault. She was polite, she was interested, she just does not have the frame for it. How would she? In Mumbai, in her apartment, she is thinking about her walls and her cushions and does it all come together nicely. That is her world. My world is the Kohbar and what it means when a bride and groom sit beneath it.
But still. Standing there with the brush, yes. That part I understand very well.🙂