Andy Smith Photography
Purchasing images is now much easier but must be made through the Andy Smith Photography Store where you can buy each image in the size and medium that suits your needs. You can also view it in the chosen size in various locations using the wall color where it will hang. NOT ALL IMAGES ARE IN THE STORE. If you see an image you wish to purchase and it is not in the store use the contact form in the store to send a message with the name and number of the image and I will put it in the store and notify you.
"How do we create a world in which people don't think of art as a product but as a relationship?" Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking
Pricing Philosophy
Pricing is always difficult for an artist since it is part of living in a society where money has come to represent the value of everything. This art is my gift to the world. It is an expression of who I am. I, like you, am a part of nature, the natural world that operates outside of any human attempts to control it. My art is an expression of my relationship to the natural world. I am an active, creative participant in the vastness of the universe, yet not separate from it. I am part of a living community of human beings now and many who have come before me. My gifts are only possible because of their gifts. I stand on the shoulders of artists who have come before me or are still living. I cannot separate my gifts from the relationship I have with them. The whole universe is a creative commons that operates on a gift economy. The sun gives freely of itself four million tons every minute, all the energy that ultimately powers everything on earth.
Money has absolutely no place in how the sun gives its energy to earth and the resulting free gifts of air, water and all the elements of the earth.
At the same time I live at a time and in a place where the commonly accepted story of how society operates values money in a way that the natural world does not. Human society values money more that the living earth so that gradually everything as it is consumed and converted to money is destroyed as is now happening to the natural systems that sustain our life. At the same time I need use money to live in this society, yet am seeking to balance living in this society with producing images that value the natural world and the ways it shows us to live. Yes, production of my art involves monetary expenses for materials like ink, paper, canvas and machines like large printers, computers, cameras and lenses. It involves travel to many places that include mileage or other transportation and lodging expenses. It includes fees for shows and galleries and workshops where I hone my skills. It includes time for production and expenses for living. Yet more than any of these specific items which usually involve an exchange of money, my art involves a vision of the natural world that I seek to put into my images and my business. The natural world is filled with all our relatives from other humans to planets and galaxies to the trillions of living organisms in our bodies that make our life possible. The images I produce are only end products of years of experience and work and my story of the world.
In our monetized society almost everything is reduced to money. In the natural world everything is about relationships. How does the generosity of the universe affect our lives together in a monetized society? My work is copyrighted. It is available for non commercial use with attribution and for commercial use only with a written agreement. The prices suggested for my images are for the monetary value I perceive. How am I to know what the value is to you? What is your appreciation of the gift you are receiving from me? It may be much more or much less than I perceive. Let's start with a relationship, have a conversation. If you love one of my images, how much do you value it? How much do you appreciate what you love? Let me know. Let's talk. That's easier to do at live shows but if you see my work on the web, email or the telephone are available.
If you are interested in learning more about a gift economy, check out the excellent article by Marie Goodwin on Shareable or read the book Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein, a noted author and speaker who works in the gift. The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer, is also about the gift economy.
Contact me by e-mail or telephone
"How do we create a world in which people don't think of art as a product but as a relationship?" Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking
Pricing Philosophy
Pricing is always difficult for an artist since it is part of living in a society where money has come to represent the value of everything. This art is my gift to the world. It is an expression of who I am. I, like you, am a part of nature, the natural world that operates outside of any human attempts to control it. My art is an expression of my relationship to the natural world. I am an active, creative participant in the vastness of the universe, yet not separate from it. I am part of a living community of human beings now and many who have come before me. My gifts are only possible because of their gifts. I stand on the shoulders of artists who have come before me or are still living. I cannot separate my gifts from the relationship I have with them. The whole universe is a creative commons that operates on a gift economy. The sun gives freely of itself four million tons every minute, all the energy that ultimately powers everything on earth.
Money has absolutely no place in how the sun gives its energy to earth and the resulting free gifts of air, water and all the elements of the earth.
At the same time I live at a time and in a place where the commonly accepted story of how society operates values money in a way that the natural world does not. Human society values money more that the living earth so that gradually everything as it is consumed and converted to money is destroyed as is now happening to the natural systems that sustain our life. At the same time I need use money to live in this society, yet am seeking to balance living in this society with producing images that value the natural world and the ways it shows us to live. Yes, production of my art involves monetary expenses for materials like ink, paper, canvas and machines like large printers, computers, cameras and lenses. It involves travel to many places that include mileage or other transportation and lodging expenses. It includes fees for shows and galleries and workshops where I hone my skills. It includes time for production and expenses for living. Yet more than any of these specific items which usually involve an exchange of money, my art involves a vision of the natural world that I seek to put into my images and my business. The natural world is filled with all our relatives from other humans to planets and galaxies to the trillions of living organisms in our bodies that make our life possible. The images I produce are only end products of years of experience and work and my story of the world.
In our monetized society almost everything is reduced to money. In the natural world everything is about relationships. How does the generosity of the universe affect our lives together in a monetized society? My work is copyrighted. It is available for non commercial use with attribution and for commercial use only with a written agreement. The prices suggested for my images are for the monetary value I perceive. How am I to know what the value is to you? What is your appreciation of the gift you are receiving from me? It may be much more or much less than I perceive. Let's start with a relationship, have a conversation. If you love one of my images, how much do you value it? How much do you appreciate what you love? Let me know. Let's talk. That's easier to do at live shows but if you see my work on the web, email or the telephone are available.
If you are interested in learning more about a gift economy, check out the excellent article by Marie Goodwin on Shareable or read the book Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein, a noted author and speaker who works in the gift. The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer, is also about the gift economy.
Contact me by e-mail or telephone