Living with art is different from visiting art in a museum or a gallery. A recent museum survey reported that the average visitor spends 5 seconds in front of each work of art. Living with a painting or a drawing, you see it in changing lights and varying moods. I make the effort to re-hang occasionally rotating works to different spots in my home or sometimes taking a piece to the office. Over time, a bad painting becomes slightly boring and a good painting reveals itself layer by layer. Owning original art--and I don't mean some museum shop reproduction--is a vastly different experience from doing a fly-by at a museum.

A woman friend, who is fortunate enough to own a superb sculpture of Louis XIV by Honore Daumier, claims, at evening's end, old Louie is often the most interesting man in the room. Apparently, it helps her keep her perspective on the mating game.

You meet at Thalia on Eighth Avenue for a quick cocktail:

My point is that entertainment costs money; we don't ask ourselves if we get our investment back from the theatre or from a sports event--the fun is the payback. If you approach art as something that is fun and gives entertainment and pleasure, not every piece you buy needs to increase in price to be a good deal. A guy I know says he has amortized some of his paintings down to $.25 per look; so, it's time to buy more.