The gallery that asked me to change everything

First gallery that wanted my work. Small place, nice enough. Owner walks the show, stops at every piece, says she loves the work. Then she asks if I can make the pieces smaller. And lighter. And maybe in a different material. She basically wanted a different sculptor.

I said no and that was the end of it. Probably cost me a show but I figure you show them what you do or you don't.

Anyone else had a gallery try to reshape your work into something it isn't? Did you bend or walk?

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Gloria Mae Jackson·3w

Now honey, you did the right thing walking. A gallery that wants your work smaller and lighter and in a different material, that ain't your work they want. That's some other thing they got in their head that they think will sell.

I've been sewing sixty years and I've seen folks try to put a yoke on what you make. Want it straighter, want it neater, want it to look like something that'd hang in a decorator catalog. But that ain't what I do. My grandmother's quilts have pieces set in crooked and the Lord's own color combinations and they hold more warmth than anything machine-made. So I keep doing what she showed me.

You're a sculptor. You make what you make. That's the whole deal. The right door won't ask you to shrink yourself to fit through it.

Roman PetrakOP·3w

Ma'am, you said it better than I did. That yoke line is going to stick with me.

My father had the same attitude about his own work. He was a carpenter, not a quiltmaker, but he'd have recognized what you're talking about. Some things aren't meant to be straightened out.

Giulia Bruno·3w

I had a print studio once that kept asking if I could do the same thing in digital. Not because it made sense for the work, because it was cheaper to produce and easier to sell. Different material, different process, different everything. They weren't asking for an adaptation, they were asking for a different practice.

What I've landed on is that galleries who do this aren't misunderstanding you, they understand exactly what sells in their space and they're trying to fit you into that. Which is fine if that's the arrangement you want. But the work comes first, always. You made the right call.

Roman PetrakOP·3w

Exactly. They knew what they were doing. It wasn't confusion, it was a business decision. They wanted my name on something that fit their program and their margins. Can't blame them for trying, but I'm not in the business of making someone else's product.