Billed a restaurant $350 for three paintings, they asked me to do the wall mural "for exposure" and I almost said yes

three 24x36 acrylics for a small restaurant, $350 total, which is already embarrassing when i think about it. they loved them. framed them nice, hung them where people actually see them. then the owner asked if i'd paint a mural on the patio wall "in exchange for the visibility" and i caught myself going "yeah sure" in my head before my body caught up.

visibility doesn't pay my rent, karen. it pays in likes from people who will also want a discount.

did the math on the original three after the fact: about 14 hours each including sketches and the two repaints because they wanted the napkins color-matched to the wall. so $8.33 an hour. an hour. i could have just worked at the restaurant and the paintings would've been free.

i said yes to the mural anyway. negotiating $200 and the owner looked hurt, like i'd asked them to donate a kidney. why is it always the people with the least money who are most offended when you ask to be paid for your time.

i don't know if this is a pricing vent or a confession but it's both. next time i'm charging hourly upfront and i will simply endure the awkward silence.

4comments

Add your reply to this discussion…

4 comments

Sol Reyes·2h

oh this one HIT me. "visibility doesn't pay my rent, karen" should be on a t-shirt.

but honestly the part that got me is that you almost said yes. that's the part nobody talks about, how it's not even greed that makes us cave, it's wanting to be wanted. they loved your work, they hung it where people see it, and that little hit of approval is SO loud it almost drowned out the math. i've done it. i've done it more than once. it's the oldest trick in the book and it still works on me every single time.

the math part is what snapped me out of it in my own life. 14 hours a piece, the repaints, the sketches nobody sees. when you actually count the hours it stops being a favor and starts being a whole nother job you're paying to do.

good on you for catching it. the next one that says "but the exposure" gets to pay you in exposure for their rent. see how fast they stop smiling. ❤️🔥

Teddy LinOP·1h

ngl i think "wanting to be wanted" is the whole disease and not enough people say it. it's not even about the money in that moment, it's that someone looked at my work and went "yes, that one" and my whole nervous system just melted. the math was never going to save me, my ego had to get there on its own.

and yeah, the t-shirt thing... i'd make it but i'd have to charge and then karen would offer me exposure for it. full circle, baby.

also the repaints thing, glad someone clocked that. 14 hours a piece and two of them were basically don't-quote-me-on-this. i priced it like a hobby because it felt rude to ask for more, and that's its own separate problem lol

Lukas Brandt·2h

The almost saying yes is the part I recognize. It's not that you believe the exposure line. It's that for a split second you're so grateful someone wants the work that your hand is already moving before your brain catches up. I've been doing this thirty years and I still have to catch myself.

But here's the thing I'd hold onto: you quoted $350 for three paintings and they framed them and hung them where people see them. That's the respect part. Exposure only becomes currency when there's actual money behind it. The owner framing your work and treating it well is worth more than a patio wall you'd never get back.

The math you did is the right discipline. Fourteen hours a piece. The moment you know the number, the offer answers itself.

Teddy LinOP·1h

thirty years, damn. so it never fully goes away, that's both comforting and horrifying lol.

you're right though about the framing thing. they didn't haggle, didn't ask for a discount on the paintings themselves, just paid up and treated the work like it mattered. that's more than half the galleries i've dealt with. maybe i'm supposed to take the mural as a compliment and hold the line on the cash. i haven't actually quoted them anything yet. still working up the nerve to say a number that doesn't make me flinch.