For four years I sold the same size piece, 18x24, mixed media on panel, for 240. Flat. Never changed it. Two people bought one every year like clockwork, one of them bought three over that stretch.

In January I put it at 315. Not a big jump on paper. I sat on that number for two weeks before I even typed it into the listing.

One of the regulars just... stopped. Didn't say anything, didn't ask, just gone. The other one bought anyway and said "worth it" which I have decided not to think about too hard.

Thing is 240 was set in 2021 when I was buying cheap canvas and my rent was lower. I did the math in the fall and at 240 I was making around 9 an hour on the painting, and that's before the framing, before the prints, before any of the admin. So the raise wasn't even a raise, it was catching up to where I should have been.

Still felt like asking for a kidney.

I don't actually know if losing that buyer means I priced wrong or if it means the work got too expensive for that person specifically, which is a different thing. She used to say she bought one every year as a kind of anniversary thing with her sister. So maybe it was never about 240 at all.

Anyway. 315 now. Nobody has blinked except the one who left.