What makes animation art valuable to you?

rosesleep · Post by **rosesleep** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:11 pm

For sentimental value, I believe..

To own several pieces of my childhood and adorn them in my home is the most rewarding feeling. I don't exactly view them as an investment but something precious and vulnerable. As strange as it sounds, I feel like a guardian since I am preserving this dying form of art.

blueshinma · Post by **blueshinma** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:34 pm

My cel collection makes me feel part of something bigger. I look at my cels and think to myself how many people have watched this? I also feel the actual art has a bit of the emotion evoked in the show.

Post by **sensei** » Mon Feb 28, 2011 8:34 pm

It is interesting that this latest batch of postings uses revealing comparisons that extend the batch that I've gotten in the "Collecting is like..." thread.

graymouser · Post by **graymouser** » Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:44 am

Animechaos wrote:The way I collect, at least these days, I assume the art is only valuable to me. Obviously that's not true but it keeps your collection habits in check.

For one, you'll only pay what you personally feel the value is. To be more specific, you won't pay market value but rather what you're willing to cough up for it to be in your own collection. I might pay more than market value, maybe less, but never more than I'm willing.

I would agree with this completely. The amount that I am personally willing to pay usually depends on 2 factors; how much I like the story and how beautiful I find the artwork. Most of the time, both qualities have to be present before I am willing to spend a lot of money.

Of course, there are a few series that are in my collection even though I feel they meet only one of these deciding factors. Three shows that I buy purely for their artwork include; Lodoss - OVA, Ninja Scroll, and X/1999. I feel rather neutral about 2 of the stories and actually dislike one of them. There are other series that are in my collection that are just the reverse. I enjoyed the stories so much that I eagerly overlook the fact that I am not so attracted by the art. These would be shows like Escaflowne - TV, Card Captor Sakura, and The Last Unicorn (sorry - as much as I love the book and the movie, the art style is not to my taste.)

Ummm, I don't know how Clamp ended up on both those lists.

dark-water-dragon · Post by **dark-water-dragon** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:00 am

For me the value is in the emotion. It is that tingle I get when I look at the piece. The memories of my childhood past, the pride in which I feel when I gaze at the piece. Yes, I do know that some of my pieces are worth more then others, but it in the internal value to me. I look at the very first piece I ever bought and it would be very hard for me to ever let it go. I know I spent less than $20 and I know that it is probably worth about that much on the market, but to me it is worth hundreds. The same goes for the first cel my wife bought me.

I am not a dealer, and I do not look at this like a business but a passion. I only part with pieces that I no longer have an interest in and when I do that I look at the current market for the price, but if someone where to come to me and ask for to buy a piece of mine I would probably cost them a lot more then they are expecting.

pixie_princess · Post by **pixie_princess** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:49 pm

I suppose you can say it is a dying art form and in a way, I am trying to preserve a little part of it for myself and future generations. Granted there are parts of my collection that will probably only ever appeal to me, and that is fine. After all, these pieces were collected from series that I enjoy. In cases they were either chosen based on character, composition, or because it is part of a specific scene that touched me emotionally. To me Cels have always struck me as being similar to a photograph. A representation of a specific moment in time.

Its nice to be able to point out a specific scene to my family and show them the corresponding artwork. I enjoy being able to see and share part of the animation process which brought these beloved series to life. Its great up on screen, but it even makes it all the more real when you actually have those sketches in hand and you can see all the hardwork and effort that was put into making the characters come alive.

The true value in it then would be more than trying to preserve a piece of dying art, or owning a piece of my favorite episode/character from show XYZ, it's also in being able to see the dedication and talent of people. To see how it was built up from the storyboard, to the genga and roughs all the way to the douga and finally the cel. It gives me a greater appreciation for the work these animators have done.

I guess it just all boils down to the fact that I enjoy art and I appreciate the hard work that goes into it. It is also a little piece of history all on it's own.

duotrouble · Post by **duotrouble** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:36 pm

ReiTheJelly wrote:Art is valuable because we as a society assign intrinsic value to it in terms of money. For me, the amount of money I'm willing to spend on a piece correlates directly to my aesthetic and emotional attachments to the individual piece. Whether or not the rest of society agrees with the amount I spend is another story altogether.

This says it best.

animeobsessed · Post by **animeobsessed** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:43 pm

duotrouble wrote:
ReiTheJelly wrote:Art is valuable because we as a society assign intrinsic value to it in terms of money. For me, the amount of money I'm willing to spend on a piece correlates directly to my aesthetic and emotional attachments to the individual piece. Whether or not the rest of society agrees with the amount I spend is another story altogether.
This says it best.

I couldn't agree more! Well stated!

dark-water-dragon · Post by **dark-water-dragon** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:25 pm

animeobsessed wrote:
duotrouble wrote:
ReiTheJelly wrote:Art is valuable because we as a society assign intrinsic value to it in terms of money. For me, the amount of money I'm willing to spend on a piece correlates directly to my aesthetic and emotional attachments to the individual piece. Whether or not the rest of society agrees with the amount I spend is another story altogether.
This says it best.
I couldn't agree more! Well stated!

Hear hear

Post by **sensei** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:47 pm

duotrouble · Post by **duotrouble** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:09 pm

sensei wrote:

Tsk! Tsk! Sensei! Breaking beta rules again.

(Although, I do love the icon.

)

Post by **sensei** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 7:33 pm

I started three times to comment on the postmodernism of Rei's comment, then erased it each time and in the end just pasted it into the paper draft in a spot where it fit in well. There were so many really eloquent comments that I got in surveys and in threads like these that my main job was to devise an organization that showed them off clearly. The real task is to do so for an audience for whom "anime" and "cel" are totally new topics. (Fortunately, "society," "intrinsic value," and "aesthetic" are familiar terms. Hopefully I'll add a few more to the academic general repertory, such as "newbie," "flame war," "thread," and such.)

benten · Post by **benten** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:39 pm

dark-water-dragon wrote:
animeobsessed wrote:
duotrouble wrote: This says it best.
I couldn't agree more! Well stated!
Hear hear

I find that the more I think about this, the more I am bothered by the first sentence. As I have often heard it said, art "feeds the soul". I do not believe society assigns anything intrinsic value - a value, yes - but not "intrinsic" value. If something is cherished, appreciated, or desired by more one than one person, a market can be established in which the thing can have its value expressed in terms of a media of exchange, i.e., money. But things can be valuable to an individual without the existence of a market or the need to express said value in monetary terms. And, certainly, as has been noted by many others, that "common" value expressed in monetary terms does not have to agree with the value of the object to any one specific individual.

Post by **sensei** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 9:15 pm

This is why I love some items that cost me 1000 yen more than others that cost 10,000 or more.

But I think Rei is just acknowledging that society commodifies art, and so it can't readily be had without the help of capital. True, value in terms of cash equivalent is something quite different from value in emotional attachment. But both exist and butt heads from time to time.

I think the latter is primary in anime art circles, but I suspect the former is a more prominent issue in modern art circles, from what I read. Certainly the exchange of millions of dollars for the ownership of certain abstract canvases that owners see as "an investment" rather than as something they choose to mount and view supports this idea. But then I'm not a Jasper Johns fan.