Should we leave a warehoused legacy of our art for our heirs to deal with?

United States
January 2, 2009 12:51pm CST
Nothing tangible lasts on this planet for ever. I often wonder if all the paintings I do should have a shelf life, where I let them live for 10 or 20 years, then destroy them afterwards. They'll all crumble at some point. But Ikeep painting because I must. Some part of me thinks there may be a small cluster of work that someone, who isn't even born yet, will work some archival magic on it to keep it fresh and hanging on the wall. Several years ago I read an article about inheriting a house from a singleton aunt who was an artist. One room was packed full of oil paintings, some good, some bad. She gave away or sold the best ones and started giving the moderately good ones to Goodwill, until Good will said STOP. She was left wondering about the ecological impact of tossing 100's of oil painting into the landfill. I don't dwell on this story, but it certainly makes me recycle the clunkers and disassemble old, unsold paintings that are not my personal favorites. Yikes. Does anyone else out there worry about leaving the warehoused legacy of your art. We're not all destined to be van Gough.
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