This is a 4 foot square sign, photographed in cramped quarters after I finished painting it. It will be displayed much nicer than this at the festival! And, I know the lettering is weak – I am barely a painter, and definitely not trained as a sign painter! Okay, that’s it with the excuses; on to the rest of the blog. 

If you own your own business, you are probably fried on getting asked for freebies for raffles, auctions, door prizes, etc. Me too. (more on that later). However, I ALWAYS give to my church, and the annual Harvest Festival is Saturday, November 8. This is a nice evening, not a fund-raiser but a nice time with games for children (and horseshoes for adults) and a place to gather, visit and eat some soup.   This is my gift to the Harvest Festival this year: 

 

 (Someday I will learn about not photographing wet paintings in the bright sunlight when it makes that wet shine in a corner!)

 

Okay, about those freebies: I think it is Jack White, my “guru” in painting and the business of art, who advocates that all those non-profits BUY art from us. The non-profits can benefit tax-wise from spending money, and the artists can sell to them at a discount to help. The artists benefit because they are not depleting their hard-built inventory for free. We artists can only write off the cost of the materials, or take it out of our inventory for taxes but CAN NOT DEDUCT THE RETAIL VALUE OF THE ART! (Can you hear me??) One year I gave away more than I sold. That was a good year for the non-profits, but a painful one for me. So, I am trying to be smarter about it all, without causing a kerfuffle among the many very good non-profit organizations who ask (and ask and ask).