There is this really cool shop in Portland that I accidentally wandered into last week. At first blush it just looks like a metal junk shop but peering in the window as I went past, I realized that this just wasn’t any old junk shop. This shop was only selling old metal letters, the kind that you always see on top of buildings. Think of the letters that make up the words Wells Fargo Bank, Ace Cleaning, Popeye’s, or Safeway, etc. When buildings get torn down so do these old signs. Now imagine of all those individual letters all separated, gathered from various junkyards and randomly arranged upon a wall.
This is what this store looked like. The first time I passed it was closed and but it was so intriguing I just had to go back a second time. And this time it was open. Turns out the owner – a heavy set, super friendly guy in a faded orange baseball cap – used to just sell anything old and interesting. Originally he had only 5 letters. He hung them on the wall. They didn’t get much attention till one day a customer connected him with a guy in New Mexico who had a gazillion of these old sign letters. He drove down there and returned with a pick up truck full of them.
After hanging about a hundred on the wall and moving a lot of the other metal junk stuff to he back of the shop, people could clearly see this alphabet wall. The owner does not consider himself an artist, nor is he particularly interested in typography. He just hung them all up randomly on the wall. What happened next surprised him.
People would come in, stand in front of the wall and visually try to make sense of all these fragments of letters. People would read into them what they wanted. Accidentally he spelled “PIG” and he ended up selling about 5 sets of these. People would find their initials. The wall was just kind of suggesting all kinds of associations for anyone who took the time to look. Everyone would ask him what he meant to say, but for him it was just absolutely random. He just hung them up without any thought at all.
Despite this, people would still just find their own meaning in what they saw or would re-arrange them into their own words. And then much to his surprise people would buy them. He sells about 50 letters a week.
This all kind of reminded me about how when we make our own art we often wonder whether people will in fact get or understand the meaning we intend. I know this is true for me. We put so much thought into what we make that it seems important everyone, or at least most everyone, gets it. But now I am not so sure this is so important anymore.
The value you receive from your Art is given to you when you make it.- NW Share on XI know it matters to me to stay focused on the thinking behind my art, especially as I am making it. But maybe it doesn’t matter that much, if after it leaves my studio, people understand it in the particular way I meant. If they connect with it in any way seems to be a far more likely outcome.
When I let go – even just a little – about worrying whether the world will understand exactly what I am making, I do feel slightly concerned. This feeling, however, is soon followed by a sense of liberation. It feels similar to when, finally, in your studio you get to that point where you can actually say to yourself that you really don’t really care what anyone thinks about what you are making right now. I am doing this for me because it just feels right. When this occurs, suddenly your art making becomes recharged, the possibilities are once again infinite, and your once smallish studio suddenly becomes significantly bigger.
In the end maybe the value you receive from your Art is given to you when you make it. Maybe as the artists, we don’t have to worry so much about how everyone else will receive theirs. We are all so totally different from one another. People will find meaning and value in your work in their own particular way. To me, this feels perfectly ok.
Right before I left the shop I couldn’t resist asking him if there was one word above all others that people would create and then buy from his wall. He said actually there were two. “Eat” and “Love.”
Maybe we are not so different from one another after all.
The store is called St. Salvage located at 3576 SE Division St Portland, OR 97202. There is no website.
In gratitude, Nicholas
11 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
With all the discussion on the alumni group about how to price art, this interesting timing… “…maybe the value you receive from your Art is given to you when you make it.” A nice reflection of why we paint and how detached we need to be from what happens after it leaves us.
Terry: I love your quote and comment to this great article!
Perfectly, beautifully, epic. Thank you for sharing your insight.
This resonated with me the first time you told this story and does again this time. I sometimes write into my wet paint and I’ve come to hope it is not readable or only barely readable – one or two letters or words here and there. And it IS liberating. Whatever I was thinking at the time I wrote the letters and words is eventually forgotten by me. It doesn’t NEED to carry my meaning and it may touch someone for 1,000 different reasons. It starts to feel really good that way for me.
I am overjoyed when someone looks at a piece of my work and sees something totally unrelated to my intention. Maybe the thrill just comes from someone taking time to think about what they see. I do occasionally add a hidden “joy” or “love” in the hopes that for even a few seconds the viewer will feel the energy of those words.
Great article! It makes me think of EAT, PRAY, LOVE. I LOVE being an artist with all its rewards and struggles. Our local art gallery, I am sitting here right now…has an artist & writers show. The artist does a picture, we hang them and the writer comes in and writes about it. My favorite show. I love it when they pick one of my pictures. Thanks Nick!
Thank you for your eloquent writing about this. We are all so very similar, anatomically, but we are also unique given our life’s experiences and GENETICs! Ultimately…. the value you speak of, I think, lies in the “sharing of who you really are,” priceless.
I really consider strongly that the artist only contributes 50% of the meaning of the painting and the viewer provides the other 50%. I love the work of Antoni Tapies and one of his works contains a basic iron bedstead, with a background in health I have seen many of these bedheads and my inference from the painting were that this painting was around health. But the title of the painting seen later directed me to understand this was a prison bed. So that’s with a figurative painting, how much more room for interpretation in abstract forms.
So fabulous that you were able to take this trip. I just love thinking of my art art this way, juicy and utterly delicious. I am constantly evaluating my work to determine what I like and don’t like. When I feel I have achieved some success I’ve been taking notes about what I have discovered about myself in the process. My pieces go through so many adding and subtracting layers, many which incorporate drawing and texture. I sense that the way my hand wants to move with a pencil or crayon is really unique to me. While I am working, I never reference any other art but try really hard to reach inside and allow the essence of who I am speak through my hands.
I feel fortunate to have met a group of people in A2L and the Academy who have taught me, coached me and reminded me that this is where the “special sauce” is. My art has changed dramatically in a short period of time as a result of this approach. Many thanks to you Nick!
Such a wonderful story where a generous intention on behalf of the orange juice seller was hampered by a literal language, and the artist in you, Nicholas, helped bridge the gap to an international language of art & symbols so his customers could understand and enjoy his offering, made so unique by the location. The question of ‘how is my art different from anyone else’s?’ to me is simply answered that ‘only I can create my art’. and how wonderful that is as it applies to us all~ so pleased to have found your site, your art and your voice.
Thanks for sharing this story. What was fairly easy for you to do will no doubt make a big difference in this man’s life. You remind me that sometimes the payment is in the experience.
The connection between rarity and the placement of art has been on my mind for years. You said: “there optimally should be no other similar kinds of art anywhere near yours…. It is preferable that yours stands out and that there isn’t any art similar to yours.” In the venues where I have marketed my work however this has not been my experience. I’ve noticed that when my art is the most ‘different’ in a show or gallery, it gets less attention than when it is displayed with work that has a similar approach or style. It appears people (customers) are attracted to a show or gallery because they are looking for a collection of work that fits their aesthetic, and/or when viewing artwork they quickly become conditioned to seeing what is most prevalent and can overlook the work that does not reflect the overall focus of the show/venue. I am on the East Coast and I wonder if this is a regional phenomenon to some extent. I wondered if you could comment further on walking the line between preferring to be the one that’s not like the others, and seeking a display space that will attract those who want what you have to offer. Thank you in advance!