The gallery that replied in two years. And I'd almost given up

I emailed this small gallery in Valencia with photos of my vessels, heard nothing, forgot about it completely. Two years later I get a reply out of nowhere: "sorry for the delay, we'd love to see more." I nearly deleted it thinking it was spam. Took the work in, they kept three pieces, sold one in the first month.

So my question: what's the longest gap between reaching out and hearing back that actually ended in something real? And the follow-up I keep chewing on, have you ever had a gallery say yes so late you'd already moved on, and did you take the yes anyway?

I took mine. No regrets yet. But I wonder if I should have felt more bitter about being ignored for 730 days haha.

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Gloria Mae Jackson·5d

Two years, and they remembered you. That says something right there, honey. Folks don't hold onto a name that long unless the work stayed with them.

I had something close in a different kind of way. Years back a woman from a museum down in Georgia came through my church bazaar, bought a little lap quilt for next to nothing, and I didn't think another thing about it. Nearly three years later she calls me up out of the blue wanting to know if I had more pieces, said she'd been thinking about that quilt the whole time. I admit I had to sit down when I hung up the phone.

And yes, I had already moved on by then. I'd told myself that was just a nice afternoon and a sale. But I took that yes anyway, and it opened a door I didn't even know was there.

I think the late yes means more sometimes. It means the work did its own talking when you weren't in the room. Good for you for taking yours. Sometimes the Lord's timing is just slower than ours.🙂

Sol Reyes·5d

The lap quilt thing got me. That's the whole mystery of this work, isn't it. You make something with your hands, put it out in the world, and you have no idea which one is going to grab somebody and just stay in their head for YEARS. It's never the piece you'd bet on either. I've had people message me about a sketch I nearly threw away and say nothing about the big oil piece I spent weeks on. Drives me up a wall and also kind of keeps me going.

The way she remembered your name though. That's not nothing. People don't carry that much inventory in their heads by accident.

Mateo SerranoOP·5d

the lap quilt thing is what got me too. and you're dead right, it's never the one you'd gamble on. I've got a bowl that came out of the kiln looking like a sad potato that people ask about constantly, and the piece I actually sweated over for three weeks sits in a corner like furniture. it makes no sense and I love it anyway.

and yeah, her remembering the name. that's the part I keep replaying actually. like ok, fine, the lag was two years but she carried my name somewhere in there the whole time? that's a weird kind of honour. maybe worth more than the quick email that goes nowhere. qué guay that it worked out for you too, patient wins gang.

Mateo SerranoOP·5d

a lap quilt though, that's so specific and handmade, of course it stayed with you. that's the thing about this stuff isn't it, you never know which piece is going to dig into someone. sometimes it's not even the one you'd pick.

and yeah, the sitting down moment. i did the same when i saw the email actually, stood there staring at my phone like it was in another language.

three years is wild though. glad she called. glad you took the call.

Lukas Brandt·5d

Two years is a patient win. I've had one that dragged close to a year and by the time the yes came I had honestly filed it under "nothing, fine, next." I took it anyway and it was the right call, but I remember being surprised at how little the yes felt like vindication by then. The work had moved on without them.

What I've learned is that a late answer tells you less about your work than about how that gallery runs. Sometimes it's chaos, sometimes it's just how they move. The real question for me isn't how long it took, it's whether they can actually sell the thing and pay you properly once they've got it. A yes means very little on its own. A sold piece and a clean invoice means everything. Yours did that in a month, so I'd say your patience was well spent. No regrets needed.

Mateo SerranoOP·5d

yeah, that last bit is exactly what I'm circling. the late yes tells you more about their calendar than about your clay, and I think I knew that even while I was taking the deal. I was mostly asking myself whether a place that took two years to open an email was gonna get invoices paid on time, you know? so far so good but I'm watching it.

and I get the vindication thing being weirdly flat. I thought I'd feel like I'd "made it" when I walked out of there, and instead I just felt... tired? and then a stranger bought the one with the face in the glaze and that hit different than the gallery yes ever did. funny how that works.