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Imagine one night in the very distant future your great, great, great, great grandchildren and their families suspended in their enviropods watching Antiques Roadshow, now in it's 143rd season, on videoport when suddenly, a piece of your art appears on a velvet pedestal surrounded by lights and cameras. The resident expert ogles and fondles and gushes and expounds on how important your art is as its owner beams with pride. And the capper is the preposterous amount of money that it's now worth! If you only could have made 1/100th that amount in your entire career, you would have been thrilled beyond belief.
Back here in the present, you know your art's going to be around for an awfully long time once you bring it to life and, if you're like most artists, you'd rather see it ultimately spotlighted and critiqued by experts than sitting in the recycle bin. You can experience future art stardom, even in your lifetime, by taking a lesson or two from Antiques Roadshow, and learning what factors elevate those few special objects above and beyond the countless tens of thousands that have been and are yet to be paraded before the show's experts. These inanimate stars, from Barbie dolls to bronzes, are almost all art-related in one way or another, and share common characteristics in how they thrive with the passage of time. The more of these characteristics your art possesses, the more meaning and value it's likely to have in the future.
The most common shared trait among Antiques Roadshow standouts is the amount of effort that goes into producing them. When significant amounts of time, thought, skill, care, and energy are spent creating things beautiful and enduring, that's special. Above all, take your art seriously. Never compromise on quality, and only let it leave your studio once you're convinced that you've done the best job you can.
Condition is an essential consideration when assessing an object's value. The most sought after pieces are in the most immaculate condition. This means make your art last. Use whatever materials and techniques are necessary for it to look as fresh and vibrant 100 years from now as it does the moment it leaves your studio.
Watch how the experts handle valuable objects, what they inspect, and how they comment. They go well beyond how things appear on the surface and look over and under, back and front, up and down, top and bottom, sideways, and everywhere else. This means that your art should look as beautiful on the inside as it does on the outside. Pay attention to every detail. For example, painting that's as skillfully constructed on the back as it is on the front is always more desirable than a comparable painting that's equally appealing from the front, but haphazard on the back.
Roadshow standouts are original. They're never re-dos or interpretations of things that already exist. So be original; don't be afraid to experiment with what's never been done before or to go where no artist has gone just because you think it might not sell or that someone might not approve. Use art by other artists as sources of inspiration, not sources of imitation.
The story behind an object, even when the object isn't worth big bucks, is often what entertains, intrigues and attracts viewers. Make sure that you tell your art's story. This may take the form of a journal, a video, photographs of you at work in your studio, or printed materials that accompany every piece you produce. At all future points, people should understand what they're looking at, why you made it, how you got the ideas, and other incidentals that'll contribute to their overall enjoyment and appreciation of your art. A work of art without a story is just another pretty picture.
Hand-in-hand with a good story goes good provenance, that is, the ownership history of an object. Good provenance contributes substantially to a work of art's value from authenticity as well as historical standpoints. A well-documented ownership and exhibition history always enhances the value of an object over that of a comparable object with no documentation. Keep track of who buys your art, which pieces show at galleries, which pieces get exhibited, which win awards, which get reviewed, and so on.
Many Roadshow relics are historical. They offer insight into the times during which they were produced by capturing seminal moments of days gone by. Think about how people will look at your art in 100 years. What will make it historical? How will it reflect what's happening now? How does what's happening now, either within or without you, influence what you create? The clearer you are on these issues and the better you chronicle them in relation to your art, the greater the chances of that art becoming documents rather than footnotes.
Listen to collectors talk about why they cherish their antiques and collectibles, why they buy them, or why they keep them in their families for generations. Sure, some items cost a dollar at garage sales, but most share qualities of beauty, craftsmanship, uniqueness, endurance, fascination, and other details that make them stand out from all other objects. The greater the number of these characteristics that you incorporate into your art, the more "keepers" you'll produce during your illustrious career.
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