E-mail Miriam Young or interact with her at the Culture Vulture message board. Past stories.

Your Culture Vulture knows a hot place for creators to sell their art and budding collectors to buy art. It's a wonderful place where all kinds of people come together, and it has transformed many art dabblers into "working artists."

It's eBay — or more specifically, the "self-representing artists" section under the art category of eBay. Sort the listings by the "ending soonest" option and you'll see how many pieces end up selling. Check out the prices they are selling for, and you'll see how affordable this art can be.

First, a caveat

Always research a seller's feedback before deciding if you want to bid. If a seller has too many negative comments about shipping, bad communication or other warning flags, you might want to assume they are not businesslike enough to provide you with a good buying experience. Take advantage of the articles eBay provides for newcomers in order to learn more about the buying and selling process.

On to the good stuff

Ah, the things you will see! There is something for every taste. EBay allows you to sort by style (abstract/Asian/outsider), by subject (animals/botanical/fantasy) and by type (drawing/mixed media/painting). But, why limit yourself at first? Sort by date to see the full gamut of offerings in this diverse, bustling marketplace of creativity.

There are fine artists of excellent craftsmanship and execution, as well as newer and self-taught artists. Some artists, thrilled at selling a painting, will stick to that style and imagery in formulaic fashion. The Culture Vulture wishes all artists success, even those who decide to become a veritable art factory.

Little things

A great, new area of collecting (and creating) is called ACEO, which stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. Artists work on a standardized format of 3½" x 2½" (of course, some artists will fudge that rule — that's historically what artists do). These are art trading cards. Many are original art pieces, and their small size makes them fast to create and affordable to collect. Due to their size, they're also easy to display, whether framed singly or in groups, or placed in sport trading card plastic pockets (nine to a sheet) that can fit in a three-ring binder. Portable art — who knew?

Next time

In my next offering, I'll start introducing some choice online galleries, and I'll show you how (virtually) anyone can become an art museum curator.

Miriam Young is a creative director living in color in Roanoke. Archives of previous columns are online at fishcards.com/culturevulture.

Note: Some Web links provided by the Culture Vulture may contain art featuring nudity, strong political content and bizarre visions. Parental guidance is suggested. Please respect the copyrights of the owners when visiting online galleries, and obtain artists' permission before downloading any images.