The main obstacle for artists collecting art is, as you can imagine, money. Many artists have strategies, however. Alia El-Bermani and her husband add a piece to their collection each year as an anniversary present to each other. George Kocar, who frequently sells at art fairs, will often take profits and purchase from other artists at the fair… “Art Karma!” Art and Craft Fair acquisitions from George Kocar’s Collection Nicole Moné and her husband have purchased art and then made other financial cuts to work it back into the budget over subsequent months. Nicole also keeps a running log of artists whose work she has her eye on and plans accordingly to fill out her collection over the years.
When you sit down with a group of figurative artists, the conversation invariably turns to questions like, “Where are the collectors of figurative art?” Often the answer is, “Right here!” In researching statistics and stories for this article, I was tickled to find out how many artists are also collectors of art, figurative and otherwise. However, artist Maria Bennett Hock, who collects experiences by collecting art, didn’t even think of herself as a collector until she started answering my questions. This reluctance to call themselves collectors was repeated by other artists as well, even though the artists surveyed had collections ranging in sizes from 10 to 200 pieces, with most having be
