How did the first gallery say yes?
Mine came out of the blue in a way that still feels like a mistake. I had dropped off a few small pieces at a frame shop in Majorna, and the woman who owned it had a tiny back room she used for shows. She asked if I wanted to hang something. I said yes before she finished the sentence. Nothing was ever signed. That was my first show.
So how did it happen for you. Was it an open call, a friend of a friend, a cold email that actually got answered, or someone just asking?
I'm asking because I have a folder of unanswered emails and I'd like to know if anybody's cold approach has ever worked.
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Mine wasn't a gallery at all, honey. A woman who ran a little frame shop near my church saw a quilt I'd made for a baby shower and asked me to put one in her window. Next thing I know people are stopping in asking who made it. I never sent a cold email in my life, but I will say this much: I think the yes usually comes from somebody who's already seen the work up close and touched it. A folder of unanswered emails is a hard row to hoe. Is there anybody near you who handles the pieces with their hands, a framer, a shopkeeper, anybody like that? That's the door I'd knock on.
That's more or less my story too, and I hadn't thought about the touching part until you said it. A framer handles the paper, sees the back of it, notices how it's built. That's a different kind of yes than an email gets.
There is a framer in Majorna I still drop things off with, so I suppose I've been knocking on that door without calling it knocking. The folder of emails is exactly as hard a row as you say. I'll take the hint.