I guess that the general stereotype of artists includes the idea that we are essentially not mathematically-minded. Theories of the dominance of brain hemispheres (which have interested me for a long time) would tend to support this. Nevertheless, there is no getting away from the fact that at the very least we need to be able to tackle basic arithmetic. This fact was brought home to me today, preparing for my forthcoming exhibition at the South Square Centre.
A fair proportion of the items I intend to display at South Square last appeared in public at my show in The Manor House, in Ilkley, last year. As I prepared my price labels yesterday an important fact registered. The commission on sales charged at Ilkley was 30%. The commission levied by South Square is about a half of that. Before going off to the Leeds Wall for my weekly climbing session this morning, I had to sit down at the computer and work out what that fact might mean for the prices I charge in Thornton. The sum isn’t difficult, of course, but I did at least have to work out what was the proportion of my Ilkley price on each picture, deduct that from the list price, divide this by two, and add the product to the base-level price without commission.
Those of you who revel in mathematical questions will no doubt scoff at the elementary nature of this procedure. Nevertheless, I’m quite proud of the expeditious way in which I sorted it all out.