ACQUIRED VIRTUE

Available, but not yet leaving.

The works in Acquired Virtue are part of my life before they become part of someone else’s.

Every work remains with me for the duration of my lifetime. Some may continue to change. Some may travel. Some may be revisited, reconsidered, or simply acquire meaning through the passage of time.

But they may also be bid upon.

A bid is an offer to become the eventual owner of a work—not to remove it from the exhibition today.

Bids may be made throughout my lifetime. As the work and its history continue to grow, so may its value and the offers made for it.

At the end of my life, the highest accepted bid becomes the final purchase price, and the work passes from my collection to its new owner.

Until then, it stays with me.

This makes the auction itself part of Acquired Virtue.

The work continues to age.

I continue to age.

Its meaning may change.

Its value may change.

And the person who eventually owns it will receive not merely the object that existed when they first encountered it, but the object at the end of its life with me.

The auction remains open because the work remains unfinished by time.