Tip Your Artist

image courtesy of http://www.allisonrentz.com

Here's an article about my brilliant friend Allison Rentz, at play in the world.  The fact that she's generating so much discomfort on all sides through this simple idea tells me she's really onto something.

On the Facebook page for the project, Rentz makes reference to an incident in which an artist she admired called a tip “an insult,” adding, “I asked her if she ever accepts money for her art and [she] said that she will sell it for $5,000 and that a dollar is an insult. I don’t think she understood the project, but it was a bit of a heated discussion...”
Some patrons have been reticent to participate as well: people often tell Rentz they’re too shy to approach the artist or feel uncomfortable handing them money.
(This is a problem Rentz says she’d like to solve by offering paper airplanes, slingshots or Frisbees as alternative delivery systems. I, for one, would love to live in a world where people throw paper airplanes of cash at exhibiting artists.)

Having worked in food service & as a by-donation meditation teacher, I love the idea of Tip Your Artist.  It's humanizing. it means we have to take responsibility for what we are doing when we are at a gallery opening, what we are doing when we tip someone, and what we are doing when we put a $5000 price tag on our paintings. 

Yesterday, I had a choice between buying myself a cookie to go with lunch & using that same money to tip the young woman working behind the counter. I chose the latter & it felt good. it said: I see you & that cookie's not worth breaking the cycle of generosity that's brought me here.  Be well & so shall I.