Modern Art in the Making is up for auction again. http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/112426450852?
I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. Mostly I draw animals, but sometimes I draw other things too. For a period of time my uncle encouraged me to design new cars and I would draw conversion vans and cars and trucks and imagine that someday someone might build them. In high school I took an art class where I learned how to improve my shading, and spent most of my time drawing animals again, fish, birds, deer, horses, and once one of my classmates joked that all she could draw was a polar bear in a snow storm (white on white – no drawing required!) so I drew a picture of a polar bear and her cub as a joke. I do like to have fun with my art sometimes.
I had some of my artwork displayed in restaurants for sale, but people didn’t really buy it, and the waitresses put it on the tables where food got splashed on it, so I pulled my drawings out of the restaurants. I even have a drawing that was hung in the Idaho State Senator’s office for a year. Once it served it’s time however, no one actually bought it after it became available for sale. I’ve always had trouble selling my artwork. People tell me how wonderful it is, how they wish they could draw like that, but they don’t buy my drawings, not often anyway. I’ve sold a few commissions to people of their own pets, and I greatly appreciate that support of my work. I also really enjoy making people happy with my art. I love presenting people with the drawing that they asked for and seeing the look on their faces when they hold it for the first time. I have tried many different methods of trying to sell my artwork. Back when my youngest child was a baby, I was trying to find a way to sell my artwork online. I came across Sotheby’s auctions and tried to find out how I could get my artwork into an auction.
It turns out artists are not allowed to submit their artwork for auction, ONLY Art Collector’s are allowed to auction artwork. This seems idotic to me, and absolutely is irritating. The only people making money in art are the collectors, the artists get zilch! I kept thinking there has got to be a way, so I kept searching to try to find a way to get my art into an art auction. I came across an auction of a painting that was two colors. It was blue on one side and yellow on the other. It was “cleverly” titled “Blue and Yellow,” and this painting sold for $17 million dollars. Yes. Million. And yet I was not allowed to put my detailed drawings of animals up for auction under any circumstances. I was so mad! My three year old could paint better than that!
I was so angry about it that I drew this painting of a Chimpanzee painting at random on a paper taped to the wall. I think Chimps would paint more creatively even than that $17m painting of blue and yellow. I tried to auction my chimp drawing on Ebay, but it did not sell. It has been framed, but the glass and the frame itself also broke, so it needs to be framed again. It has some minor damage to the edges, and one corner is folded. Overall though the drawing is still in good condition. A lot of things did not survive our move to Idaho, and my drawings are a bit worse for the wear. If I could get even on tenth what the “Blue and Yellow” sold for though at auction, it would solve most of our money problems. If I could get half that much, I could fund my game development team full time. That would be an amazing miracle. Right now though, I would settle for $800 because the sterotype of “starving artist” is a little more true than I would like it to be and we have bills to pay. So, the Million Dollar Chimp is up for auction again. It is 10″ x 13.5″ on standard drawing paper. Who will buy him?
Find it here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/112426450852?
This is a charity auction. A portion of this sale will benefit Mercy House International to help women who are worse off than I am have a chance for a fresh start in life. Mercy House International offers a safe place for women and children escaping domestic abuse.
