Separation Anxiety

Sometimes I sell a piece that I'm not quite ready to sell. I really hate it when one sells too quickly. Six months to a year of having a piece is probably enough, after that it starts to feel old, the new work starts to push it aside and gain more attention. It also starts to take the lack of sale personally and I start to feel sorry for it. To sell in the half year period, half a year after being finished, seems to really be the perfect time to part with it. But when one sells within two months, that really is too quick. I'm sure this makes me less than the ideal salesman of my own work. I can talk about them all day but when people start getting interested in buying I start to get anxious, especially if it is one that I haven't had for that long. I'm generally happy to sell older work, but I tend to be more sad than excited about selling new pieces. I didn't really think much about this until this weekend when a couple picked the piece below. When they chose it I felt like asking them if they were sure they wanted that one, checking with them if there wasn't something else they wanted. But, when a piece is on the wall with a price on it, it is hard to backtrack and say you can't have it, not if you really want to be a professional artist. Lucky for them they were real art buyers and didn't need me to talk too much about the work, they knew what they wanted. If I had talked more I'm sure I could have talked them out of it.

Untitled
16" x 13" x 1"