As soon as I received your last issue, I was immediately drawn to the account of a young painter, who chose to remain anonymous, of his first one-man-show in a commercial gallery (“The School of Hard Knocks,” No. 81, September-October 2008). He apologizes in advance for perhaps being overly sensitive or naïve, but this is precisely what makes his account valuable to others. I was touched most by his experience of loss of all the paintings that sold. Knowing that they are now gone forever is hard for him to come to terms with, but the proceeds of sale are most welcome. Happy that his paintings will now be seen on strangers’ walls, he struggles with parting from them. Poignant. The reason for writing a rejoinder is that I feel exactly the same at a very different stage in life. Not interested in the proceeds of sale, I am rather eager to keep my paintings around me. Just to be sure they will not hang on strangers’ walls, I jack up their price unreasonably. Leary of bereavement, I eschew exhibitions. If and when I part from my paintings, I prefer to give them to those few who will enjoy them as much as I do. And this is how I can only hope the young painter from your pages will fare in the years to come.