The sliding scale trap, why I stopped letting people name their own price
I used to do this thing where I'd tell people "pay what you can afford" because I genuinely believed in making art accessible and also I hate conflict LOL.
But here's what kept happening:
Someone who clearly had money would pay me $20 for a charcoal portrait that took me 6 hours. And I'd smile and say thank you because I SAID they could name the price and I didn't want to be a hypocrite.
Meanwhile I had a single mom pay me $150 for a small drawing because she said "I know what labor costs and I want you to keep making work."
The sliding scale only works if people are honest. And I realized I was letting the people who COULD pay more off the hook because I was scared to just... state my price like a real businessperson.
Now I just say what it costs. If someone genuinely can't afford it I'll trade or work something out one on one. But I stopped making my pricing a charity auction where the rich get the discount.
Anyone else do the "honor system" thing and regret it?
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Yeah, this tracks. The problem with "pay what you can" is it asks the wrong person to set the value. You're expecting the buyer to bring honesty and self-awareness, but what they actually bring is their own relationship to money and art, which is often distorted in one direction or the other.
The single mom who paid you $150, she knows what a hour of someone's life is worth. That's not generosity, that's recognition. The other person paying $20 for six hours of work, that's not dishonesty exactly, it's just someone who's never had to think about what labour costs because they've never been on the side where it matters.
I've seen this in my own studio. When I was younger and desperate for any sale, I'd let people talk me down. It never led to anything good, not for me, not for the work. The people who respected the price also respected the painting. The ones who haggled treated it like a commodity they were doing me a favour by taking off my hands.
I don't think sliding scale is a trap in every situation. But it needs structure, actual brackets, income bands, something that takes the burden off the buyer's conscience and puts it on a system instead. Leave it to goodwill and you'll always get the worst of both worlds.
the bit about "that's not generosity, that's recognition" really got me. because yes. that's exactly it. the single mom didn't think she was being generous, she was just being a normal person who respects other people's labor. and somehow that's become exceptional.
i think about her all the time honestly. she restored something in me that the $20 people kept chipping away at. made me remember i'm not just performing accessibility for strangers who won't even look me in the eye when they hand me a crumpled bill.