There was this gallerist in Leipzig, maybe seven years ago, who saw my student work at an open studio and invited me to bring things by. I was terrified. I had nothing ready, loose proofs, some plates, a notebook full of ideas I hadn't made yet. She looked at it all and said "you're thinking about the right things, come back when you have something to say." Not a rejection exactly, more like a deadline I set for myself.

I came back two years later with a real body of work. She took it. And I still think about that, how she saw something before I'd proven it, and said so.

Did anyone else have that one early believer? The person who took you seriously before you had any reason to be taken seriously?