Gallery Openings, Art Sales and Other Silliness

I've been an artist for a long time and have been selling my work for several years. I have no idea why people buy art, or why they buy my art. Tonight I went to a gallery opening for Bill Dubin, a watercolorist and new addition to the Mo's Gallery art scene. We hit it off immediately (a fellow insane person, willing to paint using the world's least forgiving medium, watercolor). The show was great and very cohesive. Lots of lively pictures of trolleys, including the ones down on 4th Avenue here in Tucson. Most of the people who showed up were friends of Nathan (the manager) or other Mo's people and their affiliates. Reminds me of the show I had at Alliance Bank, where everyone who showed up was a friend or an acquaintance. Unless you're way up there in the art scene, it's hard to attract the kind of unknown buyers who will purchase a painting opening night. Paintings usually sell prior to the opening or afterward with the possible exception of a very strong piece where the buyer doesn't want to lose the piece to someone else. To make a long story short, Bill didn't sell anything. I hope he will, but the art market has been very flat lately (along with just about every sector in George Bush's economy). I haven't sold anything in quite a while.

Until tonight. That's right, I sold a little oil painting at Bill Dubin's show. Ridiculous. Absurd. Painfully unpredictable.

But that's how it goes in this business. You just never know.