Bartering With Artists, a Forgotten Form of Collecting

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

ILLINOIS---Bartering was once the norm for the exchange of valued goods, but Chicago religious artist Daniel Mitsui has resurrected this idea and made it integral to his sales strategy. "I specialize in meticulously detailed ink drawings done by hand on paper or parchment," wrote Daniel in his most recent newsletter. "I offer my patrons the option of purchasing artwork, prints or lessons by barter if they prefer this method of payment to cash. For suggestions, please see this list of items that I am seeking in barter." Barter is characterized in Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" by a disparaging vocabulary: "higgling, haggling, swapping, dickering," but when exchanges are clearly defined as Mitsui has done...there is no "dickering." In its place is a dialogue, and a real relationship that is often lacking when using money.