Buying art

We purchased two beautiful paintings this past weekend in Santa Fe, but it's the one we didn't buy that illustrates how Niall and I choose art. One of the galleries in Santa Fe has an exhibition of Maryland artist Grace Kim. The exhibition opened last Friday and by the time we came in Sunday, the gallery had sold ten paintings, including four to staff (which the staff themselves felt was unprecedented).

We loved, loved, loved her work. Her still lifes (of flowers and vegetables grown in her own garden) have an amazing vibrancy and gorgeous reflections. I hope very much to own one or more of her paintings someday. But, we didn't buy any on this trip. Why not? Well, her work is quite expensive relative to our normal spending habits. If, however, any of the paintings shown here had been available, my vague sense that we should save the money to fix up the bathroom would have flown right out the window. No, the real reason is that that pieces that leaped out at me and Niall, the ones that we imagined we could spend the rest of our lives viewing with pleasure, were already sold. There were other lovely paintings available, but they weren't the right ones. This standard is probably so obvious to everyone else that they're wondering why I bother to articulate it, but as someone who fancies herself as a cool, rational decision-maker (ha!), the freedom to choose based solely on pure, intuitive desire is perhaps one of my favorite aspects of collecting art.

So, adios for now Grace Kim, but I hope we find you again.