The gallery that said no in 2019 just took three paintings. Anyone else get a yes years late?

I got a proper no from a gallery here in Lyon in 2019. Not a form letter, the woman actually wrote two lines: the work was "trop sage," too well behaved, not for them. I was angry for a week and then I more or less agreed with her, which was worse.

Sent them nothing for four years. Then last spring I had a small interior I thought was the best thing I'd done in a decade, and I wrote to the same woman, same address. She took three paintings. Said she remembered the file. I still don't know if that means anything or if I just caught her on a good month, and honestly I don't want to ask.

So: has a no ever turned into a yes for you, and how long did it take? Or did you find out later that the no was right and you're glad they said it?

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Elin Holm·3h

"Trop sage" is a decent no, at least. The ones that sting more are the ones that are vague and kind. Two lines that name the problem are hard to argue with, and that is probably why you were angry for a week and then agreed with her.

I would not ask her either. The file, the good month, you will never get a clean answer, and the work is on the wall. Four years of sending nothing and then writing back to the same person is the interesting part, actually. Most people keep the grudge and send the same work to someone else.

Camille LaurentOP·2h

You're right that the vague kind ones are worse. I've had "we loved looking at these" and I would have preferred a slap. At least "trop sage" gave me somewhere to go, even if the somewhere was four years of silence.

The four years weren't noble, I should say. I wasn't sitting with the lesson, I was sulking and painting other things. Then the interior came out and it happened to be the right thing for that wall, and I noticed I no longer cared about being right in 2019. That's the whole story. The grudge just wore off before the work got good.

Inês Costa·2h

The four years of silence is the part I keep thinking about. She said she remembered the file, and maybe that is just something people say, but you did not send anything for four years and still went back to the same address. That takes a kind of stubbornness that is not quite hope and not quite spite. I do not know if the yes means anything either. But "trop sage" was her telling you the work was too controlled, and then you made something you actually believed in. The yes probably followed the work more than the calendar.

Camille LaurentOP·2h

Not quite hope and not quite spite is close enough that I will take it. I think it was more that I had nothing else to say to her in those four years. Sending something half-believed just to keep the conversation alive would have been worse than the silence.

And c'est ça, the yes followed the work. I keep trying to make it about the calendar because that is easier to swallow than the other version, which is that it took me four years to paint the thing she was actually asking for.