White is for snow

Yesterday I spoke with another furniture painter.  It was kinda exciting.  She has a booth at one of the Riverside antique stores and happily told me how well she's doing.  She finds interesting pieces for pocket change and then spruces them up for resale with paint.  Usually white.  "That's what most people want to buy.  And I use this wonderful paint that works really well.  I can paint a desk and wax it in just a few hours."  She told me she might ask $89 for such a piece.

Well.  I wasn't sure what to think. All sorts of ideas came to me including her repeated advice, "Paint what you know people will buy."

But what about joy?  I paint furniture for the sheer delight of seeing a total transformation and to create usable art.  I paint to express and spread joy.  While I like white, I can honestly say I don't own one single piece of white furniture.  Not. One.  I appreciate the zen of white.  Covering my currently orange-ish cherry wood kitchen cabinets with a bright coat of white paint definitely appeals to me. But painting furniture white or other neutral shades just to ensure a sale...

Nope.  Not ready for that.  The painted piece that some crank out with one color in a matter of hours, I ponder and love on and happily produce after 20 or 30 hours and ten different colors.  Call me stubborn or impractical.  But I believe not every shopper wants white. 

Shout out if you too love living in color.  I'd like some company.