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Jun 30, 2011

"A work of art is a gift, not a commodity. Where there is no gift, there is no art." --Lewis Hyde

The Artist Who Gives It All Away

One day, San Francisco artist Jane Baker realized something. Now she operates from a new place -- new, but also very old: "I don't know art history that well, but it is only in the last few hundred years that art has been a commodity. Before that, most artists were doing it out of their love for, frankly, for God or their church. Most of the art that's been made has not been made for money. So I'm standing with a group that has been around for a lot longer! It's not a weak, touchy-feely place. What I've started feeling is that, yes, they really knew what was right! And it lasted a long time before this particular period we are all in." Works & Conversations interviews Baker, who has a practice of donating one hundred percent of the income from sales of her artwork to charities.