Did you walk in, or send the email? I did the cowardly thing first.

My first real gallery, I sent a very careful email with twelve images attached and heard nothing for four months. Then I finally went in person on a wet Tuesday, mostly because I was already passing, and the woman behind the desk looked at three prints and said "bring me six more next week." Same work. Same everything.

So I am curious. Did you get your first gallery by walking in with a portfolio under your arm, or by sending the email into the dark? And which one do you think actually works better now, if you have tried both. I am still not sure whether my email was bad or whether the walking in was the whole trick.

I know a few people who swear by the email and a few who say never send anything you could hand over yourself. Tell me I am wrong.

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Roman Petrak·52m

The email wasn't bad. Twelve images is too many, that's the only real problem with it. A person behind a desk can look at three things in the time it takes to open an attachment, so you handed them homework.

I walked in. First real commission came from a guy who saw a piece sitting on a loading dock while I was delivering it somewhere else. Nothing about my letterhead would have gotten me in that room.

That said, walking in only works if the work is physically there and can survive a glance. Prints travel well for that. A two hundred pound piece doesn't. So which works better depends on what you make, not on which method is braver.

Margaret Hsu·44m

I did both, and in the opposite order from you. I walked in first with a small case of six or seven pieces, well mounted, and was received politely and sent away politely. The email, sent months later to a different gallery, is the one that produced a meeting.

What I took from it is that the walk-in works when the person at the desk is the one who decides, and fails when they are not. A wet Tuesday in a small gallery is often the owner. A larger one has someone at the front whose job is to be pleasant and take your card. My advice would be to know which of those you are walking into before you carry a portfolio across town.

One small thing on the twelve images. The comment above is right that it is too many, but I would add that it is also a question of what they were. Three finished works plus a couple of sheets showing how you see and how you build a piece will tell a stranger more about your practice than a dozen finished images ever will.