NUMEMBER 29 Donating your art to charity

Donating your art to fund raising organizations for charitable causes sounds like a worthy and honorable thing to do. I have donated some of my art for worthy causes to discover that my donated work of art did not help very much.

These fund raising organizations usually know nothing about the artist nor the content of his or her art. Furthermore they are not art professionals and know little about art. They know nothing about how to value a work of art so as to present it as a valuable purchase.

You could donate a Picasso, with signature disguised, to be auctioned off and it would be a miracle if it auctioned off for more than a hundred dollars. This is somewhat how much confidence I have in the general public and the art auctioneer in appreciating the importance of (1) the art work, and (2) the artist donating the piece.

The works that I donated auctioned off for $150.00 and $75.00 respectively. I provided my business cards with the sculptures in hopes that the new owners might have enough respect to contact me, but I never heard from them.

I also requested, and was assured that the fund raising organization would provide me with the names and contact information of the new owners of my art. I like to document the whereabouts of the works that I have sold or transferred to persons or organizations. The fund raisers failed to provide me with this information. I think this to be very unprofessional.

When an artist offers up his or her works of art to be auctioned off by non-professionals they perpetuate the perception that artists are unimportant and unworthy of being paid an appropriate price for their talent. When you do not value your art what makes you think others will value your art.

Lets get real. A wealthy art collector may purchase a Van Gogh for millions and display it with pride in his home or office, but you may produce a painting much more interesting with greater content and execution of talent than the Van Gogh, yet you may be dismissed as unimportant in the art community.

When we perpetuate our own unworthiness others will believe us.

I am fully aware that art is subjective and by nature some people will value one painting or sculpture over other works of art, and this is the way it should be, but you should never sabotage the value of your work by giving it to unworthy recipients. Mathew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. This may sound a little much but metaphorically speaking you can see that by casting your works of art before those that do not appreciate you or your work will in effect rend your self image. I can not stress enough that you should not do this to yourself. It is better to produce fine works of art to have and enjoy for yourself than to give it to unworthy recipients.

You know that people are notorious for buying expensive toys and not long after tear them up, loose them or sell them at yard sells. The love for their toys is short lived, so don't let your art become a cheap toy to be discarded by these kinds of people.

I know that there is no guarantee of the life of a work of art being a long one but you can enhance the chances of the longevity of this work by giving it an appropriate value.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that it is appropriate to give good works of art to truly appreciative persons and persons that understand the gift that you've offered but never give it to people merely because they want you to give it up, and then they cheapen it because of their ignorance.

If you want to donate to worthy organizations give money. The worst thing that can happen will be the misappropriation of funds.

Finton