Last night was the final night of the silent auction/art show to benefit the Legacy Land Trust, an organization I have supported for quite some time.
Contrary to what would seem common wisdom, the sales were a record high for them…. so apparently there is a pent up demand for affordable original quality art work! It’s possible to take some hope from this…. and maybe try and project it onto a larger scale, who knows.
I have donated to other non-profits in the past. sometimes they are organized and grateful, and send a letter or even a check for my portion, or at least invite me to the event. Sometimes, the paintings have seemingly dropped into a black hole – so I cross them off my very short list. Many artists are loath to keep donating work to causes, and you can get hit up quite often. I think it is an important gesture for a group to offer the artist something, perhaps 50% of the sale, rather than simply take the work, and all the proceeds. Otherwise, the artist only gets to deduct the cost of materials from their business taxes. And with a rather small painting, that could be a fairly small sum. In part, I do this to thin out work that will eventually be a burden to someone in the future. For those of us who are not famous or revered, the question of what to do with mom’s paintings and drawings could be an overwhelming puzzle. So that’s why after a certain number of years go by, and some work hasn’t found a home, one begins to look for other options!
My next task is to get the pages on this site with images more organized and updated…. I have more than two new paintings this year, and need to fix that for folks who click on ‘new paintings” –
erskinestudio.com 