Sold Before Opening Day: Why This Collector Paid Above Asking Price

 Today, while my painting 'The Stillness Between Worlds' was being hung for Best of West Virginia at Tamarack WV, it sold before the exhibition had even opened its doors. Best of West Virginia opens this Saturday, May 16th, and is a highly competitive juried exhibition, with less than half of submissions accepted, making inclusion alone a tremendous honor.

 Because the collector wanted to take the painting home immediately, the piece will no longer be present for judging at this weekend’s opening reception, where awards and prize money will be announced. Under ordinary circumstances, that might feel difficult to surrender. Opportunities like that matter.

 But this felt different; and beautifully, exactly as it should.

 The collector understood exactly what it meant. He knew taking the work meant it would no longer be eligible, and in a gesture the gallery said they had never encountered before, he offered considerably more than the asking price; not out of negotiation, but as recognition of what the artist might be setting aside.

 What moved me most wasn’t the gesture itself, though it was deeply generous. It was the care  and consideration behind it. Every artist quietly hopes their work will someday find the person it was meant for, and there is something humbling and joyful about witnessing that moment happen in real time, as though the painting recognized its person at the exact same instant they recognized it.

 Because every artist hopes for connection. We create quietly and send pieces of ourselves out into the world, not knowing where they’ll land or whose life they may touch. And every once in a while, someone encounters a painting and knows immediately: this belongs in my life.

 As artists, we often speak about collectors supporting our work. But moments like this remind me that collecting can be something more personal than support. It can be a relationship. An act of intuition. A recognition that a work has somehow found the person it was always meant for.

 Awards and exhibitions are meaningful milestones, and I’m honored to have been included. But today felt like its own kind of honor; one I’ll remember for a very long time.

Have you ever met a piece of art and simply known it was yours?