A Client Tried To Lowball This Artist Who Made An ‘Inappropriate Painting’, So He Shared His Messages Online
When it comes to buying works of art from online artists, everyone’s a bloody critic. Like crocheter Krafty Katt already knows, ridiculing the prices artists carefully arrive at and justifying disrespectful counter-offers with ridiculous arguments happens way too often. Recently, Reddit user I-Have-A-Headache got their own share of this absurdity.
“I don’t do commissions per se, I just paint when I have free time (I’m unemployed and taking a semester off school, so I have an incredible amount) and just nonchalantly sell those abstract artworks on my page,” the artist told Bored Panda. “People don’t usually haggle too much since my prices are usually very fair since this is more of a hobby rather than a means of income.”
“Also I haven’t been in the game super long, so I don’t get much business anyway,” they added. “This person was definitely an outlier and had been following my page for a while so I was kind of shocked that they had liked all my drawing ideas and would comment such encouraging things yet offer such a small amount of money for one of my more tedious, unique artworks.”
I-Have-A-Headache’s artistic journey began in college. And believe me, this backstory is relevant to the story. “I was never really great with creative ideas growing up but after coming to a more art-oriented college to study biology, my two unsuspecting loves merged; art and human anatomy.”
“I met up with a guy on Tinder and our first date consisted of us running around at 2 am while he tagged the city. I didn’t see a huge appeal to just tagging your alias on a wall (plus I was awful at the ‘graffiti’ alphabet) so I started drawing anatomical hearts and (my favorite) vaginas.”
“I started looking for my own art style and distorting them to the point if you just glanced, it wouldn’t shout ‘vagina!’ The same Tinder guy encouraged me to make my first canvas piece (which sucked) but sold within 2 weeks for a pretty penny.”
Now that you’re fully informed, continue scrolling to read the exchange I-Have-A-Headache had with the refined art collector and tell us what you think about the whole ordeal in the comments.
Most online artists are very careful when pricing their works, but that doesn’t stop some from making disrespectful counter-offers
Image credits: Dennis van Zuijlekom (not the actual photo)
Even if it means providing the most absurd arguments
People were quick to react to the ridiculous exchange
Also, after a lot of readers asked to see the painting in question, here’s how the author responded
To be honest, I think we had enough of these cheap-a*s stories as of late. Some people do not value work other do, and we fortunately live in free economies. If you do not like something, don't buy it. If many other agree, the good will get cheaper. Otherwise it will get more expensive. As simple as this.
I agree. I people have been biding for good and services since civilization began. I don't see why price negotiations are of any interest.
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Glad I'm not the only one! :-D I've been snickering about this for the better part of the day.
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The comments made me laugh! INAPPROPRIATE I'LL BUY IT. Man, these people....
He was going to lowball her no matter what. He'd find a reason. He just happened to latch onto inappropriate as the reason. Probably felt more justified about it, too.
Now, I'm curious how does the mentioned painting look like. (And yeah, I know, that it's not the point here.) Also, this "client" of hers is pretty pitiful. Not only is he inconsistent, but he is also an obvious trickster. What's more it looks a bit like he tries to make the artist feel guilty and lower her self-esteeme. Disgusting.
Since it's considered abstract I believe I see a woman's hand turning off a light switch. What's so inappropriate about that? And even if it's supposed to be interpreted as a woman masturbating, it doesn't look anything like that so why would it be inappropriate? Just an excuse to get the price lower. And a poor excuse, at that.
Think every artist who gets shitheads like this should name and shame them publicly, not protect their identity!
So tired of these types of posts. Let's shame somebody for being cheap. Let's not shame the artist though for making trash looking art and selling it for a ridiculous price.
If its abstract I can interpret it anyway I want... Still insists it's a woman masturbating and won't pay £200
I think the term one of the Twitter commenters used is perfect for people who use negging to get a better deal: "sardines".
I'm fairly certain that low balling artists on Instagram is just a viral trend now.
That freakin CHEAP-A*S customer is the ONLY thing that I see as INAPPROPRIATE!! People are RUDE idiots!
