God’s bodykins, man, much better: use every man
after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping?
Use them after your own honour and dignity: the less
they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty.
William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”
I became fascinated with the idea of gift economy during 2015 edX MOOC, U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self, thanks to their interview with Nipun Mehta of Service Space. In this emerging generosity-based economy, everything is shared freely, as a gift.
This was an aha-moment for me, because Art thrives as a sacred “deep play”, in the realm of freedom, and it withers away in the realm of life’s necessities, in the cold light of business transactions. And so I moved everything I do, everything I’ve got to share — my paintings, my writing, my teaching — into this new framework of gift economy.
Everything here is offered as a gift to you. If you want to support my work, there are three ways to do so:
- Share my essays, links to my courses, or my paintings with friends who might be interested.
- Pay it forward: every gift, every small act of kindness, go a long way.
- Send me a book — here is my Amazon wish list (all the books in it will eventually contribute to the evolution of the “Art of seeing” website).
- You can also support my work and contribute to the development of this site by monthly pledge to my Patreon account (you can cancel any time) or by a one-time PayPal donation (this link will take you to PayPal secure site; you can also use the donation button below).