I still think I'm a talented artist, even if my art has no monetary value at this moment in time. I have had people buy my artwork before, but it only happens with one or two pieces every few years at the most! I did not sell any of my statues at comic con this year. In fact I have yet to make a sale to a buyer and art collector in the comic con art show since 2009! I love getting my work out there and seeing people or meeting people who like my narrative art! The question of most people comes up is, do people really like my art if it doesn't sell!? If I give my art out for free as gifts to people I always find someone who wants an original drawing or sculpture I made! But if I put a cash value price on it it doesn't sell. Compliments about my art are great to get as positive feedback, but it is always looming over my head and in my mind why does other peoples work sell so well and I don't have any collectors or buyers of my original artwork! People who I know like my family or relatives would see my art as good or qualified if my pieces got sold off. I think it just might take some time, maybe I need to make smaller sculptures that are going to cost less than $100 dollars. If I make more 'toby' mugs I could sell them for $8 to $35 dollars each, I bet depending on the amount of detail and how they turned out! Mass produced coffee mugs sold at Target and made in a factory in China without the artists or craftsman touch sell for $10 to $16 dollars each.
People seem to have an assumption your art is not very good if no one buys it or you aren't as talented as someone who sells their art all the time! We all forget Vincent Van Gogh didn't sell anything in his life time, maybe one or two paintings at the most! He survived off his brother Theo who ran and operated an art gallery in Paris France. When we think of Van Gogh art we think of the wheat field of black crows poster, and starry night coffee mugs, and the multi millions his paintings sell for in auction with international art collectors and investors.
Believe me I would like to have a following, or a waitlist for the art collectors to have to get on to before they can buy my work. I would like to be able to promise someone who buys my drawings or sculptures that they will be able to buy a new car or put their kids through college one day years from now if they go out and buy my art today before I would turn out to become famous and out of their price range to afford my work. But I can't guarantee that will happen. So far I have learned that many art gallery owners are not the easiest people to wow and win over and impress that you exist or matter to them. Not all of them are hard asses or snobs but I hate going into a gallery and feeling like I'm bugging them and irritating them with asking them how do I get my work shown? I have tried before, and talking to art gallery owners is never easy or relaxing. I know lots of art teachers my age whose ceramics classes I take who also feel that getting work shown and sold in a gallery is very difficult. Talking to an art gallery owner about showing your artwork is like asking out a sexy 27 year old girl who is a rockin perfect 10 out on a date as she passes you by on the street. I'm not afraid to do it, but you will get rejected and you will be handing all you power over them them to the option of them to smash on your heart you hand them for their approvalEven friends who are well known artists feel that having to play games with the gallery to get the collector who said he wants to buy it to actually do it and finally make the purchase don't like the song and dance of it all!