People just don't understand the value of artistic endeavors. I did scrapbooking for hire several years ago. I charged based on how detailed they wanted to pages and what level of embellishments they wanted. Full-on creative embellishments would run $250 for 40 decorated pages in an album. The album alone was $40. I'd quote that and either hear no more from the person or have them argue that it's just paper and their photos, why so expensive, etc. Sure, scrapbooking isn't seen as "art" necessarily, but it's a creative process and each page takes time to design, choose the right embellishments and paper, create the layout, box and ship, etc. $250 was actually on the LOW end for a fully-created scrapbook for hire. I ended up with maybe 3 projects total before I just gave up.
Really dumb on his part hiding who he is, the publicity he'd gain and the value increase on his work he'd get would far outweigh any consequences he would suffer. If he got pinched afterwards it would only add to his notoriety.
Since she's good enough to sell her other work, her graffiti are probaly nice to look at and not just ugly scribblings of tags and words. While it's still technically vandalism if she didn't get permission, I've seen some really nice artistic graffiti that actually improved a neighboorhood. I'd say give her the benefit of the doubt!
Load More Replies... To be honest, I think we had enough of these cheap-a*s stories as of late. Some people do not value work other do, and we fortunately live in free economies. If you do not like something, don't buy it. If many other agree, the good will get cheaper. Otherwise it will get more expensive. As simple as this.
I agree. I people have been biding for good and services since civilization began. I don't see why price negotiations are of any interest.
Load More Replies... Glad I'm not the only one! :-D I've been snickering about this for the better part of the day.
Load More Replies... The comments made me laugh! INAPPROPRIATE I'LL BUY IT. Man, these people....
He was going to lowball her no matter what. He'd find a reason. He just happened to latch onto inappropriate as the reason. Probably felt more justified about it, too.
Now, I'm curious how does the mentioned painting look like. (And yeah, I know, that it's not the point here.) Also, this "client" of hers is pretty pitiful. Not only is he inconsistent, but he is also an obvious trickster. What's more it looks a bit like he tries to make the artist feel guilty and lower her self-esteeme. Disgusting.
Since it's considered abstract I believe I see a woman's hand turning off a light switch. What's so inappropriate about that? And even if it's supposed to be interpreted as a woman masturbating, it doesn't look anything like that so why would it be inappropriate? Just an excuse to get the price lower. And a poor excuse, at that.
Think every artist who gets shitheads like this should name and shame them publicly, not protect their identity!
So tired of these types of posts. Let's shame somebody for being cheap. Let's not shame the artist though for making trash looking art and selling it for a ridiculous price.
If its abstract I can interpret it anyway I want... Still insists it's a woman masturbating and won't pay £200
I think the term one of the Twitter commenters used is perfect for people who use negging to get a better deal: "sardines".
I'm fairly certain that low balling artists on Instagram is just a viral trend now.
That freakin CHEAP-A*S customer is the ONLY thing that I see as INAPPROPRIATE!! People are RUDE idiots!
People just don't understand the value of artistic endeavors. I did scrapbooking for hire several years ago. I charged based on how detailed they wanted to pages and what level of embellishments they wanted. Full-on creative embellishments would run $250 for 40 decorated pages in an album. The album alone was $40. I'd quote that and either hear no more from the person or have them argue that it's just paper and their photos, why so expensive, etc. Sure, scrapbooking isn't seen as "art" necessarily, but it's a creative process and each page takes time to design, choose the right embellishments and paper, create the layout, box and ship, etc. $250 was actually on the LOW end for a fully-created scrapbook for hire. I ended up with maybe 3 projects total before I just gave up.
Really dumb on his part hiding who he is, the publicity he'd gain and the value increase on his work he'd get would far outweigh any consequences he would suffer. If he got pinched afterwards it would only add to his notoriety.
Since she's good enough to sell her other work, her graffiti are probaly nice to look at and not just ugly scribblings of tags and words. While it's still technically vandalism if she didn't get permission, I've seen some really nice artistic graffiti that actually improved a neighboorhood. I'd say give her the benefit of the doubt!
Load More Replies...
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