Pricing Our Art - The Battle of Over or Undervaluing our Art
I am curious, very curious as to whether pricing art in a show or exhibition is a constant battle among photographers and artists alike. How do we as artists deal with this internal conflict?
Very recently, today as a matter of fact I have been dealing with this particular conflict in my own mind and I confess I am really struggling with it. My work is on display at a venue and opening night was just last week. I received some very positive feedback about my work but there was one comment that struck deeper than the rest. Apparently my work is priced too high.
A barrage of questions and comments suddenly filled my head. My immediate thought was “well too bad for them” followed by “who do these people think they are?” and let’s not forget “what do they know about art?” After giving it some more thought, maybe I should just drop my price a little bit. Maybe more people will be interested and actually purchase some of my work. Then I began over thinking it and started to question whether or not I have been pricing all of my work too high? Is this possible? Could I have made more sales if my pricing was more accessible? Now the seed of doubt was planted in my head, what do I do?
What one person thinks is too low another may think is too high, it’s all subjective. You don’t want to undervalue your art and then pigeon hole yourself into a set price range but you also don’t want to overvalue it and not sell any. I actually had two friends ask me today “Don’t you think it’s better to sell pieces at a lesser profit than to not sell any pieces at all?”
Am I sacrificing my integrity as an artist if I drop my pricing because some people say it’s too high? Is this something that all artists go through when they are just starting out? I guess it is just one of the many learning curves that we all must endure and persevere through if we are going to make it in this business.
Image courtesy of the Artist Run Website