That’s the best kind out there. It’s hungry and ready to make its mark on the world. It’s put in the work and is expecting greatness. This is the hype that moves you irrespective of labels or signatures. I am talking about my own collection of unsigned and unknown paintings.

Paintings that I’ve bought throughout the years. Paintings that have been in each of my apartments from NYC to CT to Philly to MA and back again. Taking the gamble and shooting from the hip has always felt the most natural to me. Buying solely with my eye, my gut has yielded the strongest connections. These works are perennially NFS (until I figure out the artist) because selling them would feel like giving up. Giving up on a dream. A purpose. Giving up because they were too hard to figure out, to understand.

I’m not ready to stop listening, feeling, researching. So they hang silently on the walls, on the back burner if you will, simmering. Flavors melding, aromas wafting, creating a heady atmosphere of lust, greed, envy, pride. Hitting on four out of seven is just being honest.

You see, I’m not holding onto these paintings simply for their intrinsic beauty. I want to figure them out. Ascribe an artist. Prove that they belong on the walls of major museums. Make a mark in the world as a dealer who saw that special something in them. Who saw their true value and made sure others saw it too.

For generations to come. To show that they are among the A-listers. That they are no longer unknown hype. That they are the ones who will make it, that you’ll be reading about. That they’ll be the hype you can believe. ;-) hkv