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When I was a kid and later a young married adult with children I was constantly told how buying a house was important, that it was the one investment you could make that over time you would benefit from. There was a time you could, even if you didn't have a lot of money, purchase a house. It might not have even been much of a house but you could work on it, improve it. You slowly pay off your mortgage and the house slowly Became worth more then you paid. Then at some point you could sell it, maybe buy something bigger, better and know you just reinvested your money in a sure thing, another house. Or live in that house, payed it off knowing that when retirement age came you could sell it, down size, and due to the profit made from selling the house you had more then just the poultry retirement from your workplace and Social Security, or maybe it will be the inheritance you can leave your kids and grandkids. It used to be said if you had land you were somebody. This wasn't that long ago either, less then twenty years ago.

The prices of houses fluctuatates about as much as gas prices now days. Some experts (I think there is a nefarious reason for saying this) are suggesting that the stock market is a better investment then a house, ugh. Maybe they are right? The house we live in today, the one we hope to sell this year (more on the move in future blogs) and squeeze out enough profit to buy elsewhere as its worth is only a little more then what we paid just over twelve years ago, though at the peak of the bubble was worth twice what we paid, has fluctuated in the last years. Up, then down, then up, now down. We thought about selling the house at the peak, we saw profit, we thought greedily for a moment, then realized that if we sold it we could only afford less house then we already had because prices were unreasonably and artificially high. So we stayed. I will not go into why I think all this has happened, it would take to long and I would sound like a conspiracy nut and this really is about art, I promise. But I want to say one thing more; I see all this as having started just after the year 2001. I say this because that is when I started to be affected adversely, and I first started seeing the art market adversely affected.

So how does this have anything to do with art? More specifically the art market? Sit close children and I will tell you how. First, the unstable housing market is not the only problem that affects the art market, there are many problems, but it is the one I want to talk about now. Before the year 2001, my paintings were not selling badly, I wasn't going to be rich but things were headed in a good direction. My market was middle class buyers, some interior designers and that was OK by me, the middle class needs art too, not just the rich.Then things changed, no, no it had nothing to do with that horrible event of 9/11, don't let anyone fool you about that. No it had more to do with elected government officials and the influence of very big money. So things become unstable, not for all of us but for many, mostly those who could suffer and loose the most. There were and still are promises of making things better but so far it's just a band-aid on a festering wound. We are building a foundation on sand.

So what about the art market? Since things are unstable we artists can not expect to market as we once did. Though our customers may not have changed as to who they are, they have changed as to what they spend. I am more careful with what I purchase, I give more thought to it, make decisions, buy this or buy that, not both. So if I am doing that so are collectors. I want the most for the least amount spent. So are the middle class art buyers. So though at one time I could sell paintings for a couple thousand dollars or more each, maybe not now. Maybe I need to adjust my prices to fit the buying market. Yes I could reach for the high end market and maybe, just maybe I'll get there, and there is no harm in trying for that lofty goal. But what about now?

The financial state of the art market, actually the world as I see it, is unstable and the housing market is just one symptom. People are rightfully afraid to spend uneccessarily, yet they still want what they want. So there is a place, a market for artists to sell. OK, we might not make millions or even hundreds of thousands of dollars but there is still a chance to make money, maybe even enough to live on. The old idea of once a price is set for a work of art it can not be lowered is no longer applicable. No other industry will NOT lower a price if they need to. Just look at how prices of everything fluctuates. Ah, but what about art being an investment, that changes things, right? Nope. The vast majority of art is not a good investment anyway, if someone wants to by my art thinking it will be worth more in the future, fine, I will not stop them, but I will make no promises either as to its growing in worth. 'Buy it because you love it', I tell them.

Things seem bad for art, and it is. It could get better, but when? How? I don't know. But if we want to survive as artists we need to change thinking, break away from the old ways. Think more independently, be more forceful with our dealings. We need to be fair but not let ourselves be taken advantage of. We need to find the market that best fits us in type of art sold and price of art you want to sell. Things could change. Believe it or not after reading the above I'm a positive thinking person, I hope for good change. But change doesn't mean the old ways get good again, it could mean the old ways go away and the new ways are better.