Some notes on art.
I’ve never been particularly fascinated by paintings or sculptures. Visiting museums was only something I did when the museum was having a cocktail party or an exhibition of a prominent pop culture artist (Tim Burton’s MoMA exhibit for instance - boy was the museum crowded that day). In Art History 101 back in college, I was grateful that the class took place in a stadium lecture hall so I could sit toward the back of the hall and get lost in the crowd of very bored and very uninterested students.
I’ve also never been easily enchanted by works of the masters but I do have a burgeoning interest now. I was recently attached to a creative project that required me to design a backdrop for a video. I needed paintings to place behind the subject so I began searching for landscape paintings. I was hoping to score some paintings for next to nothing off online marketplaces (and by “next to nothing”, I’m being literal - I was trying to find paintings for $3 if I could). Because aren’t paintings those things that just sit around your house for a while, you get tired of looking at them, and then they sit in storage for years?! Why wouldn’t you want to give them away for $3??? I just don’t understand people… because clearly, I had miscalculated.
Quality paintings (which I soon realized were hard to find at an affordable price) were not being sold for $3 a piece on Facebook Marketplace as I had expected. Even reprints in a quality frame were being sold for $50 a piece. And the more I focused my search on quality landscapes, the more I realized I actually do enjoy the masters (Monet, in particular).
Claude Monet’s paintings remind me of the view I wish I could see right outside my own apartment windows. Whenever I search for a new apartment, I always look for large windows with a view and a well-landscaped, flowery area outdoors. So, when I came across a reprint of Monet’s Parc Monceau on Facebook, I knew what I was looking for in a painting and why.
But, people know when they own a quality piece so it’s hard to find one that’s a steal. So, I began my hunt for the bargain basement Monet print. My search became more difficult because my taste in frames had become acclimated to gold and ornate. Anything less was not acceptable… and again, the painting had to be less than $50.
Once a week, a Monet print would pop up in my search but either the seller wouldn’t respond, the painting would sell before I could reply to the seller’s initial reply, or the seller was over 30 miles away. Quality framed Monet prints were very hard to find at a decent price and within a reasonable distance. All of these barriers made the elusive bargain basement Monet print even more attractive to me and I became obsessed. This project had become so personal to me, that I was less concerned about finding a painting for the video project and more concerned with starting a personal collection of my own.
I started checking Facebook Marketplace multiple times a day. When I was out, I made sure to check my Facebook messenger for seller replies. You’ve got to catch sellers while you’re already out driving: the sooner you can pick up the item, the more apt they are to bargain and sell it to you.
This game of cat and mouse went on for about two weeks. In the process, I did not find that elusive Monet print in a gold ornate frame but I did score two nameless country landscapes. One cost me $8 from a student at Kennesaw State and another for $20 from a lovely retired couple in Duluth who were redecorating their home.
My obsession for the perfect Monet print has since fizzled (isn’t that how it usually goes with obsessions? They’re fleeting). I’ll probably take up a new interest in a few months and engorge myself in another hunt for that one thing I (think I) can’t live without. However, Monet’s Parc Monceau is still begging for a spot in my living room. So if you know somebody that’s knows somebody, let them know I’m in the market.
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