STORY TIME: It's hard to be charitable when you need money...
I was at a family get-together last night and my mom wanted me to bring my paintings and my paints to show that side of the family what I do. Some of my relatives were from about an hour away but we see them only a few times a year, and some of my relatives were in town from WAY outta state and I hadn't seen them in a few years.
I started out with just showing my paintings in the living room... everyone loved them and couldn't believe it was "just spray paint" (you know - the usual comments from ppl that haven't seen this art form). But then as I was putting them away one of my aunts really wanted one of my landscapes for her kitchen. They didn't have any money on them, plus I really didn't bring my art just to try and make money off of my family - so my first instinct was to just let her have it. She's FAMILY after all! She argued for a minute, but I convinced her to take it and told her "that I can always paint another one" and "I was tired of carrying that one around anyway", etc.
Then they wanted me to show them how I paint so I set up a quick working space on the garage floor. Man it was hot out there! I did a quick black & white landscape, then followed with a quick spacepainting of just planets. Of course they loved watching and thought it was the coolest thing ever. BUT when I was done painting another one of my aunts wanted to get a couple paintings too! She really loved this small Cross painting that I had, and she wanted to get these other 2 paintings for her daughters (that weren't there). She said she didn't have any money but that she could send me a check or something when she got home. So of course I said she could have them - what else could I do - I had already given a painting to my other aunt, plus I didn't feel right taking money from them in the first place...
So I ended up giving away 4 paintings last night... and that's hard to do when my wife and I are hurting for money right now. I guess another angle is to remind myself that I'm not painting as a 2nd source of income... and I'm sure if I did the math real quick I'd find that I've made enough in the past to more than cover the cost of those paintings. Of course, when you need money, it's not the 'cost' of the painting that you're giving away - it's the 'value' that you place on it that you end up missing out on.
Maybe I need to do more charity-type things so that I can get used to letting go more often. :)
