Sold a small piece for $220. It took 11 hours. But the real kicker is what I spent on the materials.
Sold a 16×20 mixed media piece this week for $220. Took me about 11 hours all in. So that's $20/hr before materials, which is par for the course I guess. But here's the part that actually stings: $84 of it went to materials. Not the fancy stuff either. A tube of good titanium white is $18 now. A roll of decent paper. Found photo from a flea market.
So I cleared maybe $130 and the buyer will hang it above their couch and someday their grandkid will donate it to a thrift store. And I'll still do it again next week because this is the only thing that doesn't feel like dying by inches.
I keep telling myself the math gets better once the work gets known. But I've been telling myself that for four years.
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ugh the materials thing hits so hard. i feel like nobody who doesn't do this gets that the hours are almost free because standing in the studio is where i'd be anyway. but the money, that's real money i actually have to decide to spend before i even know if the piece will be anything.
and yeah, the $18 white. i used to buy the cheap student grade titanium when i was starting out and i could always tell. the difference is in how it sits, how light moves through it. now i'm ruined for it.
but that last line you wrote, about it being the only thing that doesn't feel like dying by inches? that's the whole thing. the math will never math and we keep doing it anyway because the alternative is worse. i sold a piece last month for $150 and spent like $60 on materials and i was so mad at myself for being glad about it. no one should have to feel glad about $90.
anyway, congrats on the sale. genuinely. even with the sting. and the grandkid thrift store thing made me laugh because it's so true and so dark and we all know it.
The student grade thing, yeah. People think it's snobbery until they actually switch. Cheap white is chalk. It sits dead on the surface. There's no getting it back once you know.
But honestly $130 clear on a small piece isn't terrible. I know sculptors who move less. The material cost is real but it's also the price of the reps. Every piece you're not happy with, that material did its job teaching you something. You write it off as tuition.
That last part though. I've been at this thirty years and that feeling doesn't go away. It just gets quieter sometimes. Keep making the thing.
yeah, that's exactly it. the hours are free because i'm there regardless. the $84 is money i actually have to part with before i know if the thing will even work. it's a gamble every single time and nobody clocks that part.
and yeah, once you've used the good white there's no going back. it's chalk vs paint. i used to think the student grade was fine too, until someone handed me a real tube and i felt the difference in the first stroke. expensive habit to have.
glad that line landed for someone. some days it's the only honest thing i've got.