Re: Begging a responce


Peter Charles Fredrick (pete@fotem.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 16:23:28 +0000


Jeffrey D. Mathias Fri, 23 Jul 1999 wrote

>>A thought to ponder: How does selling one's work affect their work???
Is one able to completely disassociate the creation of their work from
the sale of their work especially if that is a substantial part of their
income??? There seems to be a great deal of freedom in not selling
anything. Just how do we go on??? Does one have more credibility; is
their art more pure without sales??? Not easy questions to answer; not
easy answers to live by.<<

Indeed a number of points to ponder

If indeed a substantial part of their income has come from their work I
suspect that commercial decisions have been made which will inevitably
impact on the freedom of creativity
I know from personal experience that although my personal aesthetic/subject
matter is non-commercial, there will be images that come up from time to
time that will sell what ever I do to them. A trip to my website will show
what I mean for instance I have a wall image of Elvis that I knew would
sell as soon as I clapped eyes on it, however I did not take the picture
for its salability but its content, I have other images which record wall
Graffiti which nobody will ever buy .I could over the years deliberately
chosen images that have major cult appeal and made a substantial living but
this was not the path down which I chose to tread.

Yes there is a great deal of freedom in not selling anything. However we
all need the approval of our peers to a greater or lesser extent, and who
has the sheer naked courage to know that what they are doing is right,
without some sort of acknowledgment I know I do not ,perhaps having this
courage is the measure of true genius ? I think our old Will Shakespeare
had it right " to thine own self be true "

Pete

http://www.fotem.demon.co.uk/ To visit petes parlour gallery, there is now a
Guestbook !



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:40:37