A couple of New York artists have figured out a way to get what they want. They've painted pictures of the things they desire and are selling those painting for exactly how much the depicted item would cost them. A painting of buffalo wings and celery costs $12.70. A cold mug of beer is $7.00. The steak you see above runs a cool $18.39. They do have pricier items, including an iPhone, a gym membership and financial security, but the food items are well painted and relatively inexpensive. Now, if only I could paint...
via Will Work for Food
7-31-2007 @10:07PM TC said... Cute idea, but a huge rip off. I know people who can draw a much more detailed picture of a steak for half the price. The picture shown above couldn't have taken more than 5 minutes to draw.
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8-01-2007 @3:03PM LR said... you know people who will draw a detailed steak for nine dollars and twenty cents?! what a deal! i think this is an argument along the lines of people thinking their kids could do a painting as well as jackson pollack or various abstract artists. perhaps they could, but it wouldn't be a pollack or a rothko or whatever. similarly, almost anyone can draw a steak, but who is buying it? it's all about context.
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8-02-2007 @12:27AM TC said... Well, obviously the artists who would draw for less money wouldn't be as 'famous'. My point is that there are those who would be able to do similar standards of work for less money. I still think this is an overrated gimmick. I also think that buying something for the sake of the label or trend instead of for the object itself is pretty superficial. No laws against such purchases, just my thought.
And are you seriously comparing the picture of the steak above to the works of Jackson Pollack? Pollack at least had some exploration in his paintings, this is just a commercial illustration.
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8-03-2007 @10:31AM tom said... Anyone find a link directly to the artists? I want to see more of these paintings!
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8-03-2007 @10:32AM Marisa McClellan said... Whoops! Tom, thanks for pointing out that I didn't link directly to the artists' page in the post. I've corrected that, so now there's a direct link to www.wantsforsale.com in the post.
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8-03-2007 @1:24PM dana said... What a cool idea. I wonder how they came up with this clever painting thing!
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8-03-2007 @3:53PM ben said... I think these are great... I'm an art student and fully appreciate these and would definitely buy some, but there site is down now! Guessing they exceeded their bandwith... anyhow, i'm sure many could paint these, but i'd rather have the story of trading a steak for a painting story.
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