expensive art

Here is the completed image from last time. I thought that it looked drastically different than the one I posted last time. But in going back I see the differences are very subtle. I'm not sure how I feel about that, other than to say it was mostly finished last time so it makes sense that the finished image would be similar. I finished it about two weeks ago.

---

---

I also recently came across an article in Slate describing, or at least attempting to describe, why art is so expensive. I'm not sure agree with the article. Basically it says art is expensive because it can be. People will pay for it. I suppose that answers the question of why it is so expensive, but to me it doesn't really get at the issue. Though, to be honest I'm not sure what the issue is exactly. Why is art so expensive? I can't figure it out. The link to the article is here.