… is because people don’t pay us when they should. I know this happens all over — “the check’s in the mail” isn’t one of the world’s most common lines for nothing — but it never fails to amaze me, or disappoint me, when it takes weeks or months for someone who sells my work to pay me for it. In fact, some places have never paid me, period. That’s the thing about “consignment” – you don’t get paid for something until it sells. Then when it sells, you end up playing a waiting game for your money. Then you play the balancing game of trying to get your money without ticking off the gallery or store owner if you still want to sell your work there. And the thing is, you’re not going through all of this to collect thousands of dollars — it’s usually like $50. Because when you have stuff on consignment, the artist generally gets 50-75% of the selling price. So when you’re buying $12 earrings from a shop or gallery, that artist may be only getting $7 for them — which they may have to spend months chasing down — hardly enough to pay for supplies and packaging, let alone their time. It’s crazy, but that is the life of an artist.