Tis the season of craft fairs and art sales, whether intimate like our own island fair, or expansive and all-encompassing like the Eastside Culture Crawl in Vancouver. Artists and artisans work steadily to make enough work to fill a table; and they practice a friendly but unattached demeanor to try to engage customers without appearing desperate. For many of us who are introverted and use our art as a form of communication, this type of public engagement can be quite challenging. Add the difficulty of pricing work and the discomfort of competing for sales with fellow creatives and the result is a human doing their best to mask their stress with poise.

   

And then there will be that customer, the one who picks up one of your open-hearted wares and expresses surprise over the cost, not realizing you have already dropped your prices to make your work more affordable. You pay yourself $10.00 an hour because at least you get to do what you love while others toil away as baristas making minimum wage. Oh wait, the minimum wage in BC is $17.40 an hour.

   

When I told my mother-in-law that I was going to do my Masters degree in fine art, she asked “to what end?”. I was so caught off guard that I snorted my tea, but she inadvertently got to the crux of the matter.  In many cases, higher education results in higher compensation for your work. Not with an art practice. A menial job done by an unskilled worker on our island often pays more per hour than what an artist can charge for their work and actually sell it.

   

We surround ourselves with objects, whether they be functional, artistic, or spiritual. The objects we invest in become signifiers of our aesthetics and values. We live in a society where globalization and capitalism have distorted the true cost of creating the objects and art pieces that we buy. Before you balk at the cost of a piece, hold it in your hand, or stand in front of it, and imagine what has gone into the making. Connect with it. Let it bring you joy or inspire curiosity. Find the value beyond the monetary and support the creative people in your community.

- Jen Brant