If you are interested, I am selling my original visual works online, at https://tonychen.bigcartel.com

When a No to my sales became a Yes, and what it means for me

I remember, in the winter of the year 2013, in the city of Taipei, I was trying to sell a bicycle.

I got some interest from a fellow exchange-student, a Japanese male, young. He came over to my dorm, on my invitation, viewed my bicycle, and, coming up to my room for a chat, told me he wasn't buying my bicycle after all.

At that time, I didn't ask him for his reason for turning down my sales-offer - I was too upset by this rejection, maybe - and after chatting a little more, he said he was going back to his dorm.

I was crest-fallen but I said to him, "I'll accompany you back to your dorm, then."

And I was on my bike, while he walked - or, I let him take my bike, while I walked, I don't remember - either way, we matched our respective paces, and got to his dorm - where and when he let me know he was buying my bicycle.

I tried to get him to buy it at the price I had set earlier, but he said many times he only had so-and-so amount of money.

"Ok, I'll sell it to you," I said, thinking that even if he was feigning insufficient money to match my price, he seemed to be putting up a consistent enough pretence.

So, what does this mean to me today, nearly six years later?

First, six years on, I realised that I got the sale only after I had given up on it. So I want to challenge myself, to question myself, in my sales today, "If I knew that I wouldn't make any money from these interactions, what would I do with these people?"

Six years ago, thinking that I wouldn't make any money anyway, I offered to accompany that exchange-student back to his dorm. On a cold night. It seems to me, in hind-sight, that I valued my friendship with him, more than any potential sales he represented.

So, today, I'm selling my original abstract visual artwork. If I assume that I'm not going to make any money from these pictures, what would I do?

I value responses from my audience. If those who view my works have- if they experience my works resonating with them, if they have an interpretation of my works, I want to hear about it. I love hearing these kinds of things: how my works come alive in their eyes, or in their lives.

So I extend this invitation now to the reader - my works are at https://tonychen.bigcartel.com , and also I blog about my works at https://alls-futility.tumblr.com , so go ahead, check them out, if you want - and tell me if it means something to you.

That's my first take-away from my bicycle-sales six years ago. To find a more meaningful aspect to my sales than money.

I have no second take-away; I have come to the limit of the pocket of time that I've set aside for this little piece of writing.

Thank you.

In the year 2017 A.D., an art therapist recommended that I make a visual journal. Elaborating on what such a journal was, she said to write down what my artwork was about, or, if I am not mistaken in my recollection, my thoughts and/or feelings at the point in time that I made my artwork. She said that it would be a record for my own reference in the future.

I chose to make my visual journal public at the following URL: https://alls-futility.tumblr.com