Our decision to move house has had the unsurprising consequence of drawing attention to just how much space my art work has come to take up. The new house will have slightly less space than this one, although I will still be blessed with a studio of my own. Nevertheless, I have had to grapple with the fact that there is really no reason why I should hang on to as much of my past output as I have done. Some of it has to go! Not surprisingly, this has been quite a testing experience. I am trying to be honest with myself, and I have to admit that items which did at one time have some value to be are, viewed through the “telescope” of time, actually not all that good. Some things will never be exhibited again …. and perhaps never really deserved to be shown in the first place. One lives and learns.
The question arises, therefore, as to what to do with the items which I have condemned to oblivion. It stuck me quite early in the reviewing process that (putting it bluntly) in some cases the frame was of greater value than the picture! (Ouch! but true.) The idea came to me after relatively little reflection that there might be a market for second-hand frames. There is, in the Bradford area, a substantial population of amateur artists who might well welcome the opportunity to get hold of good quality frames at little cost.
Over the coming week-end, therefore, I will be holding a sale of the frames I believe to be surplus to my likely requirements. On Saturday and Sunday I intend to hire a room any the South Square Centre (our local art centre) where I will be open for business in my new-found role as a shop-keeper. I have no idea how it will go, but it will surely be an interesting venture and (I hope) fairly profitable.
As a matter of record, I estimate that about a quarter of the items I had in my collection will be junked, although I suspect that if I had been more severe with myself that proportion might have risen to around a third.