The Cost of Creation

Rolls of canvas - waiting to be stretched, primed and used. Not much more to say about this one.

A friend asked me the other day how much all the art materials that are filling up my studio are worth. I told him I had no idea and that I'd prefer not to have to think about it. He grabbed a catalog and started leafing through it, asking me questions about various items from time to time.
After about ten minutes he had come to the conclusion that I had amassed a fortune in art materials and his tone of voice seemed to suggest that perhaps I should feel guilty about it.

'Really,' he said. 'I think all of this stuff is worth more than my car.' I contemplated squinting my eyes and asking him if he realized that this was my work and not some decadent hobby, but I had the feeling that this would go nowhere and that it would just upset me. Instead I tried to match his (perhaps imagined) accusatory tone and said: 'Well... I don't have a car.'

Can you tell that I don't have very many friends? :)
At the time I felt good about my retort, but maybe I've just become too touchy.


There. I went from 'Not much more to say about this one.' to a whole page of uncontrolled rambling. Apologies.