To an artist, all sales are good sales, but some of our favorites are the ones that we do ourselves as opposed through our galleries.

Lack of commission aside, the best thing about studio sales is that we get to meet -- in person, by phone, or via e-mail -- the person buying the artwork, and we hear the story of why they chose the piece they are buying, where they will be hanging it, and how they are fitting it into their budget.

"I'll be eating macaroni and cheese for the next two months," one man told us, "but I'll be sitting in front of Steve's painting while I do it."

"I have a 'just for me' fund," another collector said. "Lately it's taken more time to stock it, but that makes the purchase all the more precious."

"I don't usually do payments, but I love this painting, and you don't charge interest," one person wrote. "The anticipation of this painting some day hanging on my wall is part of the fun of owning it."

As ordinary, regular people ourselves, we jump for joy -- literally and figuratively -- when ordinary, regular people with jobs and mortgages and car payments and dreams and a love of beauty work with us and their budgets and unwrap a gift to themselves of a work of art.

And, as we look toward 2012, we brainstorm constantly on how we can continue to meet the needs of real people. What say you? We're preparing a collection of prints, as well as notecards, and we're open to dialogue and ideas. Look for a new section of prints, studies, and Bon Marche originals -- in the under $250 range -- to be launched on the website in 2012.

Happy Holidays, all.

Art is unique among academic disciplines in that no one really knows what it is.

If we were to talk about math the way we talk about art, the musing would look like this:

"Is long division really math? Because math, true math, really gets into algebra and trigonometry, you know, all those equations that enable us to figure out the distance between us and a particular star, or the genetic code, or the molecular structure of a black hole.

"Division and multiplication and adding and subtracting are just the basics that we use to perform true, real, verifiable math. In and of themselves, they are not math."

But of course we don't talk that way, because we know math when we see it (ask any school child).

When it comes to art, however, either everything is art ("Spacial conceptualization of artifice and indemnification" -- the longer the words and the less sense they make together, the more artlike the product they are describing) or lots of things, like illustration, aren't.

Apparently illustration is not art because its primary purpose is to tell a story or outline a concept, and yet, we are often told that true art's purpose is to impart a message or vision. A bit murky, there.

"Art is something you put on your walls, but illustration is what you find in books and magazines." I imagine that Scott Gustafson and James Christiansen's works are on as many walls as they are in books.

I don't know if we'll ever answer the question, "What is Art?" -- it's one of those unanswerables along the lines of "Why do good people suffer?" -- but illustration has its place in the lineup, whether or not it's on the wall, in a magazine, or on the side of a coffee cup.

I love good questions, honestly asked.

Answer: Can't answer for other artists, but for this artist, no.

Because we make a point of selling to real, ordinary people with jobs and mortgages and car payments and electric bills, we work with and around people's incomes and budgets, and we are not averse to discussing price.

Does this offend the artist?

As long as the person asking is doing so because they love the work, want the work, but truly can't see paying the price listed for the work, then no, this does not offend the artist.

However, if the person just wants a deal, never pays retail, enjoys telling his friends about how he gets great art for nothing -- it's a steal! -- then yes, that attitude is offensive to the artist.

We live in a society that thinks that everyone is out to cheat us, and given the way many contemporary businesses are run, it is understandable that consumers are wary. How many of us walk, cold turkey, onto a car lot and think, "The sticker price is truly fair, and nobody's out to fool me?"

In the same way, we've all seen the $25,000 painting next to the $800 one and can't see much of a difference.

At Steve Henderson Fine Art, we do our best to price our artwork fairly, in such a way that it is affordable and yet fair to the artist as well. Quality paintings take time, skill, passion, ability, background, and energy -- they're not posters, they're not prints -- they are lifetime investments that provide dividends -- in pleasure, peace, beauty, contentment, and joy.

They are also within the province of regular, ordinary people -- and if price is the sticker, then let's talk.