Wants for Sale

One couple's clever use of art to fulfill their wants.

From the New York Times Magazine...

The couple — art directors in the advertising business in New York — wanted to work together on a creative project. Part of their motivation was to make a little extra money, and talking about what they might do with it, Santora says, led them to the strategy of “why don’t we just be totally transparent?” If they wanted to make enough to buy a plate of buffalo wings at Le Figaro Cafe (now defunct) on Bleecker Street, they would render a plate a buffalo wings and charge $12.70. If they wanted a Wii, they would paint one and charge $270.92.

They made a first batch of 13 paintings about a year ago (2007), built a Web site called wantsforsale.com and sent instant messages to 30 friends. Within a week their project was mentioned on a variety of blogs. Most of the works were promptly snapped up, including “One Month’s Rent,” which depicted a check for $1,056.07 and cost the buyer $1,056.07. (One painting from that debut collection, titled “Financial Security,” is still available for $1 million.)

Since then, the couple have regularly released new batches of paintings, and informed potential buyers by way of an e-mail list. They also created a parallel Web site called needsforsale.com, with paintings from $100 to $500, each tied to a specific charity or nonprofit group like Toys for Tots or City Harvest that receives the full payment.

An NPR interview with 1/2 of the wanting couple...



Click here to see more of their "wants" artwork.