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donated work - thank you clayart

updated wed 20 may 98

 

Michael McDowell on tue 19 may 98

I want to thank you all for contributing your views about donated work,
especially to a museum. They have in total mollified me somewhat in my snit,
and I think better informed me of ways I can successfully participate in
supporting the museum without letting that participation undermine my own
support and self esteem. I have to come clean on this, I did get an
invitation, and I was helping myself to the chocolates when the chit chat
over the punch bowl turned round to "I've been coming to these auctions for
years. We used to be able to get some REAL deals..." After that I didn't
feel like hanging around for the bidding. My piece sold for about 3/4 of
it's value which I only know because they did give me 25% of the sale price,
but no information as to who purchased it.

I have about ten months to decide how I will in fact respond to the next
request for donation from the museum, and I believe I'll take it all. I am
at this point though very tempted to wait for the last of your responses to
trickle in and compile the whole list to send with a note to the event
organizer. Now tell me, would that be rude, just honest, or both?

On a different but related note, I did get invited to send five pieces to
Phyllis Blair Clark's "25th Annual, Functional Ceramics 1998" in Wooster,
Ohio this year and two of the pieces sold at somewhat higher prices that my
normal retail to reflect the costs of shipping. Phyllis told me that the two
pieces were purchased by a local bank to be given to an auction in support
of public broadcasting. Now that's a nice arrangement!

Michael McDowell
Whatcom County, WA USA
http://www2.memes.com/mmpots
mmpots@memes.com