[TheForge] fire steels

[Andrew Vida]

And this goes right to the point I've been making for the past 25 years: 
people love and want art, but they do not want to pay for it.  Art is 
not really essential in any immediate sense.  If you do not have art you 
will not die the way you would if you didn't have water or food.  Art is 
just one of those back burner things in most peoples' lives.  We live in 
a time when depictions of Elvis on black velvet are at the budget limits 
of many folks.  Even better-to-do folks often have to choose between a 
decent piece of art and the next installment in their child's $150K 
college edumacation.  When pitted against these more basic and more 
immediate needs, the art will almost always lose out.

Then there are those with the mindset that an artist's time is not worth 
that much - after all, it's ONLY art.  Add to that the tremendous 
general ignorance of people that has come about as a result of the 
technologies that have brought us so many mass produced miracles.  For 
the most part, people have not the first clue of the difficulties in 
manufacturing art.  Honest to God, many seem to think Jed Clampett pulls 
Picasos out of his ass every Wednesday morning at 10:00 as if he were a 
laying hen.

Trying to sell fine art to a world that is ignorant of such things is 
like trying to teach a pig to sing.  I'm sure you know the rest of that 
story.

	-Andy "looky ma, I'm back in Wes'erginny" V.

dan tull wrote:
> That's what I have been saying for 15 yrs.
> When I have to pay a plumber $65/hr. , and much worse at his job than 
> me, I get on a soapbox.  Trouble is, there is not the demand.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David E. Smucker" 
> <davesmucker at hotmail.com>
> 
> 
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] fire steels
>> Lesson to be learned -- blacksmiths should charge as much for their 
>> work today as plumbers and electricians.  It is the story of supply 
>> and demand.
> 
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-- 

	-Andy V.

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