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Want v. Need Last summer we asked visitors to tell us what makes something valuable and consensus agreed on the intangible: meaning. Your child's first ceramic blob, the hotel keycard from your honeymoon, the ugly blanket your best friend made for Christmas one year—meaning appears to be the driving force behind keeping this stuff. So, consider this: if subject matter determined the cost of a painting, would it affect the painting's value if size, materials and time invested remained the same? Are price and worth interchangeable? The constant tension between cost and value when experiencing and/or purchasing art is why I fell hard for New York City artists (husband and wife), Cristine Santora and Justin Gignac.   Part trade, part charity and suggestive of the E-bay phenomenon which proved (and profited from) one person's discards are another's goldmine, Wants for Sale is an inventive approach to satisfying multiple needs within the business of art. Want a Wii but can't afford it? Why not paint its portrait, sell the work for exactly the same price (+ tax) of a Wii and let the buyer struggle with the reasoning behind that $200 decision. Perhaps the concept behind the painting is worth $200. Maybe how the Wii portrait looks with your couch is worth $200. Or having your self-esteem skyrocket each time you name-drop "Santora and Gignac" is worth $200. Or you're worth millions and want to give something back. The response to this project was so positive, the artists took their idea a step further to create Needs for Sale, an opportunity for artist and patron to work together raising money for those less fortunate. For example, a painting of a wig sold for the cost of a new wig for a leukemia patient who'd lost her hair and all proceeds went to the Locks of Love Foundation. I wonder if people were more, less or equally generous when their art purchase satisfied a want versus a need. But whose call is it anyway? I have friends who would argue their Wii most definately satisfies a need. Check these guys out! Wants for Sale Needs for Sale http://www.tscpl.org/gallery/comments/want_v._need/