The beauty of an original

I find something incredibly captivating about original artworks.
It’s hard to describe, but something about the intrinsic qualities inherent in a piece of art created by hand. To see the artist’s touch, to know it’s been brought to life with time, love, and labour.


A couple of years ago my partner and I decided on a little motto, of: “keeping it in the arts”. That is, if we ever made a little money from our own art, to spend it on supporting other artists by purchasing their works. I’ve taken to this motto very eagerly, and definitely spend more on artworks by others than I make selling my own! (…so far)
I thought it would be nice to write a series of posts sharing some of the works in my collection, the stories associated with them, and my feelings on supporting other artists.

The beginning of the collection: Drop Bear

Now that I’m working full-time, and earning a regular salary, it’s a little easier to save towards my slowly expanding collection, but back when my partner and I purchased our first “work of art” we were in a very different situation. I was still studying my BFA, and he hadn’t yet had his first solo art exhibition. It was a struggle for us to make ends meet, and there wasn’t usually too much left over after rent.

We were at an art opening of a large group show when I saw this little wooden sculpture. My partner had just sold on of his small paintings, and when I remarked this was my favourite piece in the show, and jokingly asked if we could buy it, he said yes. I was quite shocked and said, no, we couldn’t… because we were starving artists and meant to be trying to sell our own work instead of buying others. That’s when he mentioned the motto, and I was easily convinced. We were pretty proud of that red dot.

So drop bear came home with us two weeks later, packed in an old corn-flakes breakfast cereal box, classy.

Sadly, I do not know the artists name. We met him on the night, but I’ve misplaced it. I’ll ask the gallery to go through its records one of these days.