Will anyone take art as payment?

Yes. Mot Dang (มดแดง, mot daeng), Hongdam's directory and network of sites at motdang.net, takes a painting, ten drawings, a day of photography, a piece of music and other work in exchange for a web page ¹.

On 16 October 2026 I said: "I want to be paid in art, by artists. I do the services they need, they pay me in work product." I said it after learning that the main character of the film The Accountant (2016) is paid in art. In the film his Airstream trailer holds artwork and valuables he bought or took as payment for jobs ⁸.

Seven art trades, each with a value in baht

On 24 October 2026 each of the seven carried a value in baht and read "3 places left" ¹.

A portfolio page keeps a maker's work in one place. A share card is the picture that shows when a link is shared on Facebook, LINE (a chat app), Mastodon or Bluesky. A minisite is a small website of its own, and a reel is a short video ¹.

To start, the maker sends a photo of the work on LINE, agrees the trade in the chat, and the page is published. For objects, Mot Dang starts the day the work arrives. For work paid in time (photo days, lessons, meals, nights) the page reads "half before we start, half within three months" ¹.

Ten more trades are listed under "Work, not art", each on its own page at motdang.net/sites/paid-in-…: meals, nights, lessons, print, clothes, repairs, treatments, posts, costumes and rides, at ฿5,999 or ฿9,999 ¹. The Paid in Meals page reads "3 places left this month" ⁹.

Van Gogh's paint dealer and doctor held his paintings

Julien Tanguy ran a small paint shop on rue Clauzel in Paris and often took paintings in exchange for the goods he sold ⁵. In July 1888 Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo about a bill from the shop. He said Tanguy still held one of his studies (practice paintings). That, he wrote, he owed him if it came to it, but "I don't owe him a sou in money" (a sou was a small French coin) ⁶.

Dr Félix Rey was an assistant at the hospital in Arles where Van Gogh was taken. Van Gogh painted his portrait in January 1889 ⁷. The portrait went to the attic, then blocked a hole in the henhouse ⁷.

Jo van Gogh-Bonger sold the rest

Jo van Gogh-Bonger (1862 to 1925) was married to Theo, Vincent's brother. Vincent died, and Theo died six months later, leaving Jo with their son and a sizeable art collection ³. From 1891 to 1925 she sold at least 192 of Vincent's paintings and 55 works on paper, to private buyers and influential dealers, organised exhibitions in the Netherlands and in other countries, and loaned work to museums ³⁴. In 1905 she brought together 484 works at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and in 1914 she published Vincent's letters to Theo ¹³. The works she chose not to sell passed to her son and are the core of the Van Gogh Museum, which opened in 1973 ³.

What a painter gets

Mot Dang's Paid in Art page sets five of Jo's jobs beside five of its own ¹.

Gold is the paid version of pages on sites.motdang.net. On 24 October 2026 it cost ฿3,000 a year and added bookings, a place on Google and other search engines, and offers with a time limit. The free version costs ฿0 ².