What New Yorkers Want

New Yorkers are good at finding creative ways to pay the rent. One 20-something couple is painting each thing they want, and selling the painting for the exact price of the item they're hankering for. So a painting of an iPhone will set you back $432.32 and a painted slice of pepperoni will cost you 3 bucks. They even painted their rent...and more optimistically: a million dollar bill (in their work titled Financial Security). The nice thing is that they're also giving others what they want, some of the painting proceeds go to charity (so far one in Africa and one in New Orleans).

Creative panhandling or second job? Maybe a little of both. Also, you may remember the man's name on that big rent check above from last year, when he was selling NYC trash. Check out their wants here, when they set their eye on something they want, they update the site with a new painting.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on October 5, 2007 10:24 AM

Comments [rss]

guest

Seriously. Those aren't paintings. It could have been interesting. But it's not.

guest

Would you really expect to get a Wayne Thiebaud painting of pizza for $3 though? It seems like half of these cost more for the canvas and paints then what they are selling them for. More about the concept than the money. I give them credit for sticking to the idea.

People need to lighten up and stop taking things so seriously.

guest

I think that it's a cute idea. No one is twisting your arm to buy one, and it's nice to see reasonably priced and accessible art. It's also quite different from what Boggs did.

AnnaZed

In what world are these "paintings"?

They are just pathetic little squiggle drawings or maybe even clip art.

"Artists" - hardly.

If they actually did a painting of some pizza (think Wayne Thiebaud) I might be impressed, but this is just some sort of emperor’s new clothes thing.

They must be howling with laughter at the attention that you are paying to this.