Salaric

A few years ago I donated a piece of my art work – yesterday it was returned to me – as it had spent the last couple of years sitting in a store room. The piece is called The Cricket Gear and was the first piece I painted for my GCSE’s. I was 14 and it took me a terms worth of lessons plus a holiday of painting on the kitchen table to do. I had it in mind as a present for my Granddad but unfortunately he died before it was released from the school (they kept several of my pieces for a while and the teacher even offered to buy them off of me!)

It is framed behind glass so I can’t get a good photo of it and it is somewhat sun faded compared to how it was. It is a picture I would be annoyed to paint now – I look at it and see mistakes but at the same time I know it surpasses stuff I have seen for sale for alot of money.

I’m not sure how I feel about the return – I am hurt as I think any artist would be to be honest but at least it is no longer sitting in a store room. And I wonder about art and society – my husband points out that it is hard for people to tell the difference between a print and a painting and that even hand painted stuff is cheap as cheap from other countries and is bulk bought in. I put a lot of work into this piece and part of me was arrogant enough to feel that I was leaving a legacy by donating it.

Fortunately this as happened at a time when there are many brilliant things happening to me in the creative world so it is not as devastating as it could have been. Also I feel like I am being childish in being upset – I can’t expect people to want my stuff after all.

Of course my mother is over the moon as she had been annoyed I’d given it away in the first place and has a place set aside for it on her wall.