It is a hard time. Economical times truely Have changed. While people loose their jobs, less art is being purchased, and same with farmers: some get creative and some get nasty. Some farmers start a camping. Cooking school. A shop. Some will create concentration camps for animals, just to reach their money-goals. What do I mean by this? A while back some galleries would take the black paint out, when I delivered my paintings with on the backside my name and website. They would ‘block out’ my website. Crazy I know, but understandable. Now with google, that battle is lost. Galleries will fight for their bread. And they will make mistakes. What it comes down to is trust. With a capital T. My ‘customers’ will shop in their galleries, and their ‘clients’ will shop in my gallery. But this is where is goes wrong- somehow. Some of them got nasty. Artists that are doing fine will stop selling their works via galleries, because the galleries cannot accept modern day reality. The black paint does not work anymore. They will pressure the artist, demanding a percentage of (any money really) to cover for a pain (the pain of change). There are only two ways out of this. The cutting of this umbilical cord or to get tissues to stop the wound from bleading. [??] And then there is trust. Why -for fcksname why- are they so singleminded terrorizing their best artists? Is the FEAR of Losing money so big? What in the world are they thinking. Why arn’t they fixing what needs fixing: their website?? (just an example). Might this just be a sign of the times, where the old rules- old rulers take the prisonners- just to show off their power? I know I might talk in riddles- some of you will understand what I’m saying. Anyway. These are funny times. I know I won’t let myself be persuaded into a duel. I love Trust. I live by Trust. I work with Trust. I do business in Trust. If you want to fight- I’ll go a door further. And I will say farewell. To conclude. The old rules of Love & Trust will indeed work. And will keep on working. Where there is fear and battle, some ships will be lost. Crashed onto the cliffs. It takes a positive spirit to do business and to grow. Those that have not will crash. Will duel. Will fail. Times are changing but the ansient rules remain. Thanks go out to the friends, the gallery friends that DO understand that it takes two. Two powers that both grow. The artist doesn’t rely on the gallery to grow to full potential, and the gallery doesn’t rely on the (single) artist to grow. Each will benefit the other – when there Is trust and growth without fear. Enough said. p.s. It doens’t really matter whether you would have an ‘open studio event’ or whether you are ‘opening your gallery’ in fact: I found that the first option might even work better for you: Why? because this is more interesting to ‘your customer’. I will do many more posts on ‘having a gallery’ in the future. It’s good to chase dreams: they will teach you great learnings. Often very different and even more powerful lessons than you would have expected in the first place. For instance: no gallery would have been so stupid to duel with me if I had just held ‘an open studio event’ but it shows, and it happens, once you call it a gallery, you’ll be in for ‘some extra attention’.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 22:43:15 +0000