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Invest in Art for Enjoyment

Mona Lisa painting spoof

While on a visit to my relatives in Alberta, I came across an article in the Calgary Herald newspaper that caught my eye, “Invest in Art for Art’s Sake”. It made me smile, as the article says exactly what I have been telling my patrons for decades.

Often I am asked by a visitor to the gallery, “Should I buy this sculpture for investment?” What they are really asking is, will this art work appreciate in monetary value in the future? I have always replied that a Michael Binkley sculpture should appreciate in value over time, but that should not be the driving factor in the purchase of the art work. I always tell them the only real value one will get from my art works is the pleasure it will give them. The visual and tactile enjoyment one gets should be the deciding element.

In the article, Doug Levis states that volume of work, marketing, exposure, awards and not the least, talent all contribute to affecting the potential value of an artist’s work. I am confident that I have achieved a solid level in all those categories, at least to the extent that a two person manpower gallery can. The only element not discussed is that of the well-connected patron who takes a keen interest in an artist and uses its power to take an artist’s career to a higher level. Any “superstar” artist in history has had such a patron to attribute to the artist’s fame.

For an artist to be collected in any major Canadian public gallery, it is now mandatory to have a post-secondary degree. Heavy hitter patrons rely on these institutions to direct them on who to collect next, which assists in the rise in the monetary value that artist’s work. As I am a bit of a black sheep in the art world, it is difficult to ascend up the ranks when I am self-represented and without a pedigree of fancy art schooling.  So it is unlikely that my work will gain great monetary value in the short term, even with the joke of my dying.

But Michelle and I are very content in the knowledge that each of my sculptures has been purchased because the patron actually loved the piece for its own sake. We may not be millionaires at the bank, but we can languish in the fact that my art is paying dividends in people’s lives in the enjoyment of it alone.

Photo illustration: Kathryn Molcak.