When I was a young artist starting out the
galleries wanted "seasoned veterans" When I was a seasoned veteran they wanted "fresh faces".
If I brought in big they wanted small. When I brought in small they wanted big. If I brought oil they wanted water color. No matter how they said it, it always amounted to the same thing, no. Even tho they actually never said the word.
The worse of them all was
"Not our direction"
Simple enuff, change your direction.
You go into a gallery un-announced. There is an intern at the desk. Short curly blonde with glasses. She has nothing to say about who shows what, but she's a power tripper. The second you walk thru the door, before you've even said why your there, she screams, ....not our direction
has an orgasm and passes out for three days.
I'm 71 now. I've heard a sea of no's, no matter how good the art. I do not have a gallery to represent me. I sell my art on the boardwalk.
The internet has changed the whole game. What basically has changed is how we get our imagery.
What is the point of getting dressed, driving across town, finding parking and go into a gallery. You drink wine, eat cheese, talk to some people, look at thirty pieces of art, then go home, turn on the computer and look at thousands upon thousands of pieces till your eyes fall out of your head.
Creating an image by painting on canvas is obsolete.
Because of that so are galleries. Their days are numbered.
They're not gone but fading fast.
It's a good thing 'cause most galleries are just someone's power trip. An excuse to tell someone no.
The power of denial is so intoxicating that people subsidize
the gallery. Such a gallery exists here in Asbury Park. There are not a lot of them here so it's not hard to figure out which one, has two or three girls working two or three jobs
each to keep the doors open.
The energy you need to expend sucking up to and playing games isn't worth it.
You can waste a lot of time and energy into being rejected (again)
After all it's not about the art but the politics of art. It's not who you know, it's who you blow. Think of Andy Warhol
A new gallery was opening up nearby, called
SEAZEN
What's that about? The Zen of the sea I guessed. I was 71 with a six page resume'. I had lived on a sail boat for eighteen years and specialized in mermaids. What could be more sea zen than that?
I contacted them but got no response. Tried again six months later. Included some samples.
A week later I got a reply. It doesn't fit.
If that doesn't fit, what does?
Go figger
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