• Skip to content

Art of Seeing

In Studio with Masters

  • About
  • Sonnets in colour
  • Sign up

Gift economy

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:

  1. Share my essays, links to my courses, or my paintings with friends who might be interested.
  2. Pay it forward: every gift, every small act of kindness, go a long way.    
  3. 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).
  4. 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).


Reader Interactions

Copyright © 2025 · Atmosphere Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • About
  • Contact