God bless the paranoid artists

I had a visit today by another artist. A photographer who was interested in exhibiting his work. I am always happy to meet artists confident to sell their work since, speaking from experience, some of us view our creations as "children" and are reluctant to give them up. We (artists) teeter from "our work is not good enough" to the other extreme.

This is where the paranoia bleeds into the interview. I find myself at a loss when an artist expresses concern over someone else profiting from there work. This may be from copying images from the Internet, to stealing images at the local 1 hour photo. I can only hope that one of the artists I represent are in such demand. I try to explain that sharing the work is a risk we must take in order to gain any sort of recognition. We can remain unknown and preserve ourselves, or put our faith in the majority of mankind and expect compensation for a legitimate sale.

My heart goes out to the artists whose fear prevents them from experiencing the joy that comes with a paycheck.