How to buy a $75,000 piece of art for $1,200!

Cai Guo-Qiang's Tiger and Eagle

Stick Vega's Overburn

In 2007, the artist of my inspiration, Cai Gou-Qiang sold a a painting for $601,000 at Christie's in New York City.  The piece, Tiger and Eagle, is gunpowder and ink on paper and roughly 118 x 157 inches.  I love it.  

But in thinking about it and doing a few calculations I computed the cost per square inch of Tiger and Eagle is $32.44.  My work, Overburn by comparison is 52 cents per square inch.  At 48 x 48, Overburn is less than 2% of the cost.  At this market valuation Overburn could be worth roughly $75,000.  Incredibly, you can buy it today for $1,200.

I learned my process by watching Cai work.  My work is smaller.  Brighter.  And in some cases I do more pop (pun intended) art than abstract work.  But, I use the same gunpowder.  The same black powder, fuses, fire and explosion.  The cool uncertainty of the explosion and burn is a great feature of my art.

So one of two things. I need to charge a lot more for my work.  Or, you need to buy a Stick Vega.  I hope you love my art and find value in it!  

Boom!

Stick Vega is the American Gunpowder Artist.  He creates modern, primitive, explosive art and blogs from Stick Vega Studios in Madison, WI and Bucktown, Chicago, IL.  Follow Stick at Facebook and/or Twitter.