Where do you buy art? Be it photographs, or paintings, or books? Online? In-person? When was the last time you did and did you spend a lot? Did you get your money's worth?
I prefer to buy my artwork directly from the artists. This often means meeting them at an art fair or at the merch booth of a concert. Lately, as I've been meeting more young artists who are early in their careers, I've been commissioning new pieces that fill a need in my life. I consider this money well spent, as I'm supporting an artist and also getting something pretty to show off.
I would love to see what you've gotten. I'm a pretty regular concert goer and always make sure to hit the opening acts. Best place in St. Louis for me right now is The Ready Room. Love it. Tiny, small-medium acts, intimate. Meeting the acts is some of the best parts of the show. Last show I saw there was G Love and Special Sauce, and the band that opened for them was Ripe. Both very very good live. Bought Ripe's CDs that they had, but like the 22-20s, the CD just doesn't capture the live energy. It's a matter of production I guess, but it's always disappointing. Before that I saw the Dead Deads which holy fucking shit are no joke amazing. Their drummer is so exciting to listen to and even better to see live. Can't wait til they come back through St. Louis. And that show was to see (hed) p.e. which is a guilty pleasure band of mine. Then, and this is a tip for kids of all ages, if you want to look suave as fuck, you should take your date to a gallery opening. There is usually free drinks, and you can do your homework on the artists there before you go in order to better help the conversation along. I just did this with the current girlfriend, and we met Daniel Burnett who is doing some neat things with bringing graffiti indoors. If I had the money, maybe I'd do my best to help him out, but his things are pricey! Also, post pics of some stuff you've bought. let's see your taste in art.
I have bought art from all over the place, but mostly in person at various galleries. Some directly from the artist.
Most recently I've bought prints from the Ballerina Project. In the past, I've gotten prints from Etsy, AllPosters, Art Gallery gift shops, and bookstores. I'm rarely unhappy with the prints I buy, although I occasionally make the mistake of buying something I don't have room to actually put up anywhere.
You can look at their instagram site. There are a lot of feet. It's mostly just photos of ballerinas doing ballet poses in different locations. I usually prefer ones that are more focused on a landscape or urban scene.
I buy books but mostly in-person. Sometimes I will buy books online but not often. Typically I will buy books from a Barnes & Noble, an independent bookstore or from a poet who has a chapbook or a book out to sell. I like buying poetry from a person I just saw perform because it seems so personal. Also it's great when they autograph a book for me, just a little memory really.
Directly from the artist themselves. I need the story. I need the provenance. What were they thinking when they made this? What's the story behind it? Behind them? Art to me is more than a picture on a wall, or a sculpture in the hallway. When I look at it, I see the person and their story, as well. Otherwise it is just a flat piece to me. (This is actually why I don't own any of Mark Ryden's work, despite the fact I love it.) The only exception is my print of "Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog", because it makes my heart leap every time I look at it ... and it was painted in 1818. A little hard to meet Friedrich nowadays...
The last art I bought was the Dr. Mcninja comic books from [Topatoco](www.topatoco.com), wow, that was a while ago. I guess I'm not really in the art-buying demographic, and some people would not count this as art, but the way the art style was done -- the first cover especially -- just stood out to me. I do not have the later books so maybe that should be my birthday present this year eh? A few years before that, I bought a sungoddess canvas print in person from Tribal Voice an Emo/Goth/Hippy/Alt/Punk local business. I guess it's a bit like Hot Topic? The shop has now moved a few shops down, and was replaced by a super generic sports shop. That's kind of ironic to me, a counter-culture shop being replaced with it's almost exact opposite. Anyhow, how can you value art? I love that comic so supporting it was definitely worth it to me. I never hung the canvas print up so was that a waste of money? It was the first 'art' I had ever bought, and certainly the only thing with *gasp* a partially nude lady figure on it. So personally it was very liberating, I felt like I expanded my horizons and that was worth the money to me.
I buy books on Audible because I don't have time to read, though a book is my favorite gift provided it has an inscription from the giver. I buy music in person usually. At a used CD store called V-stock. I buy vinyls to decorate my office walls at garage sales and at an overpriced vinyl reseller called Vintage Vinyl here in St. Louis. If you've heard of them, Vintage Vinyl will sell you an overpriced album of theirs. If you haven't heard of them, they'll sell you what most people would call 'reasonably priced' crap. Thank god I only buy the albums for their covers and I don't have to listen to all of them although I really love my Kim Wilde album It's so quintessentially 80s. And it has Keep Me Hangin' On on it. But I don't buy works of art. But I want to. So tell me where you buy yours.
You need to remove the fullstop in your linked image. I wonder, have you thought about buying movies on old formats (laserdisc, VHD) for their covers, or even the Disney big-sleeve stuff they released last year? Are you happy with the resurgence in vinyl, has it made it easier for you to collect covers you want? I think it's really cool, there's some great artwork out there that is not available in any other format than 'cover art'.
Thanks, Cedar. I took the period out. The laserdisc and VHD (which I had to look up) covers are an interesting aside. Here's the record wall in its current iteration https://imgur.com/1PuOR4B so I still have a lot of room to go. Another row below that one, and then the wall to the right of that one as well will be covered. As for the 'resurgence of vinyl' it blows my damn mind. People are paying for a vinyl copy of a digital recording because they don't know any better. There are certainly exceptions like Jack White's Third Man pressings, but that's because Jack White actually has been a student of the music industry for a long long time and actually is one of the few who can pass on vinyl trickery. Echo grooves, reverse tracks, hidden tracks, Jack White can do it. But people just buy vinyl now to buy vinyl because they think it's cool. And that's fine. I really don't give a shit what people spend their money on. But my point is that there aren't many albums out there with craftsmanship put into the LP sleeve and recording medium like there used to be. Look at this Alice Cooper LP for example. It has "School's Out" and the cover is a desk with graffiti that would take a long time to read through and then on top of everything the record is wrapped in PANTIES! There isn't a resurgence in vinyl for the most part. There's a cash-grab for suckers I think.
Love the wall, you'll have to build an extension if you get anymore ;) There's a lot of ingenuity and creativity that has been lost to the ages, though I suppose that's true in all technology as progress is made. Digital files makes it harder to provide things like pantie-records, not impossible, but certainly more expensive ... and I guess that makes it harder to justify the effort.