Why do I sell my art?

I have just come up for air after a big push to get new work finished and printed ahead of Derbyshire Open Arts Festival. DOA is one of the UK’s largest art trails across one of the UK’s largest counties. It wasn’t just another show for me, it was me coming back into the art market after the Covid years. I wanted to show new work and re-establish myself with new products and prints to share displayed on new stands. I wanted to stand beside my work and feel proud!

Not all artists and makers sell. To some it is enough to make and display their own creations in their home. Others give it away and spread the joy of creativity. I have always liked the entrepreneurial element of running a creative business. I first sold my creative work age 12 on a stall at the school that my Mum worked at - making Fimo brooches.

What do I get from selling my work? I really enjoy selling my work face-to-face at art markets and art trails. It’s a wonderful way to connect to my audience and to see someone fall in love with a piece of art that I have created is really fulfilling.

I started my working life as a textile designer and created work that was then taken to trade fairs to be sold. I would create dozens of designs in collections and by the wonders of my agent taking it out to a global market, into a sea of other designs, somehow I would sell a few and make some income. It’s a challenge to stay motivated and keep creating work when you have no idea if it will sell or not. When I make art and frame it, I create a collection of landscapes that I have lived, loved and expressed in paint, paper and stitch. When I have planned a stand and had products made and then put together an exhibition stand….then, and only then do I get to see if anyone likes it enough to spend their earnings on it.

When it comes to the ‘I would like to buy this please’ there’s an exchange of love. They have fallen for a piece of art, an ephemeral collection of colours and marks. They have justified the purchase to themselves and their eyes let me know that in a hard-nosed world there are people who see all the layers of what I do and want to take a home a piece of that. I fall in love with them at that moment!!

These sales validate what I do. They validate how hard I work. They validate an aspiration that dreamers, artists, makers and thinkers are important in our culture. These transactions feed me in ways beyond topping me up with pasta and beans. They validate my soul and that is a blessing.

Thank you to all who visited me at the weekend, for those that talked, looked, ooh-ed and aah-ed and to those who purchased and allow me to keep living my dream to make art and nurture creativity in others.