August 29, 2023

Would you like insurance with that?

If I ever ship a piece of art, I always get the same question from the post office, “Would you like insurance with that?” The idea is that if the postal service loses my work, or it gets damaged, or it just doesn’t make it to it’s destination, they’ll pay me some money for my loss. But when it comes to an original piece of art, how much is it worth?

The easy answer to a question like this would be to say, “Well, if I sold this piece on the market today, I’d ask for X dollars, so I’ll guess I’ll insure it for that much.” But, monetary value (or exchange value), is just one domain of value and, to be honest, it’s not one I really ascribe to a piece of paper that contains my time, accumulated skill as an illustrator, and, let’s be honest, my heart.

I always refuse insurance because when something I care about that much is lost, money doesn’t make it better. Sure, I can buy enough materials to replace the loss in a physical material sense, but money can’t buy the time, place, and emotion that was present when I was making the work – art just doesn’t work like that.

Other observations
December 31, 2024

A conversation with a pencil

If a pencil could talk, what would it say to you? Nothing, I suspect, if you don’t use it.

December 24, 2024

I believe in you

Are there any set of words that one human can say to another that have a more profound effect than these?

December 17, 2024

A siren’s song

Social media is a siren’s song – of scale, of connection, of ‘monetisation’, of a valuable way to spend time. Might there be a better way?

December 10, 2024

Building muscles

No one expects me to run a marathon if I can’t even run 5km but when it comes to art, do we also need to build muscle?

December 3, 2024

It’s never felt more like work

Should picture book making feel like work? Or should it feel like some utopia where someone pays me for ‘art’?

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