Why Local?

Plenty of nice people work at Amazon, Michael's, Blick, and the other giants in our industry. But the effects of their dominance aren't nice at all. Indie art stores have steeply declined in numbers over the past 30 years, taking with them all the knowledge, personality, and creative spirit that only local stores can offer.

That's why it's time to start supporting and rebuilding our local shops, like our friends in the book industry. Did you know that more bookstores are now opening than closing in the United States? That's because of the passion of readers and booksellers across the country, who've been saying since the 1990s that you can't replace a physical bookstore with a website.

Local shops matter even more for art materials, because what we sell is so specialized — it's good to have someone at the counter to warn you when you're buying linseed oil with water-based paints. Plus, art materials are fragile and require careful handling; we've all gotten those loose boxes with broken pencils from the big online stores.

Plus, when you shop in person, you get to see the color. You get to meet all the cool people in town (I've heard you could run into Basquiat at Pearl Paint in the 1970s.) You get better supplies, because artist-owners won't sell stuff they hate to use. You just get more value when you shop with your local, and you might be surprised how good the prices are.

Need another reason? Indie art stores are one of the pillars of the art community. So many artists work in these quirky shops while they're in art school. A lot of the owners are artists, just like you. And the money you spend at your local art shop goes right back to all those artists, helping pay for tuition and rent and oil paint (with an employee discount, of course.) We don't send the profit back to some rich guy across the country — it stays right in your community, with the creative people you care about.