| Last week, a rare Picasso set the record at Sotheby’s for the most expensive painting ever purchased at $104.1 million US. The buyer, who wishes to remain anonymous, obviously has more money than God. This led me to ponder what art I would buy if I had the money and what art I could actually afford that wouldn’t involve the words "velvet doodle."
If you’re fond of classical portraiture and have a penchant for the unusual, then save your dollars for raycaesar.com. His work is entirely digital with creative textures and themes breathing life into his three-dimensional models. Influenced by his work as a graphic artist in the Art and Photography Department in Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, his young subjects have an air of innocence surrounded by darker images like insects caressed with gnarled hands. Prints are available starting at $250 US with larger pieces costing $650. Deliciously disturbing.
In the category of even more affordable, but definitely not Picasso, look up monsterfetish.com. Dave Burke’s whimsical prints of Tiki Gods start at $20 US with larger works, like a three-eyed Cap’n Crunch-Batman hybrid being chased by Frankensurfer, going for a respectable $50. If it’s functional art you’re looking for, there are bat-shaped skate decks available for $75 as well as art to go with Tiki sticker collections for $3 a piece. The Surfer Girl series is a must for every den with a lava lamp and shag carpeting. |
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