Price tags...

A few years ago, two friends and I visited exhibitions at the Grahamstown Art Festival and we walked in on artist Daniel Novela talking to students about his work. This man is truly one of the finest artists whose work I have had the privilege to see.  He exhibited extensively overseas to great acclaim and the price tags of his paintings reflected just that - he was successful and his work respected and appreciated by art lovers.  One of the students referred to a specific painting (with quite a steep asking price) and asked him how long it took to paint the specific piece...   Daniel told him about 25 years - the students could not believe what they heard.  He went on to explain that it had taken him 25 years to get to the point where he could paint like that...!   In short, he had put in the hours experimenting, learning and honing his art and at last he was free to paint with finesse, confidence and understanding of his creative medium.   

A friend and I recently discussed pricing of artwork as it can be rather tricky, I think most artists find this to be a huge challenge.   The process of creating a piece of art whether it is textile art, pottery, sculptures etc. is slow and requires skill, lots of patience and experience.   Added to this will of course be the costs of the materials used which artists usually purchase at retail prices...  Often items needed for the process, cannot even be seen in the finished product but it must reflect in the price tag!  For some artwork, even electricity and water consumption must be factored in which will increase the cost of an item which the buying public often are not aware of...!     

The creative process is really addictive, but realistically, what does one do with all of the art pieces?  Obviously it is a good option to sell as it helps to recoup some of the expenses and it can finance the next burst of creativity while some artists make a living by selling their art!  As I've been in a creative limbo or slumber after Siyadala, I decided to make small mandalas to sell at the Dias Shoppe at the 2018 Dias Quilters' Guild annual Spring Show to get out of my limbo!  This provided an ideal opportunity for me to create and sell original pieces for collectors of fibre art.   I must admit, I initially planned to make 6 mandalas and ended up with 10, I was having great fun and wanted to experiment with different colour combinations and once I got going, I could not stop! 

The starting point was size as my focus was on selling, it had to be affordable!   As already mentioned, it is quite difficult to put a price tag on ones work...!   Workmanship, uniqueness of piece, stature of the artist and the concept should all play a role when deciding on value of a piece.   An artist who have honed his/her art/craft for more than 30 years and have won multiple awards for her/his work, should be confident enough to factor expertise into the price tag, a lesson learnt from Daniel Novela.

I made the mandalas in pairs, using colour combinations and the selection of fabric and threads as the common "thread".   Each mandala was individually designed, fused, raw edge appliqued/quilted and certain sections were outlined with couched cording.   All the mandalas were stretched onto artists canvas which was the ideal option for a small piece of fibre art.  All the mandalas were created from cotton and silk.

Herbs & Spice 1                                          Herbs & Spice 2

Lapis Lazuli 1                                             Lapis Lazuli 2   

Tropical Summer 1                                       Tropical Summer 2

Vintage 1                                                            Vintage 2

Vivid 1                                                            Vivid 2

I loved creating these mandalas and I trust it will also give the owners great joy to own a bit of my soul.