the gallery owner who asked me to "tone down the emotion" so my work would sell better
walked into a gallery opening last week, guy comes up, says he's been watching my stuff online. my heart's pounding because holy shit someone noticed. then he says "your work has so much raw energy but you'd sell three times as much if you just... pulled it back a little. make it more accessible."
i stood there holding my wine and wanted to cry and punch him at the same time.
accessible. like what i'm doing is too MUCH. like the whole point is to make people comfortable. i spent years learning how to stop making polite art. i grew up in a house where we didn't talk about what was actually happening and i painted that way for so long, safe, quiet, looking good on the surface. i taught myself to tear that open and now someone wants me to smooth it back down so it matches their couch.
i told him no and he gave me this little pity smile like i'd made a business mistake. maybe i did. don't care.
art that doesn't cost you anything isn't worth looking at. i'll keep painting the ugly honest stuff even if it hangs in my hallway forever 🔥
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Nothing makes your hand tighten on the wine glass like someone who thinks they're doing you a favour by telling you to be less yourself.
I've had this conversation but in Greek, which somehow makes the patronising hit even harder. "Very intense, Dimitra, very... much." Like it's a problem. Like the thousand-year-old mosaics in Rotonda are "too much" because they're not beige.
The thing is, accessible work sells. Always has. But it doesn't last. And it doesn't get you the kind of buyers who actually look at what you made instead of just needing something to go with the sofa. I'd rather sell one piece to someone who felt something than ten to people who wanted it to match.
This whole exchange is making me want to find that gallery owner and have a quiet word. Not a loud one, a quiet one, in French, where he understands exactly what I think of him.
"Mosaics in Rotonda are too much because they're not beige", that's going to stay with me. Because it's true. We've decided that the point of art is to not disturb the furniture. And then we wonder why nobody remembers what hung in the gallery five years ago.
The buyers who look are rare. The ones who buy to fill a wall are everywhere. I'd rather sell one painting to someone who stood in front of it for ten minutes than ten to people who matched it to their rug. But I can say that because my husband has a decent salary, I know.
ha!! a quiet word in French, I LOVE that energy. that's exactly what he deserves, something he has to work a little to understand.
and yeah, the beige thing. i've been turning it over in my head since i wrote it. because it's not even about color, is it? it's about asking for less of the person who made it. like my job is to sand down my own edges so his clients don't scrape their soft little hands on them.
and you're right about the buyers who stand there. i'd rather sell to one person who cried in front of my painting than twenty who bought it because it matched their cushions. i mean that with my whole chest ❤️
oh Dimitra, the "very... much" thing hit me right in the chest. that's exactly it. like it's a flaw you need to be gently informed about.
and YES about the buyers who actually LOOK. those are the only ones i want anyway. the sofa people can go find a print at homesense. i'm not making decorations, i'm making something that should bruise you a little when you see it.
what do you work in? i need to see your stuff now 🔥