Post #34596 by mmoderntiki on Sat, May 17, 2003 3:23 AM

Hi Everyone,
As new gallery owners, SHAG collectors and Tiki Fans we would like to offer our opinion on the subject.
I realize that many of you at TC have collected SHAG's work for quite some time and that you are probably amazed at how his originals, prints and other items have appreciated. Just consider some of the following :

1. Fans of Tiki have probably known about Shag longer than any other potential demographic.
2. New demographics, which dwarf the Tiki crowd, are only discovering Shag's artwork for the first time.
3. His painting cross over into many decorating styles. Consider Modern Architecture, Modern Furniture Collectors, Planet of the Apes fans, Collectors of Cats, Blues and other music fans, Gothic fans, etc. (you get the idea).
4. Shag's printed are typically limited to less than 300 per edition. Do you really think that if you like a print that there are less than 300 people in the entire world that will like it too? If that were true, you should stop purchasing anything as your taste would obviously suck.
5. Of the almost 300 people that purchased our "Palm Springs After Dark", less than 75 of these people were into Tiki and probably 75-100 of them had never viewed Shags work prior to our show.
6. Shag's prices are only now approaching a pricing level where many of our friends would consider hanging these on their walls. Do you think that many people with multimillion dollar homes want to show off their $50.00 print? This market will only continue to grow in my opinion.
7. We, my wife an I, buy Shag's work because we love it! We don't speculate on it and we don't have any intentions of selling anything from our personal art collection. We have probably 30-50 fans that we have turned on to Shag that will buy his prints and keep them either in their collections or in their portfolios. None of these people have any reason to sell (they have lots of cash).
8. Many people burn out on a topic after they've enjoyed it for a while (maybe even Tiki) and assume it has reached a saturation point in the marketplace. We did this with modern furniture 3-4 years ago. However, the number of people getting into modern furniture has continually grown at a phenominal rate over the past several years. Tiki will also continue to grow as a community (look how TC has grown since its inception.
9. Shag is a super cool guy (not true of all artists) and those fortunate enough to meet him appreciate he and his artwork even more afterward.
10. Shag is offered a tremendous amount of project opportunities and always acts in the best interests of his customers (I can't say that the loyalty is always returned). He has already been requested to do covers for two prominent magazines here in Palm Springs (keep your eyes open).
    Note: You don't have to agree with anything I've just mentioned, however, I do think you may want to consider what I stated above as I could have went on to list at least a few dozen more points (I'm writing this at 2:20am and am quite sleep deprived since his show).

Some of you stated it best. If you love the piece of artwork, can afford it and can't live without it then buy it. If you don't think that it still works for you at that price point then don't buy it. If you feel you must sell, for whatever reasons, call me and we'll gladly purchase any Shag prints or originals we can get our hands on.

Maholo! Jay @ M Modern Gallery 760 416-3611