I waited eight months for a reply from a gallery last year. Eight months of checking my email like a fool, convincing myself no news was good news. Finally got a short "we've decided to pass" and I honestly felt relieved, just to know.
Anyone else wait forever for a rejection? Or worse, waited forever and never heard back at all?
eight months is wild. i had one that took like five and at that point i'd already moved on emotionally, so when the email finally came i was like oh yeah, that thing. still stung though, not gonna lie.
the worst ones are the ones that just never reply. like... i get you're busy but come on, a "no" takes thirty seconds. leaving someone hanging for months is its own kind of answer i guess.
what kind of work did you send them? just curious
Pastel portraits mostly. A few figures. I sent them a small portfolio of maybe eight pieces, the best I had at the time. Looking back it wasn't really ready but you know how it is, you want to try anyway.
Five months is bad too. And yeah the ones that ghost you are worse somehow. I'd rather get a no than sit there wondering. At least then you can roll your eyes and move on.
Ah Jesus, eight months is brutal. I'd say you were half-convinced they were framing it up in the back room and just taking their time about it.
I've had that exact thing, the long silence that starts to feel like maybe, and then the wee let-down of an email that barely fills two lines. There's a gallery in Dublin I sent a folio to during the first lockdown. Heard nothing for nearly a year. Eventually I'd forgotten about it entirely and then one day an email lands saying they'd "decided to focus on painting" which I thought was a gas way to say no, like I'd shown up with a bag of apples and they said sorry we're doing oranges this season.
The not hearing back at all is its own special thing though. I've had a few of those. You'd nearly prefer the no, wouldn't you? At least you can move on. The ghosting leaves you in this weird limbo where you're not sure if you should follow up or if you're being a gobdaw for even still thinking about it.
Sure look. Their loss. The right door doesn't take eight months to crack open.
"we've decided to focus on painting", that's class, I'd frame that. Better than nothing, I suppose. Did you ever send them anything after, or was that the end of it?
I think the worst part for me wasn't even the no. It was how long I let myself hope. Every week I'd be like, any day now. And then you feel stupid for caring so much about people who forgot you existed five minutes after opening your email.