On Wednesday I went to a Halloween themed art exhibition at These Walls Don't Lie.
I didn't really intend to buy anything, I just went along because a) it was an exhibition on a different night and b) it was Halloween themed, and although I'm not really a "Halloween" person, I do like things on the dark and gothic side, so I figured there might be some interesting pieces.
In the last room at TWDL, there was a piece by Espionage Gallery owner, Joshua Smith. It was a stencil piece in the style of a 1950's movie poster for a fictional Italian horror movie about a photographer.
That pretty much presses all of my buttons... 1950's graphic styling, retro movie poster, the main figure was male (the majority of Josh's work is women, and this had a woman on it but more as an accessory ala the poster for For Your Eyes Only), and it was about a photographer.
The factor that really pushed me over the edge was the fact that it was an edition of 1 of 1. So, yeah, buttons a plenty.
Add this to the customised Munny figures I bought at the Espionage show a couple of weeks ago (one of which is featured above), although the other one is part of Ma's Christmas present, and it brings the number of art pieces I own up to 26... and 20 of those have been bought in the last year (17 of those from Espionage). And that's not counting the five Art Burger prints I've collected from Burger Theory (which would take the current total to 31).
But that kind of got me thinking.
About my art collection, about the fact that I really do need to take photos of all the pieces and create my own catalogue/database of what I have, about spending a not inconsiderable amount of money in the last year on art, about what to do with it both now and in the future and when to say "no more".
Actually that last one is the hardest, since I'm a born collector and if I see something pretty that I can own, I want to own it.
I have thought that it would be awesome if at some point I was able to do an exhibition of the work I've collected, or if not, it would be awesome if I could leave the work to one of the galleries at some far flung date in the future. Although having a quick look at the particular governmental hoops you need to jump through to do that is a little daunting.
From the purchasing perspective, I look at it this way... I don't drink, smoke or take drugs. I don't have a partner or any dependents. I don't have a mortgage or a car loan and I'm not paying off a university debt. I don't buy books or DVDs like I used to, I'm not someone who buys excessive amounts of clothes or shoes, there's normally money left over in my wallet at the end of the week and I currently have more savings in the bank than I have ever had in my entire life.
Beyond a casual and infrequent obsession with Lego I really don't have that many purchasing vices. So instead I buy artwork.
The artists aren't always local (although I'd probably say that the majority of the artists I have bought at least started out as Adelaide locals), but in the same way that I see funding Kickstarter/Pozible campaigns as a modern day equivalent to the artist's patron of old, I like to think of my art buying in the same way.
I'm supporting local businesses in the gallery. I'm allowing an artist the opportunity to make more art, and I get something that I love out of it too.
The only actual problem is that I don't have anywhere to hang 95% of the pieces I have, let alone any new pieces.
And I say all this with a catalogue of Cameron Brideoake's work sitting next to me with little crosses in it.
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